{"id":50010,"date":"2019-02-12T10:39:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T13:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=50010"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:03:10","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:03:10","slug":"called-invaders-residents-of-century-old-trapicheiros-favela-mobilize-to-shift-the-narrative-and-affirm-their-rights-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=50010","title":{"rendered":"Called ‘Invaders,’ Century-Old Trapicheiros Favela Mobilizes to Shift Narrative and Affirm Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In early October 2018, residents of Trapicheiros\u2014a small favela of 52 families situated near Salgueiro<\/a> in Tijuca<\/a>, in the\u00a0North Zone<\/a> of Rio\u2014began receiving messages of harassment from strangers on the Internet. An article<\/a> published on October 5 in O Globo<\/em>\u00a0and shared in the Alerta Tijucano<\/a>\u00a0Facebook group blew up and brought the peaceful community to the forefront of local news. \u201cWhen I read the article, I was really saddened by the way in which it was published, without any fact-checking. It spread to the point that a member of this [Facebook] group called us bums,\u201d recalled Ailton Gon\u00e7alves Lopes, vice secretary of the Trapicheiros Residents’ Association.<\/p>\n

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

The article claimed that a new favela was being constructed between three neighboring favelas\u2014Trapicheiros, Coreia, and Salgueiro<\/a>\u2014which, over time, could eventually lead to the formation of one “super-favela.” Panic ensued. Accompanying the article was a photo<\/a> that does, in fact, depict a slice of Trapicheiros\u2014explaining, in part, why residents received so many harassing messages as the article gained traction. However, a close analysis calls into question the veracity of the article’s claims. For one, the article suggests that the community is situated in a protected area of the forest and that residents were burning vegetation to clear space\u2014both of which are false. Secondly, the article grounds the speculative claims advanced by residents of the neighboring condominium\u2014which itself is only a few years old\u2014in alleged sightings of construction materials. According to residents, one community member was simply completing work on a floor of his existing home when the invasive photos were taken.<\/p>\n

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

As such,\u00a0O Globo<\/em> published unsubstantiated information, possibly at the behest of neighboring condominium residents, in what can be considered an attempt to smear residents of Trapicheiros by driving a false narrative of the community after several years of pushing for its removal. Lacking any voice whatsoever from Trapicheiros, the article is emblematic of the community’s struggle to secure land rights and live in peace. In hopes of moving forward, over the past several months, residents of Trapicheiros have come together and mobilized to deconstruct the negative narrative imposed on them.<\/p>\n

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

According to O Globo<\/em>‘s article, the community’s history dates back forty years. In fact, Trapicheiros’ history goes back well over a century, to when the first homes were built of wood and tin. As identified by historians Lilian Vaz and Mauricio Abreu,\u00a0one of the earliest\u00a0records<\/a>\u00a0of the community that would later become Trapicheiros can be found in the 1881 Rio de Janeiro City Sanitation Code (publicly accessible at the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro<\/a>), in which authorities documented the presence of 13 small casebres\u00a0<\/em>(“shacks”). While the community only consolidated in the early 20th century\u2014most residents say that its history dates back somewhere between 80-100 years\u2014these early origins, described as an “embryonic favela” by Vaz and Abreu, indicate that Trapicheiros is among the oldest favelas in the entire city of Rio<\/a>\u00a0(even predating the\u00a0abolition of slavery in Brazil<\/a>). Previously the property of a wealthy landowner, the land was parceled up and rented out to families\u2014a historically common practice in the development of neighborhoods across Rio\u2014many of whom worked for the wealthy families in the region that is present-day Tijuca. Decades later, the owner disappeared altogether.<\/p>\n

“Our story here has always been a very beautiful one,” described Ana Cristina Fel\u00edcio Lopes, secretary of the Residents’ Association. “As children, we didn’t see the sacrifices of our grandparents. We believed that this place was the best place to live because we were with our families\u2014we were near people who loved us. However, it wasn’t an easy life.” Several of the older residents of Trapicheiros worked washing the clothes of wealthy families who lived down the road. “They would leave early to take care of the madames’ clothing, whose families are the same as those who still reside on this street. They are the same people\u2014perhaps a new generation, but they are the same families. Their last names are the same,” Lopes continued.\u00a0The children would help, carrying water in small cans from the nearby Trapicheiros River:\u00a0<\/span>“We would arrive home and there wouldn’t be any water left because we would spill it all on the way up,” recalled Selma Maria da Silva Santos, vice president of the Residents’ Association.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, the community developed. Wood made way to brick, families grew, and one floor expanded to two. Nowadays, despite challenges, the families of Trapicheiros continue in the same spirit: working hard to build better lives for the next generation. Lopes reaffirmed: \u201cIt’s a community of families. We almost have a fifth generation. It’s a very peaceful community\u2014we don’t have drug trafficking. We all have one objective: to improve [the community]\u00a0so that new generations have a nice place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Trapicheiros\u2019 case is at once simple and confusing. On the one hand, there is the community\u2019s claim to the land. Five generations later\u2014over a century since the land was first occupied with no sign of the original landowner\u2014the community of Trapicheiros has an extremely strong case to assert their right to land under the Brazilian Constitution<\/a>, which provides for adverse possession<\/a> in urban areas following a period of just five years of occupation.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, just five years ago a new, 2-building, luxury condominium went up next door. \u201cWhen the building’s construction by real estate developers began, they started to create controversy with the community, saying that we were invaders, that we were deforesting the area, and creating spaces to protect and provide refuge for drug traffickers. Some of the [condominium] residents cursed at residents here and filmed residents, which isn’t legal. One resident called us ‘visual pollution’\u2014saying that we were visual pollution for them. This is when the clash started,\u201d remembered Lopes.<\/p>\n

