{"id":65404,"date":"2021-04-30T11:18:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T14:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=65404"},"modified":"2022-01-21T14:30:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:30:41","slug":"pavunas-little-market-a-rio-de-janeiro-black-cultural-heritage-hotspot-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=65404","title":{"rendered":"‘Pavuna’s Little Market’: A Rio de Janeiro Black Cultural Heritage Hotspot [PODCAST]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This article is the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, \u201c<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas<\/i><\/a>: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d Follow our\u00a0<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas series here<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

While I drink coffee, in the distance I hear samba and the chirping of birds. Every morning, they fly around the palm trees that cool my backyard. If it weren\u2019t for the pandemic, this week I would surely have visited one of the busiest parts of my neighborhood a few times: Feirinha da Pavuna<\/a>, or Pavuna’s Little Market. On one side of the market, you\u2019ll find merchants and their vegetable and fruit stands. On the other, you\u2019ll see a little bit of everything a home needs.<\/p>\n

Right near the market, is the carnival samba school Gr\u00eamio Recreativo Quilombo Acari<\/a>. It was founded in the late 1970s by composers like Wilson Moreira<\/a>, Paulinho da Viola<\/a>, Candeia<\/a>, and Nei Lopes<\/a> who were trying to break away from the big samba schools that were increasingly commercial. This history marks the territorialization of black ancestries and identities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Local Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Many market regulars come from the many favelas in the surrounding area, some of which include the favela complexes of Pedreira<\/a>, Chapad\u00e3o<\/a>, Barros Filho, and Acari<\/a>. Pavuna<\/a> occupies an important space in the carioca<\/em> imaginary, which was built in part by the oral history of black popular culture\u2014like in the funk tune Endere\u00e7o dos Bailes<\/a><\/em>\u2014and, in part, by the media narratives<\/a> of poverty<\/a> and violence<\/a>. It is, culturally and numerically, a black neighborhood: 62.07% of Pavuna is black, be it on the “asphalt” (the formal city) or in the favela, according to data<\/a> compiled by researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) based on the 2010 Census:<\/p>\n

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Personally, the market brings back the most diverse memories of childhood and adolescence in one of the neighborhoods with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) numbers<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro: 0.790<\/a>. This low performance, due to public policies that are inefficient for the region<\/a>, brings about different consequences for favela residents in accordance with their race and class.<\/p>\n

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Racial Makeup of Pavuna: white; black; other<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The intersectionality<\/a> of inequalities between Pavuna residents is not a phenomenon isolated to the neighborhood. The city of Rio de Janeiro witnesses the same historic tendency. There are differences between black and white people<\/a> in terms of job access, employability, income, and access to education. According to data from the 2010 Census<\/a>, while 61.16% of workers in Rio de Janeiro formally completed high school, in Pavuna, that rate is only 50%. Lower education levels result in lower wages and limited access to opportunities. Therefore, considering the 2010 Census data included in the graph below, it is possible to affirm that the neighborhood of Pavuna, which is predominantly black, has residents with lower education levels than the rest of the city. This fact limits the employability of Pavuna residents and constrains the average income for the region, which is lower than the city at large.<\/p>\n

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Percentage of those employed as per level of education (from left to right) in Brazil (blue), Rio (red) and Pavuna (green): employed with middle school diploma, 2010; employed with high school diploma, 2010; employed whites with middle school diploma; employed whites with high school diploma; employed blacks with middle school diploma; employed blacks with high school diploma. Source: Brazil Human Development Atlas (UNDP Brazil, Ipea and FJP), 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Structural racism combined with limited access to education, plus low quality education in general<\/a>, function as a central pillar for the reproduction of racial inequality. These conditions are convenient for their own self-maintenance, reproducing themselves and thus maintaining the status quo. It is as if the concrete in a construction beam could preserve itself, eliminating the need for constant maintenance. It is probably because the neighborhood is so unequal that it carries a history<\/a> of struggle and resistance in the search for daily survival.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood also faces high levels of urban violence<\/a>, another product of the historical abandonment that also disproportionately impacts Pavuna residents who are black, poor, and from the favelas. In 2017, organizations like Fogo Cruzado<\/a>, the Get\u00falio Vargas Foundation (FGV<\/a>), and FGV’s Department of Public Policy Analysis (FGV\/DAPP<\/a>) found that, based on data from the Public Security Institute (ISP<\/a>), the greater Pavuna area, and surrounding neighborhoods, are the most violent<\/a> in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Armed violence occurs<\/a> often with strong participation from the State.<\/p>\n

Pavuna Market: Cultural Heritage<\/h3>\n

However, despite the media narrative of fear, the traditional Pavuna Market continues to be a classic image of Rio’s periphery. A little bit of everything is sold there. Diversity is the central characteristic of the market’s 298 stalls. They function practically every weekday, between eight in the morning and eight at night. According to market regular Fabio de Souza, \u201cThese operating hours are slightly longer if compared to other large markets in the city, thanks to the right to settlement granted to the locality by the city government.”<\/p>\n