Violence In The Spectacular Favela

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As is described in The Spectacular Favela, favelas and favela violence stems all the way back to the days of colonialism. Portuguese planter classes enslaved Africans using terror to maintain their power creating the foundation for a country with racial and class hierarchies in which an elite class holds the power. When slavery was abolished in 1888 many newly freed slaves fled to large cities such as Rio in search of opportunity. This wave of newly freed slaves combined with an influx of people from the inland flooding the city left very few housing options in the cities themselves, therefore they settled in the hillsides outside of the city, which would later become the favelas we know today. From the very beginning favelas were viewed as roadblocks to creating a modern city and therefore a modern nation. Residents of favelas and the favela’s substandard architecture were viewed as diseases eating away at the …show more content…

Favela tourism capitalizes on the suffering of favela residents and helps to perpetuate the ongoing stereotypes of a violent, poor, drug lord run favela. Favela tourism gained popularity due to a global imaginary that Larkins refers to as Favela, Inc.; which refers to the commodification of the favela as a violent image used in ‘mediascapes’ such as print media, film, television, video games, music, the internet. What is notable about both Favela, Inc. and favela tourism is who controls and benefits from them. The residents of Rocinha are not the ones in control of their home’s global image; instead it is controlled and created by both Brazilian and foreign outsiders. As it is explained in the text, “Favela, Inc.” from a commodified perspective makes the violence of the favelas into a “recreational experience” that tourists can take advantage of but that the actual residence of the favela will not see the proceeds

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