Bea Wittger Squatting in Rio de Janeiro Urban Studies To my mother Bea Wittger completed her doctorate in Latin American History from the Univer- sity of Cologne. Her research interests include Gender, Intersectionality, Citizen- ship, Social Movements, Urban History, with special focus on Brazil. Bea Wittger Squatting in Rio de Janeiro Constructing Citizenship and Gender from Below This study was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the Faculty of Arts and Hu- manities of the University of Cologne and has been kindly supported by the Fede- ral Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Research Network for Latin America Ethnicity, Citizenship, Belonging. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of li- braries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative desig- ned to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-8394-3547-2. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http:// dnb.d-nb.de This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeri- vatives 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) which means that the text may be used for non-commercial pur- poses, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ To create an adaptation, translation, or derivative of the original work and for commercial use, further permission is required and can be obtained by contacting rights@transcript- publishing.com Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. © 2017 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld Cover layout: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld Cover illustration: Squat in Rio de Janeiro, 2011, Bea Wittger Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-3547-8 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-3547-2 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839435472 Printed on permanent acid-free text paper. Table of Contents List of Acronyms | 7 Acknowledgements | 9 1 Introduction Prologue | 11 1.1 Scope and Aims | 12 1.2 Research Design and Methodology | 20 1.2.1 Data Collection and Evaluation | 20 1.2.2 Reflections on the Research Process | 23 1.3 Outline of the Study | 30 2 Theoretical and Historical Framework | 33 2.1 Citizenship | 34 2.1.1 The Citizenship Debate | 35 2.1.2 Citizenship in Brazil | 45 2.1.3 The City: Context and Development of an Insurgent Citizenship | 59 2.2 Gender | 83 2.2.1 The Gender Debate | 83 2.2.2 Gender Relations and Urban Household Structures in Brazil | 93 2.3 Gender and Citizenship | 99 2.3.1 Feminist Thinking on Citizenship | 100 2.3.2 Women and Citizenship in Urban Latin America | 107 3 Insights into the Squats | 115 3.1 The Squat Chiquinha Gonzaga | 118 3.1.1 Genesis and First Organization | 128 3.1.2 Still the Same? Talking about Problems and Changes | 133 3.2 The Squat Manoel Congo | 148 3.2.1 Genesis and First Organization | 155 3.2.2 Still the Same? Talking about Problems and Changes | 167 3.2.3 Preliminary Summary | 183 4 Doing Citizenship and Gender from Below | 187 4.1 Getting to Know the Squatters | 187 4.1.1“I am a survivor”: Life Stories and Life Backgrounds | 188 4.1.2 Personal Motivation and Real Changes in Everyday Life | 196 4.1.3 Preliminary Summary | 208 4.2 Understanding (of) Citizenship | 209 4.2.1 The Legitimacy of Action: Articulation of Rights and Needs | 211 4.2.2 “I hope for the best”: Urban Imaginaries | 236 4.2.3 Preliminary Summary | 246 4.3 Approaching Women’s Citizenship | 249 4.3.1 Women’s Participation | 251 4.3.2 Daily Routines in the Squats: Organization and Division of Labor | 263 4.3.3 “Men are parasites”: Self-Perception and Gender Stereotyping | 280 4.3.4 “I am an activist, I am a mother”: Female Leadership | 293 4.3.5 Preliminary Summary | 312 5 Conclusion | 315 Bibliography | 331 List of Acronyms ACM Young Men’s Christian Association YMCA (Associação Cristã dos Moços) AHPOCG Association of Popular Housing of Chiquinha Gonzaga (Associação de Habitação Popular da Ocupação Chiquinha Gonzaga) CBEs Basic Ecclesial Communities (Comunidades Eclesiais de Base) CMP Centre of People’s Movements (Central de Movimentos Populares) CNBB National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil) CONAM National Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (Confederação Nacional das Associações de Moradores) CUT Central Union of Workers (Central Única dos Trabalhadores) FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association FLP Front of Popular Struggle (Frente de Luta Popular) FNHIS National Fund for Social Housing (Fundo Nacional de Habitação de Interesse Social) FNRU National Forum of Urban Reform (Fórum Nacional da Reforma Urbana) IBGE Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) ILO International Labor