favela This page intentionally left blank Favela four decades of living on the edge in rio de janeiro Janice Perlman 1 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © by Janice E. Perlman Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. Madison Avenue, New York, New York www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perlman, Janice E. Favela : four decades of living on the edge in Rio de Janeiro / Janice Perlman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN ---- . Slums—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. Poor—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. Violent crimes— Social aspects—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. Drugs—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro. I. Title. HV.R P .'—dc Portions of this book appeared in a diff erent form in the following publications: “Re-democratization in Brazil, A View From Below: Th e Case of Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas, –,” in Democratic Brazil Revisited, edited by Peter Kingstone and Timothy J. Power (Pittsburgh University Press, ); “Elusive Pathways Out of Poverty: Intra- and Intergenerational Mobility in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro,” in Moving Out of Poverty: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, edited by D. Narayan and P. Petesch (Washington, DC: World Bank; and Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, ); “Th e Myth of Marginality Revisited: eTh Case of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, –,” in Becoming Global and the New Poverty of Cities, edited by Lisa Hanley, Blair Ruble, and Joseph Tulchin (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, ); “Marginality: From Myth to Reality in the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro –,” in Urban Informality in an Era of Liberalization: A Transnational Perspective, edited by Ananya Roy and Nezar AlSayyad (Lexington Books, ); “Chronic Poverty in Rio de Janeiro: What Has Changed in Years,” in Managing Urban Futures: Sustainability and Urban Growth in Developing Countries, edited by Marco Keiner, Martina Koll-Schretzenmayrm, and Willy Schmid (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, ); “Globalization and the Urban Poor,” UNU-Wider Research Paper No. /, November . Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For the billion people around the world who live in favelas and for my mother and father who taught me to care and to persist. This page intentionally left blank contents Foreword by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xxv Introduction 1 chapter Deep Roots in Shallow Soil 24 chapter Th e World Goes to the City 41 chapter Catacumba: Th e Favela Th at Was 62 chapter Nova Brasília: From Favela to Complexo 93 chapter Duque de Caxias: Favelas and Loteamentos 121 chapter Marginality from Myth to Reality 147 chapter Violence, Fear, and Loss 165 chapter Disillusion with Democracy 200 chapter Th e Mystery of Mobility 220 chapter Globalization and the Grassroots 246 chapter Refl ections on Public Policy 264 chapter Th e Importance of Being Gente 316 appendix Research Methods and Challenges 341 appendix Analytical Framework for Assessing Success 355 Notes 361 References 385 Index 399 This page intentionally left blank foreword “Paradise is here, hell is here, madness is here, passion is here.” So the lyrics of Francis Hime’s Sinfonía do Rio de Janeiro de São Sabastião, lyrics by Geraldo Carneiro and Paulo Cesar Pinheiro, describe the city of Rio de Janeiro. But Hime’s antipodes only begin a description of Rio’s squatter settlements—our favelas. In Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro, Janice Perl- man shares with us her experiences, insights, and the results of her research into the madness, passion, paradise, and hell experienced by Rio’s favela dwellers. Th is is a keenly insightful and eminently readable book that continues the research Perlman chronicled in her acclaimed book, Th e Myth of Marginality. In Favela, we have a study of four generations over forty years. Th e narrative traces the lives and fortunes of hundreds of the favela residents met in Th e Myth of Marginality, comparing them with the lives of their parents (mostly rural), their children, and their grandchildren. Perlman’s study is both rich in detail and rewarding in its analyses. She faithfully describes her subjects’ daily struggles and strategies to affi rm their individual and collective rights and dignity from within an increasingly hostile and violent environment. She uses the survey data she collected in over interviews and her ethnographic insights to test facile generalizations about the wonders or horrors of favela life and to explore the improvements as well as the setbacks. Her analysis and observations on social mobility and inequality are particularly compelling as she looks at the issue from the individual and family level and the community and city level simultaneously. In doing this, Perlman has produced a portrait of a multifaceted society in turmoil—a society in which life force and ingenuity coexist with desperation and destruction. [X] FOREWORD Th irty years ago, the fear of those living in the favelas was a fear of displace- ment—to be uprooted and carted off from their homes to a distant, unwelcom- ing government housing project far from work and community. Today, they fear for their lives—never knowing when they may be caught in the crossfi re of drug gang violence or shot indiscriminately during a police raid. Fatal violence in the favelas has reached an intolerable level as powerful drug gangs battle each other over territory, militias use weapons to enforce extortion, and the police enter with brutality. Th e youth and teens are the most vulnerable—both in terms of death rates and in terms of being drawn into the traffi c themselves. In , at the time of the publication of Perlman’s seminal work about Rio’s poor communities, Brazil was living under the weight of authoritarian rule—a military dictatorship that continued from through . It is now more than years since the restoration of democracy to Brazil, but its promise has yet to be fulfi lled. Corruption and impunity undermine the rule of law. Th ese failings rest at the very heart of the distrust of the people toward government, politics, and politicians—in fact the entire political milieu. A democracy is not only a government of rules and institutions; it is an honest assurance of the safeguard of human rights and equality of opportunity. Democracies provide the opportunity for everyone to participate in and infl u- ence the decisions that aff ect the present and the future of their community. Either a democracy is guided toward ensuring that its citizens’ lives may be lived in dignity, or apathy, cynicism, and disaff ection toward the political sys- tem will prepare the way for a resurgence of an authoritarian populism that we thought had become a thing of the past. An informed and empowered citizen- ship is the most eff ective antidote to this danger. Th is brings me to one of the real strengths of Perlman’s narrative. She views the poor and their communities as bearers of skills and capacities. Th e common view, fed by the media portrayal of the favelas and their residents, is based on a long list of shortcomings: violence, poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, corruption, early pregnancy, disrupted families, and inadequate public services. Th is view seems compelling and yet it is deeply fl awed. Needs and defi cien- cies are real but are not the whole reality. Th e people in the favelas have prob- lems but they are not “the problem.” Perlman’s research is oriented by a diff erent vision. She looks beyond appar- ent shortcomings to grasp the impalpable assets of individuals and commu- nities. Each individual possesses skills and capacities. Every community has resources of trust, solidarity, and reciprocity. Th is change in perspective drastically recasts public policies. Th e focus on liabilities leads to assistance and enhances dependency. Investment in peo- ples’ assets sets into motion a sustainable process of individual and collective empowerment. FOREWORD [XI] Th ere is much more in Perlman’s book: insight into the formation and devel- opment of Brazilian civil society, and the danger to civil society inherent in violence and criminality. Th ese are issues that go beyond Rio and Brazil and give the book its reach and its broad appeal. A vivid lesson in history, a collection of colorful human and social experi- ence, Favela is essential reading for scholars, civic leaders, policymakers, and all those who are interested in grasping the pressing challenges of urban develop- ment and politics. Fernando Henrique Cardoso Former President of Brazil This page intentionally left blank preface Th is book is not about places. In a sense it is not really about favelas. It is a book about the people who have shaped the places and spaces that are called fave- las—squatter settlements, shantytowns, or “popular communities.” It is about four generations of people who have lived in favelas or whose families lived in favelas—about people balancing on the narrow precipice between surviving and thriving. It is about their struggles, suff erings, and successes in their eff orts to rise above a hostile environment.