Day 15 - Monday, June 1, 2009: Rocinha Favela

by Steve Broadwater

Today started out somewhat slowly as many students were out until 4:30 AM last night experiencing Brazilian culture at a “favela funk” party. The party had thousands of attendees in a large warehouse with Brazilian “funk” music playing loudly for the people standing shoulder to shoulder to dance to. The funk party the night before was a good introduction for what we would experience today: a hands-on tour of the Rocinha favela.

The day started ominously enough as the rain came pouring down at our hostel in Rio. Many of us were nervous about the rain because we thought the wet conditions would foster rivers of filth flowing through the favela as we toured it. Clothed in rain jackets and closed-toed shoes, we disembarked for the biggest favela in Latin America.



The tour began exciting enough as each of us hopped on the back of a small motorcycle (moto-taxi) that wove us in and out of traffic as we sped up the mountain on the narrow “main” road full of switchbacks. Once at the top of the mountain, we trekked down the narrow pathways of Rocinha on foot. 300,000 people live in this particular favela in such close proximity that one can’t help but feel claustrophobic just walking between the buildings along a cement path that couldn’t have been more than a meter wide in places.

This particular favela is run by the drug gang Amigos De Amigos (friends of friends). And, sure enough, about half way down the mountain, we were instructed in no uncertain terms to not take pictures of the nice man with a .45 pistol in one hand and a brick shaped object covered in a black plastic bag in the other who told me over and over to “stay with Jesus.”

The seminar following the tour started off with the assertion by a number of students that the favela wasn’t as bad as many of us expected. However, we quickly agreed that that this notion was based more on our low expectation rather than the actual living conditions. To be sure, the living conditions in the favela were deplorable. However, they were not the dirt floor wooden shanties that I think many of us were expecting.

The availability of medical treatment was limited to one first aid clinic at the top of the mountain/favela where the moto-taxis dropped us off. Even in a country with free medical care, access is necessarily limited for a people who live where they do so they can be near where they work. Money for transportation to a hospital, much less spare time from work, don’t appear to be something in abundance for these people.

Also mentioned during the seminar were comparisons of the favela to living conditions in the poorest urban areas of our country. People spoke about how the large government housing projects in the big cities in the U.S. weren’t entirely different from the living conditions in the favela. Both are often associated with drug gangs who often assert the rule and power through violence. Both are also synonymous with violence, both between rival gangs and with police.

However, the people who live in the favelas have no access to any of the government assistance programs we often take for granted in the U.S. Medicare, Medicaid, ease of access for emergency vehicles like ambulances (as there are no suitable roads in the midst of the favela), WIC, federal student loans, etc. All of these programs are aids provided by the government to help people improve their situations and get them out of such poor living conditions. Brazil provides none of these programs to the people who live in the favelas, or anyone else for that matter.

So what on earth were a bunch of American law students doing touring a favela, much less attending a dance party hosted by a favela the night before? Personally, I think it’s a culture thing – these people really seem to take their identity as a favela-dweller very seriously and with a measurable amount of pride. I think it is important to understand that what we as Americans are used to thinking of as impoverished housing conditions are much better than in most parts of the world, but are still embarrassingly bad. As far as safety is concerned, none of you parents out there need to worry. The safest I have ever felt in public in Brazil was in the favelas. There is a saying here that everyone seems to know and follow without question: “those who are wise obey those who give orders.” And even if those giving orders are the gangs, everyone knows not to hurt the gringos.