By Laurel Klafehn
University of the Pacific
Environment & Sustainability Studies – CIEE Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In Rio de Janeiro, it’s estimated that as much as 20% of the population lives in favelas—Brazilian poor neighborhoods within urban areas. These informal communities have become popular tourist destinations. As Rio’s tourism profile rises after hosting the 2014 World Cup and it plans for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the influx of visitors has led to a boom in favela tourism, with mixed results for residents.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–It is finally dusk on a humid Brazilian day, the sun beginning to cast shadows on meandering alleyways and steep concrete staircases. Each corner brings a new wave of scent from fresh pastries to forgotten trash; this urban maze is a sensory playground. Fragmented, breathtaking views of the city below peek out between concrete homes, where one can silently spectate ever-present street soccer games. Locals look up from their tasks as a group of student tourists walk by, intrigued by their hungry cameras and broken Portuguese. This is life in the Salgueiro favela.
Within the city limits of Rio de Janeiro, over 800 favelas are nestled between the high-rises so emblematic of major metropolises. This varied cityscape is one of the reasons why panoramas of Rio make for beautiful aerial movie intros and compelling magazine covers. Such superficial visibility of favelas has stirred much foreign curiosity about these distinctive communities.
Tourist excursions that delve inside Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas continue to gain popularity. It is estimated that 40,000 tourists visit Rio’s favelas every year, and that number is only growing. Cariocas [Rio natives] and foreigners alike wonder if these tours provide an opportunity to de-stigmatize the negative reputations of the neighborhoods, or if they merely buy into the sensationalism of poverty and violence that has made “favelas” a household word. Quips such as “poorism” and “poverty porn” have been used to describe the “voyeuristic” sightseeing that has emerged in Indian slums and South African townships.
In 2014 over one million tourists visited Rio. Favela tourism now occupies its own section on Rio’s official tourism website. According to a series of panel discussions conducted by the Rio newspaper O Dia to address “favela tourism as a tool for social inclusion,” 60% of foreign tourists visiting Rio are interested in visiting a favela. Despite hopes that tourism would promote economic integration in these underserved communities, the reality may indicate otherwise. A small business advocate at the meeting referenced a study showing tourists only spend on average $1.50 USD (R$5) in the area on a visit, usually for a bottle of water. The demand for favela tourism is significant, but many feel that it does not provide enough economic benefits for the communities being visited.
To better understand the favela tourism phenomenon, I recently went on a tour of the Salgueiro favela, located in the neighborhood of Tijuca. Karolynne Duarte and her partner, Vilson Luiz, guided myself and ten other Americans throughout the favela–passing their ten- month old son, Zyon, back and forth between various stops. Their company, Guiadas Urbanas (Urban Guides), offers several kinds of tours in various favelas. They are both Cariocas and wear their “I (heart) favelas” T-shirts proudly.
According to their website, Guiadas Urbanas “promotes tourism in urban spaces rich in culture, history, and tradition, with the perspective that they are transformational places for the people who inhabit, enjoy, and belong to them.”
Our tour began after paying the equivalent of $1 USD each for a kombi, an old Volkswagon van used as public transport, to reach the top of the Salgueiro favela. The narrow switchback road snaked through dense residential housing, ending in a flat parking area at the top of the hill. There, we met Vilson and Karolynne.
Vilson began the tour with a simple question: What is a favela? The tour group dove into a discussion of the favela as a neighborhood, and of its importance as a part of the city. Vilson noted that favela residents account for over 1.2 million people, more than 20% of Rio’s total population. The guides discussed representations of favelas in pop culture: movie subtitles and dictionary definitions offer synonyms such as “slum,” “ghetto,” and “squatter community.” The poignant and brutally violent Academy-Award nominated film City of God is often the only representation of a favela that foreigners have for reference. The guides noted that these portrayals feed the commonly held belief that favela residents are settlers who illegally obtained the land on which their homes were built and that favelas continue to be places of lawlessness and intrigue. Vilson and Karolynne say they often start tours with a discussion of favela stereotypes “to start to break down prejudice and cultivate open-mindedness” within the tour group.
The story of Rio’s favelas dates back to the end of the 19th century, when President Prudente de Moraes’ government promised land in Rio to soldiers from Bahia, Brazil’s Northeast, after one of the country’s bloodiest civil wars. The veteran settlers moved to Rio, and while waiting for the land titles (which were never granted), they established themselves on a hill and named it “Morro da Favela.” Historians refer to the newly renamed “Morro da Providência” favela as the oldest in Rio.
Other favelas grew from a need for housing near worksites, such as Favela Metrô-Mangueira, which was established by construction workers and their families while they built the city’s underground metro system. The Salegueiro favela we toured was settled in the early twentieth century and was founded by former slaves who moved into the city for work.
