{"id":8510,"date":"2013-04-23T15:12:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T18:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=8510"},"modified":"2018-10-01T08:45:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T11:45:42","slug":"voices-of-vila-autodromo-jose-arimateia-the-baker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=8510","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo: Jos\u00e9 Arimateia, the Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>In 1986, the newlywed Jos\u00e9 Arimateia moved to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> to buy his first home and to start a family. He moved from his parents\u2019 house in a neighboring community, Vila Sap\u00ea, though he was born in Para\u00edba. He and his wife, Maria das Dores Catanduba de Andrade, were the first of their families to move to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, a small favela in Rio’s West Zone, which they chose for its safety and peacefulness. Now, 27 years later, their success and happiness have drawn a dozen family members to move to their beloved community.<\/p>\n

When Jos\u00e9 first moved to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, he began baking bread out of his home as a form of income. The bakery began small and informally, but he explains that as the years passed it \u201cbegan growing, growing, growing\u2026it was growing in a way that scared me.\u201d Today, he serves upwards of 700 customers daily and has six paid employees. His business draws people from beyond Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, from nearby neighborhoods and\u00a0work sites. With earnings from his in-home business, Jos\u00e9 bought a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home on the adjacent street for himself and his family. While Jos\u00e9, Maria and their three children live in one home, Maria\u2019s sister, her husband and their two sons occupy another home at the same address, and Maria\u2019s mother lives in a third house on the same land. Jos\u00e9\u2019s sister now lives above the bakery with her family. Needless to say, between 1986 and today, the Catanduba de Andrade-Arimateia family has planted deep roots in the community of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo.<\/p>\n

But Jos\u00e9 doesn’t cite his home\u2019s square footage or the car he was able to buy after years of saving as markers of his success. When asked what he considers to be the markers of his success, he boasts with a smile, \u201cNow I can pay two college tuitions.\u201d His 22-year-old daughter Danielli studies Physical Education at the Universidade Est\u00e1cio de S\u00e1 while his 24-year-old son Pablo Diogo is set to graduate from the Pharmacology program at UNISUAM in June. Jos\u00e9\u2019s smile alone and the fact he mentioned his children\u2019s studies numerous times in our hour-long conversation shows the immense pride he has in putting his hard-earned income towards his children\u2019s education. He only hopes he will be able to do the same when it comes time for his three-year-old son, Danilo, to think about college. But his youngest son may be growing up in a very different time.<\/p>\n

With Vila Aut\u00f3dromo once again at risk of complete removal<\/a> by the City government, Jos\u00e9 is fearful that everything he has worked for will soon be demolished under the pretense of preparing the City for the\u00a02016 Olympic Games<\/a>. Yet he refuses to imagine his future in the Parque Carioca<\/em>\u00a0resettlement<\/a> housing where the City plans to move residents. Jos\u00e9 explains, \u201cIt\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t even pass through my mind because it leaves me feeling fallen.\u201d The public housing resettlement contract<\/a> prohibits residents from running in-home businesses. This means that, if removed, Jos\u00e9 would not only lose his home and loyal customers, but also his livelihood. He laments, \u201cIf my work is finished, my life is finished! I don\u2019t have another source of income, my source of income is here [in Vila Aut\u00f3dromo]. I\u2019m 49 years old and in the working world, there aren\u2019t many people who will give a job to a person of that age.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the worst consequence of removal for Jos\u00e9 would not be the loss of the bakery, but rather the fact that he could no longer pay for his children\u2019s college education. Jos\u00e9 explains, \u201cNow I pay two college tuitions. If I leave here, how will I…pay my children\u2019s tuitions with one who is finishing up and another just starting now? It\u2019s difficult, isn\u2019t it? They benefit [from my success and from the community] because they study. If I leave here, how will I pay?\u201d<\/p>\n

But rather than falling into despair, Jos\u00e9 instead joins the community\u2019s resistance<\/a> against removals. Through the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo Residents’ Association, Jos\u00e9 helps ensure that residents don\u2019t get tricked<\/a> into moving away without knowing all the consequences. He explains, \u201cWe fight so we don\u2019t get duped because we see that there are things the [City government] does to deceive residents. Truthfully, there is nothing of substance in what they say. They make an agreement on paper, then implement something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Jos\u00e9 refuses to think about or discuss what would happen if the community were removed, he remains hopeful that his family will be able to stay and that he will be able to continue to invest in his children\u2019s education. He concludes, \u201cThere is not enough money in the world to buy someone\u2019s life story. There is no money that can pay for the…years that a person has lived here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first story in the series\u00a0Lives Cannot be Replaced in Public Housing<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas In 1986, the newlywed Jos\u00e9 Arimateia moved to Vila Aut\u00f3dromo to buy his first home and to start a family. He moved from his parents\u2019 house in a neighboring community, Vila […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":8546,"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":[1736,1284,335,329],"tags":[109,179,221,11,188,282,869,5,152,103,210,4,848,21],"writer":[850],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-interviews-profiles","9":"category-policies","10":"category-solutions","11":"tag-community-business","12":"tag-evictee-profile","13":"tag-favela-culture","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-history","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-lives-cannot-be-replaced-in-public-housing","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-participation","20":"tag-profile","21":"tag-public-housing","22":"tag-vila-autodromo","23":"tag-vila-sape","24":"tag-west-zone","25":"writer-sophie-snowden"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=8510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}