Organization INCRA National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Instituto de Reforma Agraria e Colonização) IPEA Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada) 8 │SQUATTING IN RIO DE JANEIRO IPTU Tax on urban property and land (Imposto sobre a Propriedade Predial e Territorial Urbana) ITERJ Rio de Janeiro State Land and Mapping Institute (Instituto de Terras do Estado e Cartografías de Río de Janeiro) MCMV My House, My Life (Minha Casa Minha Vida) MNML National Movement of Struggle for Housing (Movimento Nacional de Luta Pela Moradia) MNRU National Movement for Urban Reform (Movimento Nacional da Reforma Urbana) MST Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalha– dores Sem-Terra) NGO Nongovernmental organizations PNAD National Household Data Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios) PT Worker’s Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores) SEHAB Municipal Housing Secretariat (Secretaria Municipal de Habitação) UMM Union of Housing Movements (União dos Movimentos de Moradia) UNMP National Union for Popular Housing (União Nacional de Moradia Popular) UPP Pacification Police Unit (Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora) Acknowledgements Writing a dissertation is an enriching but also sometimes challenging process. My having managed to cope with this process, and having finally finished it, is partly due to the support and help of so many lovely people. First of all, I would like to thank the inhabitants of the squats Chiquinha Gonzaga and Manoel Congo, for making this research possible and being willing to trust me, and for opening up their homes and private lives to me. I am so grateful for this unique experience, and for having been able to meet so many wonderful people in the squats, who taught me many lessons about life and deeply impressed me with their warmth, strength, and courage. Some of them even became friends, and included me naturally into their daily lives, which made me feel very comfortable and safe. I really miss our daily conversations! I would also like to thank all the other housing activists for taking the time to talk and answer my numerous questions so patiently. Moreover, I thank Mauro Villas Bôas, Lia Villas Bôas, and Glaucia Vandea Lima Kessler for making me feel welcome and at home in Brazil. I thank Helena Galiza for our discussions and for giving me insights into Rio’s housing situation; Fernando Mamari and FASE for putting me in contact with the squats; and of course Paulo César for picking me up late at night in his taxi, at times and places no one else was willing to. In Germany, I would like to thank my supervisor Barbara Potthast for her valuable advice and comments and her steady support, as well as for the confidence she has placed in me over the years. Thanks to Olaf Kaltmeier, who made very useful and helpful suggestions and has been encouraging since the beginning; and Michael Zeuske for his assistance and participation in the process. The dissertation emerged in the context of the research project Research Network for Latin America―Ethnicity Citizenship and Belonging (KLA), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). I thank all 10 │SQUATTING IN RIO DE JANEIRO colleagues of the KLA and the Department of Iberian and Latin American History at the University of Cologne (IHILA) for supporting me academically and practically during the doctorate. Working with you has been such an enriching and enjoyable experience. I was also lucky to share the process of writing a dissertation with other PhD students and Postdocs. This made such a difference to me, as I was able to talk about feelings and experiences that naturally emerged during the research process with people who were going through something similar. I would thus like to thank especially my PhD colleagues in Marienburg—Anne-Christina Achterberg-Boness, Johanna Below da Cunha, Thekla Kelbert, Christiane Naumann, and Diego Augusto Menestrey Schwieger, for their emotional and academic support; and Tobias Schwarz for always being so patient with my questions and for reading and commenting on my thesis. Thanks also Johanna Steindorf for her help with the transcription of my interviews; Monika Feinen for creating the map of Rio de Janeiro; and Dawn Nell and Pax Amphlett for the proofreading of my thesis. I was also lucky to spend three month writing in Chicago at Northwestern University, where I met many lovely people, making it an unforgettable stay for me. Thanks especially to Regina Grafe for making it all possible; Mariana Barreto Ávila and Alvaro Villagran for reading and commenting on my thesis; and Miguel Angel Avila and Qian for their company and for making me feel at home.