Favelas indeed started as squatter settlements due to the absence of public or affordable housing and severe land inequality in Rio in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century when Brazilians fled the countryside to the cities due to limited access to rural land and following the country’s particularly late abolition of slavery in 1888.
Why do favelas exist in Rio de Janeiro?
Favelas indeed started as squatter settlements due to the absence of public or affordable housing and severe land inequality in Rio in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century when Brazilians fled the countryside to the cities due to limited access to rural land and following the country’s particularly late abolition of slavery in 1888.
What is a squatter settlement?
A squatter settlement is a place where the residents don’t have legal rights over the land. A squatter area is composed of numerous buildings that are occupied by people with no legal claim to the land. These residential areas are found in urban localities, and they provide housing to the poorest people in the world.
What is the history of squatter settlement in Rio de Janeiro?
In the late 19th century, the state gave regulatory impetus for the creation of Rio de Janeiro's first squatter settlement. The soldiers from the War of Canudos (1896-7) were granted permission by Ministry of War to settle on the Providência hill, located between the seaside and centre of the city (Pino 1997).
Do favela residents have a legal right to land?
Favela residents have occupied land in their communities for decades, and legal right to the land is widely acknowledged, despite very few receiving titles.
What is a favela settlement?
favela, also spelled favella, in Brazil, a slum or shantytown located within or on the outskirts of the country's large cities, especially Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. A favela typically comes into being when squatters occupy vacant land at the edge of a city and construct shanties of salvaged or stolen materials.
Are favelas informal settlements?
The favelas, or informal settlements, of Rio de Janeiro have always been one of the city's defining features. The favelas have gone through periods of zero tolerance and mass evictions, but also periods in which the city has sought to incorporate them into the more formal parts of the city.
What are people who live in favelas called?
The people who live in favelas are known as favelados ("inhabitants of favela"). Favelas are associated with poverty. Brazil's favelas are thought to be the result of the unequal distribution of wealth in the country.
How would you describe favela life?
Favelas have become synonymous with slum life. "Most favelas lack effective sewage systems, access to potable water and waste management systems," according to the advocacy group The Borgen Project. "The communities have become so densely built up, that modern roads and utilities are nearly impossible to install."
Where are squatter settlements found?
Squatter settlements, widespread in urban Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia, are a characteristic feature of contemporary urbanization.
Why are they called favelas?
The term favela is first found in 19th century Portuguese dictionaries, referring to the favela tree commonly found in Bahia. After the 'Guerra de Canudos' (Canudos War) in Bahia (1895-1896) government soldiers, who had lived amongst the favela trees, marched to Rio de Janeiro to await their payment.
Do people pay rent in a favela?
There are also no legal evictions. If the tenant is more powerful than the owner, the rent will never be paid. On the other hand, if it is the owner who is more influential, then, yes, the rent will be paid punctually at the start of every month. This is the law of the lease in the favela!
Are favelas legal?
This legislation was Rio de Janeiro's 1937 Construction Code, in which Article 349 defines favelas as “clusters of two or more huts, arranged regularly or randomly, built with improvised materials, in violation of the laws,” whose creation or expansion was absolutely forbidden by the same code.
Are people in favelas happy?
A 2014 study by the Data Popular Institute, 94% of favela residents state that they are happy.
What are the positives of living in a favela?
I hope that through my impressions you can understand the complex reality of these communities a bit better.1- NOT ALL FAVELAS ARE THE SAME.2- THEY HAVE A VIBRANT CULTURE.3- THEY WORK AS A COMMUNITY.4- THEY HAVE THE BEST VIEWS.5- THEY KNOW HOW TO PARTY.6- THE PACIFICATION DIDN'T WORK.7- THERE ARE NO ROBBERIES.More items...•
What is the poorest place in Brazil?
Amapá, Acre and Roraima are the poorest states in the country with 0.59% of the national GDP.
Is it safe to visit favelas in Rio?
The security situation in many favelas is unpredictable, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. Any visit to a favela can be dangerous. You're advised to avoid these areas in all cities, including 'favela tours' marketed to tourists and any accommodation, restaurants or bars advertised as being within a favela.