Our first stop in Salegueiro is a local organization that provides supplemental education for both children and adults. Two women show us desks and books donated to them by the Wal-Mart that used to be in the area, while small children and women bustle around the dimly room. One woman explains, “we don’t have electricity right now, which is why there are no lights and no fans. It gets really hot, which makes it hard when we give classes.”
The organization also plans on starting a radio station at the community center. “We just want to be able to reach more people,” one woman says. “The government has promised funding,” she continues, “but funding never comes.” Vilson and Karolynne reference this ongoing tension between favelas and the municipal government throughout the tour.
Despite the difficulties of favela life, its lack of amenities typically seems romantic and intriguing to foreigners. Residents take immense pride in the autonomy of favela communities, but their isolation presents significant obstacles to services that many city dwellers tend to take for granted, such as water, electricity, and sewage. “We don’t have water every day, nor do we pay for water,” Emanueli Lopes, a resident of Rocinha, Latin America’s largest favela, says. “The electricity often goes out, because people ‘pirated’ the wires to use for our houses. They don’t work as much in the summer, for example, so a lot of times we just won’t have electricity.”
Emanueli pays the equivalent of $150 USD a month for her small home in Rocinha. She mentions that although ambulances and fire trucks will come to the favela, residents have to pay to get mail so that they can pay their bills. “Here, and in many other places, we feel forgotten by the government,” she says.
Vibrancy seems to be the main aesthetic difference between the winding streets of Salgueiro and the gridded high-rises of Rio’s South Zone. Intricate graffiti art splashes across street walls, and brightly painted homes create a mosaic against the blue sky. Electric wires dangle in tangles and flies swarm around liquids dripping down stair to stair. Salgueiro is unapologetic for its colors, smells, and noises.
The second stop on the tour is the samba school, a beautifully painted red and white open-air space where community members meet, eat, and of course, dance. Vilson explains that the same families that live in Salgueiro today have ancestors that helped establish the community at its inception. “Everyone knows everyone. You can bet that your grandma knows somebody else’s grandma, so if you get in trouble, word is going to get around. It’s like a big family.”
Brazilian-born Theresa Willamson started Catalytic Communities, an organization that strives to “integrate Rio’s formal and informal communities,” in 2001. She subsequently developed Rio on Watch, a website dedicated to community reporting, which has publicized the voices of favela residents amidst the myriad changes they have endured since 2008 when Brazil won the bids for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
Williamson claims that the strong community ties within favelas are a product of their geography. “The emphasis on horizontal expansion (building out rather than up, as in high-rises) cultivates social interactions within the favela. When buildings are built next to each other, rather than on top of each other, people interact with each other more. This forms tight-knit communities,” she explains.
The announcement of the successful World Cup and Olympic Games bids marked a critical shift in Rio’s public policy. These mega-events not only bring millions of foreign tourists into the host city, they also focus international scrutiny on the city’s doorstep. According to FIFA, the 2014 World Cup brought over five million fans to Brazil–937,330 of whom came just for the games in Rio, which only lasted 32 days. For 2016, the Olympic Commission estimates that over 100,000 people directly involved in organizing the games will come to Rio–and that’s before arrival numbers swell with spectators and tourists.
With this enormous influx of visitors, Rio’s Prefeitura (City Hall) understood that it needed to clean up the international reputation of favelas. Public perception of high crime rates in Rio had kept many would-be visitors at bay for decades, and the image of armed bandits and police shootouts would not be good for business. Rio’s City Hall marketing budget skyrocketed from about $140,000 USD in 2009 to over $26 million USD just a year later. In addition to these public relations efforts, the military police’s pacification policy also emerged with its main actors– the special operations force (BOPE), who are trained in similar methods as the Israeli army, and the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP), an offshoot of the Military Police Force. In order to increase safety for tourists and residents alike, the UPP has since established permanent headquarters in 39 of Rio’s favelas. Rio’s City Hall cites this “pacification” as the factor making the favelas accessible to tourists.
The impacts of the pacification policy have not been as peaceful as the name suggests. In Complexo do Alemão, a favela in Rio’s North Zone, the UPP came with force. According to Rio on Watch, this year 81% of days have witnessed gunfire. Several peaceful protests have been staged, with the resounding cry “Ta Tudo Errado!”… “Everything is wrong!” The protests have demanded an end to police violence. This favela, while technically open for tourists, does not receive nearly as much attention as the favelas in the South Zone, near popular Copacabana and Ipanema.
In other favelas, such as Vidigal, located in Rio’s South Zone, the UPP presence stimulated gentrification. Many foreigners find their way to Vidigal for the trailhead to the famous pair of monoliths known as Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers). Travelers hostels are now booming in Vidigal, promising experiences sweetened by words like “real” and “authentic.”
Favela tours both large and small tend to use these same buzzwords. The favela is presented as a more “authentic” part of Rio than the cushy, tourist-friendly South Zone. To put concerned googlers at ease, many tour websites state that the “slum” has been “pacified.” These reassurances assume three things: 1. The favela is a more adventurous place to go than the typical tourist hot spots, 2. The favela is poverty-stricken (what picture does the word “slum” evoke?), and 3. The favela is less dangerous than it had been previously–thanks to the police.
