{"id":55540,"date":"2019-09-10T12:55:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T15:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=55540"},"modified":"2019-09-16T10:40:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:40:02","slug":"childhood-and-collective-learning-in-the-streets-of-a-rio-favela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=55540","title":{"rendered":"Childhood and Collective Learning in the Streets of a Rio Favela"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For the original article in Portuguese by Gizele Martins published in Portal Aprendiz click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The streets shaped my childhood more than any other place. The streets are a major co<\/span>mmunal <\/span>space for favelas. The streets are where we get to know our neighbors, where we talk for hours and hours with whoever passes by. It’s where we play, where we share toys, where we fight, we fall, we hurt ourselves. It is where we make friends. It is there that we <\/span>discover what childhood is. Not just any childhood, but the childhood of the favela, the<\/span>\u00a0periphery\u2014black, northeastern\u2014a <\/span>popular<\/span> and collective childhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nTo return to memories of this time<\/a> and place is to remember streets<\/a> full of earth, cement, wooden posts; the arrival of cobblestones; the collecti<\/span>ve<\/span> work of adults gathering to build one, two, three houses; the neighbor who would wake up early to sweep the street and collect the trash; my great grandmother who would water all her plants in the early morning. And then there are the memories of the street drunk<\/span>ard<\/span> in the <\/span>corner bar, the neighbor who would shout out for us not to run fast or we’d get hurt, the daily gossip, the wedding party that would shut down the entire road. The rush from seeing my grandmother all the way on Avenida Brasil<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>returning from work in the afternoon, and running to greet her. <\/span>Memories of<\/span> the sun shining and the night arriving and my aunts shouting <\/span>for us <\/span>to stop<\/span> <\/span>playing, to take a bath, eat dinner, and go to sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every day I would wake up early to go to school. At three years old, I studied in a building that would become a residents’ association for one of the <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span><\/a> favelas. <\/span>At seven, I went to the <\/span>CIEP<\/a> public school. I<\/span>t\u2019s<\/span> still close to my house, at the division between <\/span>Baixa<\/span> do <\/span>Sapateiro<\/span><\/a> and Nova Holanda<\/a><\/span>, two of the oldest of the Mar\u00e9 favelas<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this CIEP<\/span>, they encouraged <\/span>communal<\/span> work. We gardened together, looked after the <\/span>books and videos at the <\/span>library, divided <\/span>into groups to check the school gates, to put book covers on our books. For sports, we divided into groups to play catch, <\/span>volleyball, and dodgeball. From these and other co<\/span>mmunal<\/span> activities, I am sure we learned to always think collectively, and, beyond that, <\/span>to learn to take care of our <\/span>belongings<\/span>, <\/span>which were <\/span>also the <\/span>belongings <\/span>of others. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>
\nI’m sure all this made me<\/span> <\/span>take care of <\/span>my street <\/span>and <\/span>my house<\/span> better<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>It <\/span>made me a better child, making me think about my tasks when it came time to collect and clean up my toys so as not to leave work<\/span> for my grandmother, k<\/span>nowing how to borrow toy<\/span>s<\/span> from my friends, and knowing how to share the few toys I got from my grandmother’s boss.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, this street turned into a place of transit rather than<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>coexistence, p<\/span>erhaps because of the rush of <\/span>our everyday lives<\/span>: studying, working, facing the world of adolescence and adulthood that makes us less co<\/span>operative<\/span> and more focused on individual pursuits<\/span>, studying,<\/span> or <\/span>even <\/span>survival. Over time, this street also began to <\/span>create memories<\/span> of a very hard life, violated by the State<\/a> and <\/span>by <\/span>racism<\/span>. <\/span> <\/span>I<\/span>t is a fact that this <\/span>is <\/span>in <\/span>my <\/span>memory too, and <\/span>it outrages me<\/span> every day to know that<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>many children today are not nearly as free to spend time together on th<\/span>ese <\/span>street<\/span>s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>
\nBut, I’m sure, my childhood <\/span>on the streets<\/span> of <\/span>Mar\u00e9,<\/span> <\/span>together with<\/span> my neighbors and<\/span> friends, makes me reflect on the value of collective experience in the day-to-day <\/span>life of<\/span> adulthood. This is reflected as much in my chosen profession<\/a>\u2014which is community communication\u2014as in my<\/span> activism<\/span>. These are part of what I learned on the streets, in schools, <\/span>from <\/span>neighbo<\/span>rs, <\/span>from<\/span> the adults working together<\/span>, <\/span>from<\/span> the lady who always swept the street, <\/span>from<\/span> the friends who lent me their toys, and from<\/span>\u00a0the second<\/span>–<\/span>hand toys I <\/span>got and<\/span>\u00a0lent to friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tying up these quick memories of my childhood<\/a>, I can say with certainty that the streets teach us. It was on the streets that<\/span>\u00a0I learned to live with other<\/span>s.<\/span>\u00a0I learned that I should also take care of <\/span>the streets<\/span>\u00a0because <\/span>they belong to me<\/span> and to others.<\/span> I learned that co<\/span>llaboration<\/span> is a path that we must follow and cultivate for our whole lives and in <\/span>all places<\/span>. The streets open us to creativity, allowing us to produce all of our wonderful and diverse favela culture. It is the streets that teach us each day that we must have <\/span>a<\/span> guarantee of leisure, that we are a favela, and that, today, our culture is<\/span> criminalized by<\/span> the<\/span> <\/span>c<\/span>ity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gizele Martins<\/a>, <\/span>a <\/span>resident of <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span>, is <\/span>a <\/span>journalist from PUC-Rio with a <\/span>M<\/span>aster’s <\/span>D<\/span>egree in Communication, Education, and Culture from FEBF\/UERJ. The f<\/span>avelas of <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span> <\/span>are<\/span> located in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span> is made up of 16 favelas with approximately 132,000 residents. Martins works in various activities within Rio’s favelas, including <\/span>Rol\u00e9<\/span> dos <\/span>Favelados<\/span><\/a>; <\/span>community communication and favela history courses;<\/span> and <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span> 0800, a street activity that <\/span>started<\/span> two years ago in <\/span>Mar\u00e9<\/span>, which includes donations of clothes, toys, and books. Mar\u00e9 0800’s goal is to <\/span>communicate to the community on the<\/span> streets, <\/span>giving<\/span> donations in exchange for talks<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>about human rights, gender, politics, racism, favelas, and related issues.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article in Portuguese by Gizele Martins published in Portal Aprendiz click here. The streets shaped my childhood more than any other place. The streets are a major communal […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":55559,"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":[1288,1328,1268,1271,329,1330,1365],"tags":[1361,1552,1144,1114,2570,219,2404,2405,1461,280,397,674,188,512,218,37,281,171,1189,2722,207,268,458],"writer":[1842],"translator":[2868],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-by-community-contributors","9":"category-favelaculture","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-translation","13":"category-whats-a-favela-2","14":"tag-endfavelastigma","15":"tag-avenida-brasil","16":"tag-baixa-do-sapateiro","17":"tag-ciep","18":"tag-collective","19":"tag-collective-action","20":"tag-community","21":"tag-community-garden","22":"tag-community-space","23":"tag-complexo-da-mare","24":"tag-education","25":"tag-memory","26":"tag-history","27":"tag-leisure","28":"tag-mutirao","29":"tag-north-zone","30":"tag-nova-holanda","31":"tag-public-space","32":"tag-racism","33":"tag-role-dos-favelados","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-state-violence","36":"tag-street-culture","37":"writer-gizele-martins","38":"translator-leila-lak"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55540","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\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=55540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}