What is meant by informal settlements?
Informal settlements are residential areas that do not comply with local authority requirements for conventional (formal) townships. They are, typically, unauthorised and are invariably located upon land that has not been proclaimed for residential use.
Where are most informal settlements?
Informal settlements often sit on the periphery of urban areas, lacking access to markets and/or resources.
What is an informal settlement in South Africa?
Informal settlements are housing areas that are often illegally built on municipal land. In South Africa, these settlements are found in a variety of areas and are home to a large percentage of the country's impoverished population.
What are characteristics of informal settlement?
Characteristics include inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, poor quality of housing, overcrowding, and insecure residential status.
Where are squatter settlements located?
Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter settlements, commonly known as ‘’bairros de lata’’ in Portugal, are occupied by immigrants from their previous colonies. Various American cities like Oakland and Newark have witnessed the construction of tent cities in the past. Other towns like Colonias near the Mexican border resemble shanty towns.
What are the characteristics of a squatter settlement?
Characteristics Of A Squatter Settlement. Due to its illegal status, squatter settlements lack an adequate supply of various infrastructures. These settlements have poor drainage and roads, sanitation, water supply, market places, and health centers among others. Even though these resources are in some settlements, they are poorly maintained, ...
What are the materials used in squatter houses?
These houses are initially built using poor materials, which are cheap or free, like cardboard, wood, corrugated metal, and plastic sheeting . Squatter settlements are quite common in developing countries with one of the biggest slums in the world found in Pakistan.
What are the disadvantages of squatter settlements?
Disadvantages Of Squatter Settlement. Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements.
What is a squatter camp?
A squatter camp in South Africa. A squatter settlement is a place where the residents don’t have legal rights over the land. A squatter area is composed of numerous buildings that are occupied by people with no legal claim to the land. These residential areas are found in urban localities, and they provide housing to the poorest people in the world.
Where are squatters built?
Squatter settlements are built on the periphery of numerous cities in some of the world’s poorest nations, near trash damping sites, lagoons, rivers, and railway road tracks. They can also be constructed on marginal unoccupied pieces of land like marshy or swampy land and steep hillsides.
Where are the slums?
Some of the biggest slums in the world are located in Kenya (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Venezuela, Peru, India, and Jamaica among others.
Why did Favelas become a squatter settlement?
Favelas indeed started as squatter settlements due to the absence of public or affordable housing and severe land inequality in Rio in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century when Brazilians fled the countryside to the cities due to limited access to rural land and following the country’s particularly late abolition of slavery in 1888. Without other options, workers built their own accommodation. However, over decades and sometimes a century of development, these communities evolved and spurred Brazil to implement some of the strongest housing rights in the world, including a constitutional right since 1988 to adverse possession.
Why are favelas so hard to define?
As Georgetown University historian Bryan McCann explains in his latest book, Hard Times in the Marvelous City, “The term favela…is difficult to define, in part because favelas have changed so dramatically over the past thirty-five years.
What is a favela in Rio?
According to the UN-HABITAT definition, a slum is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing, squalor and lacking in tenure security. This description doesn’t apply to the vast majority of favelas in Rio: the primarily brick and cement houses are built well and to last; conditions are not squalid, with running water, electricity, garbage collection and Internet access, though of low quality, reaching the majority of homes; under adverse possession legislation, residents have the legal right to occupy the land and in some favelas residents hold title.
Why is the favela a stigma?
The stigma favela residents face affects their confidence, self-esteem and life opportunities. It also legitimizes exclusionary top-down policies which deny communities participation in the decisions and programs which affect them. This stigma is reinforced every time a reporter revisits the media stereotype of favelas as slums and dark places of precariousness and crime and has serious consequences. Rio’s communities should be recognized for what they are, and named accordingly. As such, we should call them favelas.
What is the name of the first favela in Rio?
As a result, they settled the first favela community and named it “Morro da Favela” (“favela hill”). This community is today known as Morro da Providência, Rio’s most historic favela. Following this settlement, all other informal settlements in Rio became known as favelas.
