Let me begin by explaining what a favela is. Favelas are basically the slums of Brazilian cities and run by drug cartels. Now before you call my parents and alert them of my unsafe behaviors or come to Brazil to drag me back to the suburbs where I'll be safe let me just say that I didn't really feel very unsafe while I was there. There is very little crime in the favela (aside for the thriving drug business) and our tour guide knew everyone, not to mention the people in the favela are very proud of their culture and welcome tours, which are also a source of income and our tour helped fund a school in the favela. The greatest danger I had was the a gang war was going to break out and I might get caught in the crossfire (I was fairly certain that wasn't going to happen). When I booked the tour I also felt somewhat safe because I knew that when the Business Honors students from U of I went to Rio with the College of Business they also went on the tour. If U of I was going to let students go it probably wasn't as scary as I thought (although I admit, I started off the tour pretty nervous).
Now that I've explained why it was alright for me to go I want to explain why we decided to go in the first place. Favelas are really like their own country within Brazil. They have their own laws, culture, and way of life different from anything that I could encounter in Chicago. Many of the Brazilians do not like the favelas and want to know why of all the beautiful and great things in Brazil people choose to pay to see the favelas. Sure, I could have maybe hung out at the beach instead but then I would not even have a remote idea about the over 1.5 million people in Rio that live in favelas and enable the city to run (and plenty of people to purchase illegal drugs from).
The favela is literally hundreds of little apartments built on one another until it is a mosaic of ramshackle buildings. In fact, there are favelas all over Brazil; I can even see one from my client in Sao Paulo. It's hard to explain so I hope to post some videos in the next couple of days of the favela tour. It's really it's own world.
The first favela we went to was Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio. Rocinha has an estimated 200,000 residents and is run by the drug gang Friends of Friends. Here are some of the take aways from the tour:
- There are no streets in favelas except for the one main street. Therefore it is easy to get lost and most of the people don't have addresses which does not allow them to have bank accounts and many other necessities. Also, if you buy a fridge you have to carry it all the way to your home from the main road.
- Currently there is a reform going on to give everyone in the favela an address and drive out all of the drug lords. My manager said this was to clean up for the World Cup and the Olympics.
- Next to the favela was the American school which was very expensive. At the other favela there were also giant houses next to the favela and the favela lowers the property value, but a lot of the people from the favela work in the large homes as housekeepers.
- We couldn't take pictures of some of the houses or people.
- Men were at the gates with AK47s.
- There are three gangs, Friends of Friends, Red Command, Third Command, with one gang having control over each favela.
- Back in 2004 there was a forty day gang war when Friends of Friends scaled the mountian side above Rocinha and invaded. No one was allowed to enter or leave the city for the forty days of fighting and now Friends of Friends has control. Also, McDonald's left (don't worry, there is still a Bob's Burgers in the favela).
- Each week a new gang war starts for control over one of the favelas.
- Crime, other than drug deals, is very rare in the favelas because they don't want anyone to commit a crime that could bring the cops into the favela. Therefore, if you live in the favela and commit a crime in the favela you are killed. I actually did not feel very unsafe while on the tour, partially due to the fact that we heard crime was rare, but also the fact that our tour guide knew many of the inhabitants and the people are proud of their culture and welcome tourists.
- The people in the favela use fireworks to communicate. Red fireworks signal danger while green and white signal a new shipment of marijuana and cocaine respectively.
- Everyone in Brazil is required to vote. Since many people in the favela are illiterate each candidate is given a number and voters type in that number at the voting booth and a picture of the candidate pops up.
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| Rocinha with its 200,000 inhabitants |
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