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

While the construction project was completed in 2014, the trouble accompanying the new Atrium Residences and Lofts condominium came several years earlier. \u201cIn 2010, the City came into the community to demolish some buildings. Residents sought help from the Land and Housing Nucleus of the Public Defender’s Office<\/a>\u00a0(NUTH), which began a legal process to stop these demolitions,\u201d stated Traphicheiros\u2019 public defender Dr. Adriana Bevilaqua.\u00a0However, it didn\u2019t stop there. After successfully requesting a court injunction, community members recall being approached by government officials attempting to persuade them to accept public housing units through the\u00a0Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a>\u00a0(MCMV) program, which is intended to provide housing for those without. No community members accepted the offer, but the message was clear to residents: with the construction of the new condominium, the community of Trapicheiros’ century-long ties to the land was now in question, and they would have to act.<\/p>\n

The case of Trapicheiros sheds light on the relationship between City authorities and private interests, particularly real estate developers. Trapicheiros does not lie inside the Tijuca Forest<\/a>, nor does it exist in an area of risk<\/a>; this has been officially assessed by the Land and Cartography Institute of the State of Rio de Janeiro<\/a> (ITERJ), the state entity responsible for carrying out land titling. However, government officials still attempted to push for eviction and when unsuccessful, to relocate families despite any legal justification. Residents say that the condominium’s board of directors and owner are close with Tijuca Superintendent Anderson Carvalho<\/a>. \u201cOur fight is nothing more than to stay in the place where our history [is rooted]. We can’t let someone come because of real estate speculation and erase the history of a community that has existed for [over] eighty years. We have never presented any type of risk to the condominium,\u201d says Lopes. While the residents of Atrium Residences and Lofts have easy access to both government officials and major news outlets, Trapicheiros has no such backing from authorities or mainstream media in their struggle to fulfill their constitutionally guaranteed rights. President of the Trapicheiros Residents’ Association Paulo Roberto da Silva Machado added: “Even after living here, in a century-old community, for so many years,\u00a0we still have to continuously prove that we can be here\u2014that we should<\/em> be here and that we have a right to this land.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Many of the services recently offered to the community have come in the context of efforts to reduce the \u201cvisual pollution\u201d perceived by condominium residents, according to Trapicheiros community members. A few years before the condominium\u2019s inauguration, a construction crew painted several of the houses in Trapicheiros and installed all-new piping for the community\u2019s sewage system. Residents are adamant that this was all done to appease condominium residents, with little or no consideration for the community itself. (Notably, the City has never installed basic sanitation infrastructure in the community in its near century of existence.) Moreover, Carvalho (who was appointed as Tijuca superintendent by Mayor Marcelo Crivella<\/a>) made several promises to help the community, which were later denied because of news that community members weren\u2019t planning to vote for politicians aligned with the mayor’s administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The condominium residents themselves have also taken their turns attacking Trapicheiros residents, breaking the law in the process. In response to condominium residents’ complaints of visual pollution, a large wall separating the complex from the community was constructed. When condominium residents complained that the wall wasn\u2019t high enough, they tripled its size\u2014destroying the view that the community of Trapicheiros had always enjoyed and which the community’s 52 homes had been designed to look out on.<\/p>\n

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

Yet more, in 2018, condominium residents filmed and photographed Trapicheiros using private drones (which is illegal) and then reported community members to O Globo<\/em>,\u00a0which led to the publication of the aforementioned article. The 2018 article is at least the third published by\u00a0O Globo<\/em>\u00a0labeling Trapicheiros residents as “unlawful” or “invaders.” On October 15, 2005, an article\u00a0titled “Tijuca, a Neighborhood Degraded by Favelization<\/a>” was published about the damage caused by the growth of favelas in the greater Tijuca area, in which Trapicheiros was also incorrectly called a “new” favela. Ten years later, on July 2, 2015, another article<\/a> was published in O Globo,<\/em> this one\u00a0focusing on concerns among residents of formal areas in Tijuca with regard to favelas, specifically focusing on Trapicheiros and Morro da Formiga<\/a>. A man interviewed for the article claimed that Trapicheiros had doubled its size in under ten years, which is false in view of the court injunction issued years prior to curb further growth (the Tijuca District Council at the time confirmed that there was no evidence of growth).<\/p>\n

While problematic on multiple fronts, these articles beg the question: why have false claims about Trapicheiros and other communities repeatedly been published in the city’s most prominent media outlet<\/a>? Why have these articles repeatedly pushed the narrative of rampant and rapid favela growth in the city, even when the growth is negligible\u2014or, as in the case of Trapicheiros, nonexistent? As Machado put it, “People from outside judge us as though our community was built yesterday. Our story goes far beyond what people from outside say: our community is a century old!”<\/span><\/p>\n