{"id":35955,"date":"2017-04-13T16:49:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T19:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=35955"},"modified":"2019-08-04T06:54:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T09:54:14","slug":"the-history-of-resistance-in-rios-favelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=35955","title":{"rendered":"The History of Resistance in Rio’s Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-three students, favela residents, researchers and other interested people participated in the course \u201cLiving Stories – The history of resistance in Rio’s favelas<\/a>,\u201d organized by Gizele Martins<\/a>\u00a0and Anderson Caboi as part of the cultural and interdisciplinary exhibition\u00a0\u201cWhat Legacy<\/a>.\u201d Professors, community leaders and students of last year’s edition helped with the promotion of the course, which\u00a0took place during\u00a0three Saturdays at the Castelinho in the South Zone<\/a> neighborhood of\u00a0Flamengo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Covering a variety of topics, such as the emergence of favelas, their development over time, sanitation<\/a>, education<\/a>, housing<\/a>, public security<\/a>, community media<\/a> and favela\u00a0culture<\/a>, the course provided a platform for both favela residents as well as academics to tell the history of favela resistance<\/a>\u00a0from multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n

\"Course<\/a><\/p>\n

The first Saturday, March\u00a025, kicked off with a presentation by Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) professor and attorney Rafael Soares Gon\u00e7alves<\/a>. By discussing the history of favela emergence and development, he\u00a0aimed to describe and highlight the connection between past and current situations. Gon\u00e7alves deconstructed persisting common ideas<\/a>, for example\u00a0by showing that\u00a0favelas have\u00a0never really been marked by a complete absence of the state. Rather, the state has throughout history attempted to regulate\u00a0favelas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, Rafael also highlighted the constant resistance and demands made by favela residents, which eventually led to a shift from an evictions-focused approach (until the 1980s<\/a>) to a focus on upgrading, with the emergence of programs such as Proface<\/a> (installing sanitation infrastructure), projects to increase electricity coverage in favelas, the largest upgrading program known as\u00a0Favela-Bairro<\/a>\u00a0in the 1990s, the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC<\/a>) and Morar Carioca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, evictions never disappeared in Rio:\u00a0Sandra Maria<\/a> from Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> in the city’s\u00a0West Zone<\/a>\u00a0showed how evictions are still a cruel reality for many favelas. Since 1992, the calm favela with approximately 700 families in 2013, fought numerous attempted evictions<\/a>,\u00a0under various pretexts, most notably the Olympics<\/a>, but actually\u00a0due to real estate<\/a>\u00a0interests in a favela-free landscape<\/a> in the region. Sandra argued that \u201cmega-events<\/a> are the most powerful weapon<\/a> that capitalism uses today\u201d for evictions, adding that the argument of favelas being environmental hazards is a false one as \u201cin many cases these areas are deforested and reoccupied\u201d once the favela residents have been\u00a0removed, imposing much greater\u00a0damage to the environment. Her presentation particularly\u00a0pointed out the violence<\/a> that is used by police to counter peaceful resistance by residents, the use of psychological pressure<\/a> as well as the strong internal organization of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo.<\/p>\n

This first session of the course was wrapped up by a brainstorming activity, led by Provid\u00eancia resident, activist and favela tour guide Cosme Felippsen<\/a>, on what \u201cfavela\u201d means<\/a> to each one of the participants. The activity highlighted the complexity and multiplicity that favelas represent today<\/a>, with “resilience,” “favela as a solution<\/a>,” “favela culture<\/a>,” “resistance<\/a>,” “struggle,” “unity<\/a>,” and \u201chome\u201d being among the most mentioned\u00a0characteristics.<\/p>\n

The following class took place after a week of escalating violence and killings in Rio\u2019s favelas<\/a>. Gizele Martins, who spoke of the \u201cbig massacre\u201d in her community of Mar\u00e9<\/a>, shared some remarks on the current alarming situation within favelas, where \u201cmore than 20 deaths [occurred] in only one week [and] 200 people\u00a0were assassinated within three months in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMario Brum<\/a>, professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), then traced the development of eviction<\/a> policies, highlighting the continuous stigmatization<\/a> of favelas, and referring to the current wave of violence against residents. Similar to the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo case explained earlier by Sandra, Mario\u00a0pointed out that environmental disasters\u00a0and mega-events are often used as justifications\u00a0for evictions.<\/p>\n