What is a squatter settlement?
Formally, a squatter settlement is defined by land tenure with residents occupying land illegally. Favela residents have occupied land in their communities for decades, and legal right to the land is widely acknowledged, despite very few receiving titles.
Where is the favela plant located?
Etymologically, the term favela is based on the name of the robust favela plant prevalent in the Canudos hills in the Northeast of Brazil where soldiers served battle in 1897 before victory and the final move to Rio de Janeiro to claim the land promised–yet not delivered–by the Ministry of War.
Why did Favelas become a squatter settlement?
Favelas indeed started as squatter settlements due to the absence of public or affordable housing and severe land inequality in Rio in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century when Brazilians fled the countryside to the cities due to limited access to rural land and following the country’s particularly late abolition of slavery in 1888. Without other options, workers built their own accommodation. However, over decades and sometimes a century of development, these communities evolved and spurred Brazil to implement some of the strongest housing rights in the world, including a constitutional right since 1988 to adverse possession.
Why is it so hard to define a favela?
As Georgetown University historian Bryan McCann explains in his latest book, Hard Times in the Marvelous City, “The term favela…is difficult to define, in part because favelas have changed so dramatically over the past thirty-five years. About the only things that today’s Vidigal has in common with the same neighborhood in 1978 is the absence of property title and the continuing discrimination against its residents, yet everyone still recognizes it as a favela.”
What is the name of the favela plant in Rio de Janeiro?
As a result, they settled the first favela community and named it “Morro da Favela” (“favela hill”). This community is today known as Morro da Providência, Rio’s most historic favela. Following this settlement, all other informal settlements in Rio became known as favelas. The term “favela,” as such, has no inherent negative connotation, as do the above terms. And residents of favelas active in campaigns to integrate these communities into the city proudly use the term to represent a range of community qualities and to insist on the recognition of their historic role in building the city of Rio de Janeiro.
What is a favela in Rio?
According to the UN-HABITAT definition, a slum is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing, squalor and lacking in tenure security. This description doesn’t apply to the vast majority of favelas in Rio: the primarily brick and cement houses are built well and to last; conditions are not squalid, with running water, electricity, garbage collection and Internet access, though of low quality, reaching the majority of homes; under adverse possession legislation, residents have the legal right to occupy the land and in some favelas residents hold title.
What is a squatter settlement?
Formally, a squatter settlement is defined by land tenure with residents occupying land illegally. Favela residents have occupied land in their communities for decades, and legal right to the land is widely acknowledged, despite very few receiving titles. Referring to favelas as squatter settlements misrepresents favelas by denying residents’ hard-won legal right to the land and serves to undermine current calls to empower residents through legal tenure by reinforcing the image that favelas are settlements that exist outside the law.
Why is the favela a stigma?
The stigma favela residents face affects their confidence, self-esteem and life opportunities. It also legitimizes exclusionary top-down policies which deny communities participation in the decisions and programs which affect them. This stigma is reinforced every time a reporter revisits the media stereotype of favelas as slums and dark places of precariousness and crime and has serious consequences. Rio’s communities should be recognized for what they are, and named accordingly. As such, we should call them favelas.
What does the word "slum" mean in Brazil?
The key connotation of the word ‘slum’ is squalor. The word ‘slum’ originated from the Irish phrase ‘S lom é’ meaning “it is a bleak or destitute place, ” and it is this meaning that it carries forth until today. Anyone who has visited a favela can attest that they are for the most part vibrant places that buzz with life and activity, and since Brazil’s favela residents are responsible for generating R$38.6 billion per year in commercial activity and 65% of them are in the middle class, it is unfair and wholly inaccurate to regard their communities as destitute.
What are the favelas in Brazil?
Cities such as Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have large informal settlements known as favelas. A more recent phenomenon is the occupation of buildings in city centres by organised groups. In rural areas across the country, the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) arranges large land occupations.
What is squatting in Brazil?
Squatting in Brazil is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. After attempting to eradicate slums in the 1960s and 1970s, local governments transitioned to a policy of toleration.
What is the Cambridge Squatter about?
