Filed under: Brazil, culture, favela, Rio de Janeiro, Rocinha
The Favela: Rocinha, City of God
It may seem a strange suggestion to spend an afternoon in a slum. How about one of the largest slums in the world?
Favelas, the slum areas of Brazil, dot the countryside – in fact, there are 350 of these impromptu villages in Brazil, many of them within Rio’s city limits. Run by (often rival) drug lords and gangs, the favelas are a side of Brazil few tourists venture into. Going to visit a place like this may seem like madness, but it can be both educational and safe. Just don’t go on your own….
We choose to visit Rocinha, the largest favela in Latin America, a makeshift city within a city. Made famous by the movie City of God, Rocinha (ho-SEE-nya) is home to 200 000 cariocas (residents of Rio de Janeiro). Although they pay no taxes and have only basic services, the labour that Rocinha and Brazil’s other favelas supply keeps the city’s buildings clean, hotels staffed and clothes cleaned.
The sights, sounds and smells of this community are an in-your-face reminder that there are no government services here– no electrical power, no water, no police, no sewage systems and no garbage removal. Fifty-five percent of the kids between the ages of 4-13 attend the four schools in the favela – many of the rest are “put to work”, begging on the streets of Rio. Two hospitals here attempt to service the needs of this huge community, suffering from ailments many developed countries haven’t seen in decades.
A tour through one of Rio’s favelas is a fascinating experience. There are several outfits that will take you, prices are reasonable and most if not all have ties to the community. We chose Be a Local, and they provided a well-run, educational trip. (The initial ride to the top of the favela on the back of a motorbike was either a highlight or a shock, depending on your personality). The organization supports a daycare in Rocinha, and also offers tours to football games and the like.
Go see the other side of Rio, bring your camera and an open mind. Oh, and don’t be scared—you’re likely safer in the favela than outside. In the words of one guide “the same guy who will steal your wallet on Copacabana beach won’t touch you in here—the gangs rule this place with an iron fist.”
Be A Local
bealocal.com
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Sounds like a fascinating opportunity to see something completely different and off the beaten track in an urban setting!
Mark
I found your blog via Google while searching for tour sites in brazil and your post regarding The Favela: Rocinha, City of God looks very interesting to me. I have a few websites of my own and I must say that your site is really top notch. Keep up the great work on a really high class resource.
wow in this day and age this is real ,our children that cry for an updated cell phone should take a tour here. This should be a manditory trip for all school kids I say……
Hey,i saw this place in the movie ‘the incredible hulk’.I was damn attracted to the place.Beautiful houses covering the green mountains though crowded.No taxes,free land..Etc..Life will be really cool and warm too…I’m not planning to visit it,so i just googled the city name.Nice info bytheway.Thanks n Keepitup guys>>>
insightful analysis and lively discussion here makes this blog the destination for those wanting to write creatively and think about our society and the impact we make on it at home and abroad
When you take tours of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, you support the drug trade and you support violence against these people due to drug gangs, police and the society that benefits from the repression of these people. perpetuated against these very same communities. in order to enter a favela and not be shot and robbed, the tour guide/tour company pays a cash sum to the drug lords, which comes from the money you pay to the tour guide to go on the tour in the first place. From this perspective, it can be argued that favela tours are unconscionable. It could also be argued that it is bad form to visit a favela and look into the homes of people who live there as if you are taking a trip to the zoo. If you want expose your family to the extreme poverty of these slums, or you yourself are curious, find an NGO that does work in Rio and volunteer some hours with them out of your vacation time in Rio so that you aren’t just going into the communities to watch people, observe their lives and communities as a noncommital outsider who wants to see poverty without actually contributing anything positive to those communities – and instead contributing to further crime and violence against them. if you want to find an NGO to volunteer at, scope out opportunities at , or do a basic google search of the area you are interested in (poverty reduction, reproductive rights, gender equality, education, English learning, etc) and Rio de Janeiro. this type of a search will lead to links, info, and orgs where you can get involved. If you want more info, feel free to conctact obama.is.america@gmail.com to link to some people who can point you in the right direction.
Its obvios that the poster above have NO idea what he write about. I need make clear about this. Tour guides and tour companies Do NOT pay drug guys anything. I live HERE in Rocinha and know for a fact that this is not true.
The drug guys make millions in a month and if some tour company makes say 10.000 a month off tours, thats peanuts!
I LIVE HERE IN ROCINHA and work as a tour guide in Rocinha. I have NEVER had to pay anybody anything. It is true there is a “code of behaviour” here, that we residents live by, but it is very simple, do not steal, rob, rape or kill and never will you have a problem..I think these laws exst in every society, dont they?
I am not into drugs but do know drugs are “a world problem, not a favela problem”. As long as you have users, you will have sellers, unfortunetly. The drug lords like the tourism in the neighborhood becase as a tourist you may want to eat or drink something here while you visit. This helps the economy of the favela! Also if the place is safe for tourists and outsiders to enter, they can feel safe buying drugs here. This is reality here. If there was crime here, people would not come and their business would be bad.
But for me showing peple my comunity is about celebration of the great things that exist here..my friends, family, good food, music etc..
You may ask why tours of favelas? Well, there is much of brazilian identity that comes from favelas. If you take a good look at Brazilian identity, the culture is full of favela references. The two most prominent being Carnival and Samba. These two famous images have deep roots and origins in the favelas. Everybody has their own ideas due to the media reference of what favelas are. But as we all know, these reports are not always an accurate portrayal of these neighborhoods. To visit a favela is to experience the roots of the “real Brazil”.
We welcome visitors to our comunity for several reasons, one it shows the outside world that we are not much diferent, other then we earn less money. We want to show our culture and dispell myths that all favela residents are marginals or bad people. When you come we also learn about your culture. There is much discrimination and classism against poor in Brazil.
Rocinha is different from other favelas. Rocinha receives about 200 tourists a day and is very safe to visit. People come to visit mostly because of the awesome views high up on the hill, where you can see the Christ statue, Sugar Loaf, and many other sites Rio is famous for. The community welcomes you to come see the commerce, the art, culture and the ingenuity of the people who reside there. Rocinha also has many non profit organizations that have volunteers from all over the world, who live/stay in the community while providing much needed services to the residents.
If you have any questions, please contact me, Thank you,
Zezinho
rocinhajj@yahoo.com.br
(Sustainable Tourism owned & operated by favela residents)