The appropriately named tourism company Jeep Tour proudly offers a drop- top Jeep tour through a favela in the South Zone for $94 USD. Enumerated highlights include “a beautiful and different perspective from Rio,” in a “slum pacified by the police.”
Emanueli is all too familiar with these Jeep Tours in her Rocinha neighborhood. “It’s weird when the tourists come in their Jeeps like they were on a safari–as if we were animals in Africa,” she says with dismay. Other Jeep tours tout a chance to speak with locals and purchase crafts made by residents. While Brazilian news outlets have not dwelt much on the debate over safari-like trips to favelas, many international news agencies, such as Al- Jazeera, have published pieces questioning the authenticity of such ventures.
“First of all,” Karolynne laughs, “a Jeep couldn’t even drive on the stairs in Salgueiro.” Vilson chimes in, “you know why Brazilians have such big bundas [asses]? We have to climb up these stairs every day!”
As the tour continues, we peek into an aromatic bakery, photos of countless smiling residents lining its walls. It is a timeline of meals throughout the years. “We hope you all tell your friends about Salgueiro, the favela,” the chef tells us. “We hope you tell them that it’s not a scary place like they might imagine. We are families, we have events, parties. Tourists come to Rio and only go to Lapa for nightlife [a popular outdoor bar scene that tourists indeed frequent heavily]. We hope that this tour begins to change that. We want people to feel welcome here. We can offer fun and good experiences, too.”
As the sun begins to set and golden light bathes the steps of the favela, we descend to the community garden. It is in its beginning stages, on a sloped plot of land with yet another stunning view. Vilson and Karolynne guide us through the rows, explaining the various peppers planted there and letting Zyon nibble on some cilantro. A large truck idles in the background, with the word mudanças [changes] written on the side. We joke that they staged it there just for photo opportunities. One wonders what sort of changes the neighborhood has seen in order to make the tour possible.
At the end of the tour we use our heels to brake our walk down the steep curves in the hill, passing the UPP settlement. Salgueiro is one of the “pacified” favelas. Military police officers wielding semi-automatics give us friendly waves goodbye. Vilson cracks a joke with one of them.
I leave with the warm fuzzy feeling that comes so often with being a tourist–the feeling of having done something new, and understanding something better than before. This is the intent of the favela tourism industry. Warm and fuzzy translate well into Tripadvisor reviews and tips. Rio’s City Hall employees clap each other on the back. The Olympic Committee breathes a little easier. Everybody wins, right?
Movies and postcards around the world have portrayed Rio’s favelas as homogenous, frightening, and desperate areas–forgoing the nuance and dignity inherent in these communities. Perhaps using “favela” as an umbrella term resigns people to the lazy misconception that all favelas are identical and face identical problems. Using their names compels visitors and residents alike to recognize their identity as a favela, yes, but also as a unique neighborhood that cannot be summed up in a headline. By presenting a favela as a community full of people that care about it and are actively working to make it better, we as outsiders are able to see the favela as a place that doesn’t need saving. Tours of Salgueiro aim to present the neighborhood as a place with dignity and strength in its uniqueness.
An intentional tourism model that frames the favela in a positive, productive light is now becoming the rule rather than the exception. This model does not glorify poverty, nor does it ignore the varied difficulties that Rio’s favelas face as marginalized communities. The negative reception of superficial voyeurism into these intriguing spaces (such as Jeep Tours) is bolstering responsible tourism companies such as Guiadas Urbanas. For example, FavelaTour, one of the oldest tour companies in Rocinha, only employs people from Rocinha. This shift from opportunistic business ventures to integrated entrepreneurship signals an exciting development for Rio’s favela tourism. Globo, Brazil’s largest mainstream media outlet, has even acknowledged this shift. In a recent article, Globo applauded Guiadas Urbanas for providing an interactive favela tour option that goes “beyond the postcards.”
But in order for this mission to be successful, the motivation behind each actor in favela tourism must be like- minded. A government that only worries about international tourists’ perceptions of order will be inclined to respond to complex social problems with force. A tourist who is attracted to the idea of driving through a poor neighborhood for the great photo ops–and minimal personal contact–will have different impacts on the favela than someone who pays for a walking tour in which they interact with residents. In order for exchange to occur, the goals of the tour guide and the tourist must be aligned. Conversely, the goals of community members and police must also be aligned.
It is this receptive tourism that aims to shift long-lasting paradigms for the unique favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and for the people who are hungry to learn more about them. When this happens, we are no longer looking down at the favela from a helicopter or from the bed of a camouflage-decorated Jeep. We begin to see eye to eye. //
Author’s Note: Guiadas Urbanas is just one of several responsible favela tourism enter- prises in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Gilmar Lopes also offers an insightful walking tour of the Cabritos & