Rocinha
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Coordinates: 22°59′19″S 43°14′48″W / 22.98861°S 43.24667°W
Rocinha (literally, Portuguese for small ranch) is the largest favela in Brazil. It is located within the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. It is built on a steep hillside overlooking the city, just one kilometre from the beach.
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[edit] Community
Although Rocinha is technically classified as a neighborhood, many still refer to it as a favela. It developed from a shanty town into an urbanized slum. Today, almost all the houses in Rocinha are made from concrete and brick. Some buildings are three and four stories tall and almost all houses have basic sanitation, plumbing, and electricity. Compared to simple shanty towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses such as banks, medicine stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC, and, at one time, a McDonalds franchise[1], though it has since closed. These factors help classify Rocinha as a Favela Bairro, or Favela Neighborhood....
There are a number of community organizations at work in Rocinha, including three neighborhood associations and numerous NGOs and non-profit educational institutions.
Many celebrities have visited Rocinha, including Mikhail Gorbachev (during the Earth Summit of 1992), Michael Jackson (who shot the first version of the music video for his single "They Don't Care About Us" there, as well as in the Pelourinho in Salvador, Bahia) and actor Christopher Lambert.
Robert Neuwirth discusses Rocinha in his book entitled Shadow Cities.
[edit] Size
The population of Rocinha is estimated to be anywhere from 60,000 to 150,000[2][3]. It is the largest favela in Brazil and one of the most developed in Latin America. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there. Also the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, had many scenes filmed in this favela.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/apr/17/brazil.garethchetwynd
- ^ Gay, Robert (1994). Popular Organization and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: A Tale of Two Favelas. Temple University Press. ISBN 1566391202.
- ^ Carpentier, Nico. MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND DEMOCRACY IN AN ENLARGED EUROPE: THE INTELLECTUAL WORK OF THE 2007 EUROPEAN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION DOCTORAL SUMMER SCHOOL. THE RESEARCHING AND TEACHING COMMUNICATION SERIES. Tartu University Press. p. 128. ISBN 9789949114641. http://www.researchingcommunication.eu/.
population 100,000 geography video
[edit] External links
- Satellite view of a section Rocinha at Google Maps
- Two Brothers/Fundação Dois Irmãos website
- The practical urbanity of Rocinha, a podcast with Toledo, an architect having a side office in Rocinha.
