Rio's Dark Side - 'Favelas'...Favelas history...

Brazilians are convinced that Rio de Janeiro - is the most beautiful city in the world. This city, lying between the ocean and mountains, really, one can enjoy any time of day and weather conditions ... Along the beaches are lined up fashionable districts, smaller houses climb up the green hillsides ... If watched nearly these houses do not produce such an idyllic impression - it turns out, these are not cozy villas how it seem from a distance, but are the usual slums built from what "God has gave". Such districts surround most major cities in Brazil. Here they are called favelas.

Favela history

A favela is the Brazilian name for what's often called a shanty town or slum.

The illegal settlements emerged in the late 1800s when dispossessed former slaves and soldiers gathered together as socio-economic outcasts. Favelas grew more rapidly in the 1950s when swarms of Brazilians swapped urban for rural in pursuit of work.

The critically-acclaimed 2002 film City of God about life in a 1970s favela showed a lawless underworld, where bullets made the law. At the last count Rio has 513 favelas and, with the exception of occasional heavily armed raids targeting drug lords, the police stay well clear.

The notorious neighbourhoods are often positioned on the hills in the centre of Rio, on what would otherwise be prime real estate. It's a small poetic justice that the city's poorest citizens have millionaire views.

The labyrinthine streets are narrow and dark, with electrical cables and graffiti everywhere. It smells bad and there is no mistaking the water running in the gutters is sewage.
The word "Favela" is, apparently, from the Portuguese "favo" - "honeycomb". And indeed, this assemblage of clinging little houses resembles a beehive. Its inhabitants mainly work as porters, taxi drivers, waiters in traditional neighborhoods of Rio ... However, street criminals in the city are also mostly people of the favelas. At the same time, the favelas live their own no-prying eyes life. The appearance of strangers, especially fair-skinned, is not welcome.