Set in a squatted hotel in São Paulo, it mixes real-life squatters with well-know n actor s such as José Dumont and Suely Franco to tell the story of resisting an eviction.
What is the name of the informal settlements in the 1960s?
Urban informal settlements are known as favelas. The 2010 census showed that around 11.25 million people, or 6 per cent of the total population, lived in favelas. Favelas will often lack utilities ...
How long can you claim adverse possession in Brazil?
The Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1988 enshrined the right to housing in the constitution. It is possible to claim adverse possession after five years, under the principle of usucapião. In the case of the Mauá building in São Paulo, the squatters requested adverse possession in 2012 but the owner had made a claim for possession four days before the five year limit, despite the building having been derelict for two decades. By 2015, the city council had decided to buy the building and convert it to social housing.
Characteristics of A Squatter Settlement
Squatter Settlements in Developed Countries
- Even though squatter settlements are not common in developed states, there are numerous European cities with shanty towns. The high number of immigrants has resulted in the growth of shanty towns in the cities situated on the entry points of the EU like Patras and Athens. Canada Real, a low-class settlement in Madrid, is considered to be the largest slum in Europe. Squatter s…
Squatter Settlements in Developing Nations
- The largest Asian slum is Orangi in Pakistan. Orangi became quite famous during the 1980s when the locals initiated the Orangi-Pilot Project after being frustrated by lack of development from the government. Slums are known as ‘’bidonvilles’’ in francophone nations like Haiti and Tunisia. Some of the biggest slums in the world are located in Kenya (Mathare and Kibera), South Africa, Brazil…
Disadvantages of Squatter Settlement
- Fire is one of the main dangers in these settlements not only because of no fire station, but the lack of a formal street grid makes it hard for the fire trucks to access the squatter settlements. They are fire hazards primarily due to the flammable materials used to build some of these homes and the high density of buildings. These settlements hav...
Overview
Squatting in Brazil is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. After attempting to eradicate slums in the 1960s and 1970s, local governments transitioned to a policy of toleration. Cities such as Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have large informal settlements known as favelas. A more recent phenomenon is the occupation of buildings i…
Legality
The Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1988 enshrined the right to housing in the constitution. It is possible to claim adverse possession after five years, under the principle of usucapião. In the case of the Mauá building in São Paulo, the squatters requested adverse possession in 2012 but the owner had made a claim for possession four days before the five year limit, despite the building having been derelict for two decades. By 2015, the city council had decided to buy the building a…
Favela
After failed attempts in the 1960s and 1970s to bulldoze slums out of existence, the authorities moved towards a policy of toleration. Urban informal settlements are known as favelas. The 2010 census showed that around 11.25 million people, or 6 per cent of the total population, lived in favelas. Favelas will often lack utilities to begin with; in Rio de Janeiro most favela homes have running w…
Inner city occupations
A new form of occupation began in the early 1990s in São Paulo and quickly spread to other cities. Housing activists began to squat buildings in the city centre, inspired by the thinking of Paulo Freire and Henri Lefebvre. Between 1997 and 2012, 120 buildings were occupied in central São Paulo. Each squat is run by assembly and collects rent to pay for maintenance and utilities. Having begun under the umbrella of the União dos Movimentos de Moradia (UMM or Union of H…
Rural occupations
There are also rural squatter movements in Brazil, such as the Landless Workers' Movement (MST). The MST was formed from 1979 onwards and organises land occupations. For example, in Pontal do Paraná in the state of Paraná 112 occupations were carried out, housing 6,500 families. The MST joined Via Campesina in 1996.
In popular culture
The Cambridge Squatter (Brazilian Portuguese: Era o Hotel Cambridge) is a 2016 film directed by Eliane Caffé. Set in a squatted hotel in São Paulo, it mixes real-life squatters with well-known actors such as José Dumont and Suely Franco to tell the story of resisting an eviction.
See also
• Cortiço
• Pichação
Further reading
• Wittger, Bea (2017). Squatting in Rio de Janeiro : Constructing Citizenship and Gender from Below. Bielefeld. ISBN 9783837635478.