Notes on the favela of Rocinha

Notes on the favela of Rocinha

In the 1930’s, a slow trickle of people began occupying the lands of a fazenda beneath the mountain know as Dois Irmãos, in São Conrado, then at the remote and rustic edge of Rio de Janeiro. Some fruits and vegetables were grown and sold in the area, which came to be known as the “Little Field,” or Rocinha. A very curvy and narrow road was built over the hill between São Conrado and Gávea for car races of cars popularly known as “baratinhas.” Over time, more and more people began to settle in the lands of the old fazenda, or plantation. Many of these were black people either from Rio itself or from the state of Bahia. Their religion tended to be Roman Catholic, candomblé or umbanda. During the sixties and seventies, when the tunnels were built under Dois Irmãos and a great deal of construction occurred in the Zona Sul, a massive wave of new residents from the sertão region of the Northeast came to live in the favela. This immigration has continued ever since and to this day Rocinha has a thriving Northeastern culture; on virtually every corner people with the Northeastern accents can be heard along with those having carioca accents. The Northeastern culture can be seen Sundays at the enormous open-air market in the Largo do Boiadeiro, where repentistas play every week. Forró music is as popular as funk in the favela and forró parties pop up in dozens of little bars all over. Also, one can easily buy Northeastern products and foods such as fumo-de-rolo, rapadura and buchada de bode in Rocinha. Most of the Northeasterners who come to Rocinha are afraid of the favela at first for its bad reputation and overcrowded living conditions. They often maintain contact with their families back in their home states, but the distance is great and the cost is high to travel back and forth.

Not surprisingly, many newer immigrants to Rocinha from the Northeast are Roman Catholic. Still, the question of religion in Rocinha, and in favelas in Brazil in general, is a very complicated one and extremely important. While Brazil is culturally a Catholic country, considered the largest in the world, it is difficult to overestimate the impact and size of the Pentecostal movement in Brazil over the last decades. The Assembléia de Deus (Assmebly of God) and the Igreja Universal (Universal Church) are the two largest, but there is a plethora of smaller churches such as Deus é Amor (God is Love), the Igreja Metodista Wesleyana (Wesleyan Methodist Church) and Maranata (Maranatha). These exist side by side with traditional Protestant churches such as the Methodists and Baptists, also very active in poor communities, and the Catholic Church, which has become more popularized in recent decades with movements like Liberation Theology and the Charismatic Renovation. Rocinha itself still has a very active Catholic community, and its Via Sacra street performance of the Passion of Christ attracts tens of thousands of spectators as it runs up the Estrada da Gávea on Good Friday. Additionally, there are still many active umbanda and candomblé terreiros, and a large number of little shops selling articles of faith for followers of them.

Commercially, Rocinha is considered a huge and lucrative market and much money is made there outside of drug trafficking. There is a McDonalds, a Bob’s Burgers, a Brasimac appliance store, a Deplá Kodak store, two banks, and the TV Roc and TV Siri cable companies. There are also many successful local businesses, though it remains to be seen how successful they will be as the development of the favela by outsiders continues. There is a commercial organization, three neighbors associations, dozens of NGOS, the samba school Acadêmicos da Rocinha, and many sports leagues. Rocinha is a Zona Sul beachfront neighborhood, a place of surfers, weightlifters, groups of jiu-jitzu fighters, women in bikinis and men in sungas (Speedo-type lycra swimsuits), and there is a constant flow of people walking to the beach to tan, to swim, to roller blade, jog, play futevôlei (a cross between soccer and volleyball) and soccer. With its residents constantly tuned in to TV networks like Globo via satellite dishes and the two Rocinha cable companies, and with its close proximity to the golf courses and elite shopping mall of São Conrado, few favelas in Rio are in closer contact with the Brazilian consumerist dream.