{"id":72754,"date":"2022-11-22T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T12:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=72754"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:07:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:07:45","slug":"educational-event-celebrates-the-old-guard-who-led-the-resistance-against-evictions-45-years-ago-in-vidigal-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=72754","title":{"rendered":"Educational Event Celebrates the ‘Old Guard’ Who Led the Resistance Against Evictions 45 Years Ago in Vidigal [IMAGES]"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
B\u00e1rbara Nascimento and members of Vidigal neighborhood association remember residents’ fight to stay. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

On October 14, 2022, youth from the Almirante Tamandar\u00e9 State School got together to hear from older residents who fought against evictions in the favela of Vidigal<\/a> during the military dictatorship<\/a> in Brazil (1964-1985).<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
B\u00e1rbara Nascimento, one of the organizers, introduces the event. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forty-five years ago, at the height of the dictatorship<\/a>, residents of Vidigal were taken by surprise by a marking on their front doors indicating that their houses were to be removed, supposedly due to imminent landslide risk<\/a>. The Vila do Vidigal Residents’ Association<\/a>, however, managed to resist and formally stop the evictions with legal support from the Favelas Pastoral Committee of Brazil’s Catholic Church, founded at that time to offer organizing support to favela residents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur heroes of resistance\u2026 it’s thanks to the people [being celebrated] here today, who fought for us, that Vidigal remains<\/a>,\u201d stated B\u00e1rbara Nascimento<\/a>, a researcher born and raised in the community who organized the event alongside Adilson Severo de Souza.<\/p>\n

In Vidigal, the Streets are Named After Living People<\/h3>\n

Lovingly nicknamed the \u201cold guard\u201d by the younger people in the audience, older residents relayed what they experienced at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us<\/a> that boulders were going to roll down and kill everyone, but later on we found out that they were going to build luxury homes. Part of the money had already been paid and the rest would be paid after the favela had been removed,\u201d recalled Seu Armando<\/a>, leader of the association during the fight against evictions. Located on the seafront between Rio’s elite Leblon<\/a> and S\u00e3o Conrado<\/a> neighborhoods, Vidigal was coveted by upper class real estate investors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The old guard of the fight for housing in Vidigal. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creativity was needed to stall for time while waiting for injunctions and legal decisions to stop the evictions. One of the youngest in the task force, Paulinho<\/a> recalled: \u201cI used to wear a shirt and tie to work. When I stopped by the evictions area I was confused for a lawyer and that helped push back the removal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Paulinho recalled how residents managed to convince COMLURB<\/a>, Rio’s waste management utility at the time responsible for tearing down the houses, \u201cto be really slow at removing things.\u201d The belongings were to be taken to Antares<\/a>, in the extreme West Zone<\/a> of Rio, where residents were to live in tiny homes with no access to schools or hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy only taking objects like brooms or chairs to Antares, the COMLURB workers helped us wait for the legal order suspending the eviction of the community, which came before the majority of belongings had been taken away from the homes. It was a beautiful fight.\u201d \u2014 Seu Armando<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a result of the struggle, streets in Vidigal are named after living people, in honor of those who won the fight against eviction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Paulinho and Seu Armando reminisce about the history of the struggle. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Passing the Torch on to the Younger Generation<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
“Roots of Vidigal” film screening. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe struggle continues,\u201d explained Rita Machado who was part of the Vidigal youth group at the time. The favela continues to be hostage to private interests with intentions to build houses for higher earning people attracted by the views from the hillside. This phenomenon of gentrification<\/a> means that houses are highly valued and [the cost of living in the surrounding area] increases. Consequently, the actual residents of Vidigal no longer have the purchasing power to be able to live in the favela.<\/p>\n

For Rita, the younger generation needs to be alert. Unlike 45 years ago, Brazil is a democracy<\/a> and young people have more power than they did before:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does this have to do with you? It was a dictatorship back then. We had to swallow what they said and even so, we fought\u2026 You can continue this, you can write different histories, by voting!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is why the work done to preserve the community’s memory is so important to participants. And so the event included a showing of two documentaries: A Favela do Papa<\/em> (The Pope\u2019s Favela) about Pope John Paul II’s visit<\/a> in 1980, and Ra\u00edzes do Vidigal<\/em> (Roots of Vidigal) about the Acad\u00eamicos do Vidigal<\/a> samba school. The event also had presentations by students of the school, with their projects remembering resistance in their community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
‘Vidigal My Place’ project in which youth collect and exhibit the collective memory of the struggle in spaces in the favela. Photo: Joana Geisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Support RioOnWatch<\/em>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0<\/strong>by clicking here.<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On October 14, 2022, youth from the Almirante Tamandar\u00e9 State School got together to hear from older residents who fought against evictions in the favela of Vidigal during the military dictatorship […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":72844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1290,1333,1271,1329],"tags":[1027,384,484,910,674,11,65,188,419,1105,618,962,518,2545,10,270,2042,3030,156,363,21],"writer":[3185],"translator":[3452],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-72754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-civilsociety","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-favelaqualities","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-area-of-risk-designation","12":"tag-antares","13":"tag-comlurb-waste-collection","14":"tag-creative-organizing","15":"tag-memory","16":"tag-forced-evictions","17":"tag-gentrification","18":"tag-history","19":"tag-leblon","20":"tag-military-dictatorship","21":"tag-neighborhood-association","22":"tag-oral-history","23":"tag-organizing-tactics","24":"tag-pastoral-das-favelas","25":"tag-real-estate-speculation","26":"tag-resistance","27":"tag-sao-conrado","28":"tag-sense-of-belonging","29":"tag-south-zone","30":"tag-vidigal","31":"tag-west-zone","32":"writer-mariana-gomes","33":"translator-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72754","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\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81650,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72754\/revisions\/81650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=72754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}