The preponderance of marked urban frontiers is a central component of the lifeworld of the favela. Favela-dwellers love their communities, but they are acutely aware of the negative social representations and stigma generated in the asphalt (affluent areas of Rio). Crime, violence and marginalisation are equated from the outside to the identity of favela-dwellers, who report a range of experiences of discrimination and segregation as they cross the border into the wider city.
“... it happens all the time in the streets. We are walking in the street and a person sees us and moves away. They see us, they see us, like… they discriminate. We pass by, they hold their bags, they change the way, they think we will steal… this is horrible! Because people think that all blacks are thieves, that will do evil, will steal, will kill…”
(Cantagalo, male, 28 years old)
“Because of the impression people have of the hill is shocking, that people speak badly, don’t have manners, that they go down to make trouble... People think that whoever lives in the hill is a favelado, lives in a shack falling apart, in a dirty house, they just link poverty and dirt. Then, people have this impression and don’t give you a job because you will be problem.”
(Madureira, female, 35 years old)
“Once I went to look for a job, and a woman said: here is the money for your ticket. Where do you live? And I said,
‘Vigario Geral,’ so the woman goes: ‘Vigario Geral? You will
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not work here, you will not!’ And I asked, ‘but why?’ And the woman: ‘because you live in Vigario.’ And I said: ‘but tell me the reason?!’ And she said, ‘people there are very angry’… and I said, ‘not all, I work hard, I am a worker!’ But the woman did not give me a job because I live in the favela. Many cannot get a job and sometimes do not work because they live in Vigario.”
(Vigario Geral, male, 24 years old)
These negative representations have an affective load for the Self and for the community.
At the same time there is a concrete implication for finding jobs and being able to make a living in the city. Stigma and discrimination hurt psychologically and socially by affecting self-esteem and identity and, at the same time, blocking access to work and earnings.
However, crossing urban frontiers is a complex practice that involves movement from both sides of the city. As José Junior wrote in 2002 about the boca de fumo (literally
‘smoke mouth’, a site of encounter and crossings where drugs are sold):
“The popular boca de fumo is a meeting point between people from different social classes and all young people in search for a place under the sun. Have you seen one? In the evening it becomes the place where all the cool crowds hang around, bringing together beautiful and well-dressed people, weapons, chicks, music. Business is going on full gas, and there is a huge amount of people coming and going. The site seems to be a magnetic field that attracts people, mainly opposite people.
Most of those who are hanging there are not users, not even drug dealers. Most boys and girls are there because it is cool – and believe me, it is just that, because it is cool!”
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His statement is echoed by many of the testimonials we collected, which reveal the appeal of favela life in relation to the wider city and the many interactions and exchanges that take place between hill and asphalt.
“Discrimination I have never felt. What I felt was curiosity wanting to know more about my reality. When I said I was from the favela and did not pay for water or for light, but only paid for gas, phone and gatonet [illegal cable TV] they were really impressed. I said that with ten thousand reais you can build a two-storey house in the hill, with tiles and all. They were impressed, because many of my friends are saving money, something like 100 thousand to buy a flat. I, with 100 thousand, would buy the favela…”
(Cantagalo, male, 20 years old)
“People study in the same school, there are girls from the asphalt who go out with the drug bosses. There are the addicts who go up to get the drugs. And there is also a lot of favela girls, who go out with asphalt boys.”
(Madureira, female, 20 years old)
Nowhere this is more evident than in the crossings of favela cultural productions, which are foundational of Brazilian culture and reach not only the whole city but the entire country. The crossings of favela experiences and cultural production, which are actively appropriated and consumed by the whole city, are part of the contradictions that permeate urban frontiers, comprising affects that are made of denial and attraction, of a need to isolate and separate and, at the same time, a desire to cross and to enter the culture and life of the favela.
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Participants make clear that access to resources and violence are unequally distributed in Rio. They know that between the drug trade and the police they stand little chance of emerging unscathed. There are issues of social representation as when the mainstream asphalt and the police see favela-dwellers as criminal and dangerous. There are issues of survival as when families cannot rely on the State for routes of socialisation for their children. Furthermore, there are human rights violations as when the police invade homes, summarily kill and fail to investigate these crimes. What the imagination of Rio has named the division morro/asfalto is as real as ever for a favela-dweller living in Rio today. Figure 3.11 represents the dynamics of Rio’s urban frontiers and the relations that construct them.
Figure 3.11 Psychosocial Dynamic of Urban Frontiers
Note. Stereotypical representations of crime, violence and marginality outside produce stigma, discrimi-nation and segregation inside. Attempts to resist and cross borders inside meet denial and isolation as well as fascination outside. Source: Underground Sociabilities.
Favela