FAVELAS

In this word favela is a shanty town or slum, ... once and always the same... the
same in India, Bolivia, Mexico or Brazil. It's a place where there are not
expectations of life, for dignity and justice.

The first favela began on a hill in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s, built by African-
Brazilian veterans who had nowhere else to go. They named their settlement
"favela" after a tree that grew on the hillsides above Rio. The word became
associated with all such settlements. In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a large
movement of agricultural workers from the country to the cities, especially to Rio
de Janeiro, drawn by the hope of jobs in the industries.

Favela houses are often first built of Wood and Cardboard, and as time goes by,
families improve their houses with brick and cinder blocks.

Though life in the favelas is always hard, living conditions vary from favela to
favela. In some areas, residents have access to a water system, electricity, or
telephone lines; others do not. Streets range from wide enough for cars and parking,
to narrow alleys wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The streets and
alleys might be surfaced with cobblestones, bricks, asphalt, cement, or dirt. There is
no urban planning in favelas; construction of buildings and houses depends on what
one is building next to or connecting to. Streets and alleys follow no predictable
pattern, and the deeper one goes into a favela, the narrower and more winding they
become.

The Brazilian favelas have names like Ciudade de Dues, Paradiseopolis, Heliopolis,
Rosinha, and others. There, power stays always in the hands of the mafias of narco-
trafficking and organized crime....Because some times the crime is the only choose
to work.

The Majority of the people are black. Others are yellow or brown. Some have
indigenous features… They've all come here to see if there is hope to keep on
living. And when they have the opportunity, the enter the factories to work, or sell
things in the street, or serve as laundry men and women. They work for the wealthy.