Following this, Lu Brasil from the Coletivo Voz Urbana<\/a> focused her class on the densely populated Baixada Fluminense<\/a> region. Based on the 2010 census by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), she pointed out that 70% of favela residents in the region live in only three cities of the Baixada Fluminense, whose favelas host more than 200,000 people<\/a>. Lu resides in one of the\u00a0most populous favelas of the region, Vila Oper\u00e1ria (approximately 9000 residents), which is considered a model of community urbanization due to its good access to water<\/a>, electricity<\/a> and waste collection<\/a>, paved roads, a high number of schools, and free training\u00a0and certification courses, among others. In 2006,\u00a0this favela\u00a0received further public attention due to\u00a0the emergence and promotion of “Meeting of Favela<\/a>” (MoF), a Vila Oper\u00e1ria-based graffiti group<\/a> that “aims to increase social and cultural visibility of the favela and transform it into an outdoor art gallery.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next presenter, Glaucia Marinho of the Brazilian NGO\u00a0Global Justice<\/a>, shifted the focus from Vila Oper\u00e1ria to the center of Rio and the Porto Maravilha<\/a>\u00a0port revitalization program. Many of the numerous abandoned buildings in the city\u2019s port region were “structures ready for housing,” and had been officially occupied by families starting in\u00a02004. The official occupation of buildings in this area\u00a0“brought up the African past” of the city<\/a>, according to Glaucia. A short while\u00a0later, the Porto Maravilha\u00a0project, intended to revitalize the area, was designed and implemented, including the elimination of those occupations and evicting families living there. As critiqued by Glaucia, in many cases \u201cthere was no communication by any representative [with the residents and] everyone only learned about [the planned evictions] through the newspaper<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the last session, course participants explored the topic of\u00a0public security<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0favelas through presentations by UERJ professor Mauro Amoroso, Frans\u00e9rgio Goulart (Center of Human Rights of the Nova Igua\u00e7u Diocese<\/a>) and Mar\u00e9 resident Carlos Gon\u00e7alves. By recounting stories of the\u00a0Military Police<\/a>\u00a0in favelas, Mauro brought to the class a discussion on the meaning of urban space, the impact of Military Police actions on the city, and processes of urban segregation<\/a>, where favelas are constantly seen as the \u201cother<\/a>.\u201d Frans\u00e9rgio expanded, saying\u00a0that Military Police often follow a systematic process of \u201cintervention, stabilization and, lastly, normalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

To wrap up the course with a more practical learning experience, on April 15 interested course participants and the general public will have the opportunity to take part\u00a0in a tour of Brazil’s first favela<\/a>, Morro da Provid\u00eancia, guided by Cosme Felippsen. Cosme will explain the nearly 120\u00a0years of resistance of this favela, that has been affected by the Porto Maravilha project. This\u00a0final part of the course on “Living Histories” will also count with the participation of Gizele and Humberto Salustriano, a historian and Mar\u00e9 activist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Forty-three students, favela residents, researchers and other interested people participated in the course \u201cLiving Stories – The history of resistance in Rio’s favelas,\u201d organized by Gizele Martins\u00a0and Anderson Caboi as part […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":36042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1290,1333,1271,1282,336,1329],"tags":[2399,882,460,280,842,397,221,187,1090,11,205,188,3000,1259,147,37,146,2398,144,423,1616,2400,270,421,156,268,4,1882,21],"writer":[2370],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-research-analysis","12":"category-violations","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-environmental-hazard-designation","15":"tag-academia-x-civil-society","16":"tag-baixada-fluminense","17":"tag-complexo-da-mare","18":"tag-debate","19":"tag-education","20":"tag-favela-culture","21":"tag-favela-bairro","22":"tag-flamengo","23":"tag-forced-evictions","24":"tag-growth-acceleration-program-pac","25":"tag-history","26":"tag-justica-global","27":"tag-mega-events","28":"tag-morar-carioca","29":"tag-north-zone","30":"tag-porto-maravilha","31":"tag-proface","32":"tag-morro-da-providencia","33":"tag-psychological-terror","34":"tag-reference","35":"tag-resilience","36":"tag-resistance","37":"tag-segregation","38":"tag-south-zone","39":"tag-state-violence","40":"tag-vila-autodromo","41":"tag-vila-operaria","42":"tag-west-zone","43":"writer-lisa-godde"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35955"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=35955"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=35955"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=35955"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=35955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}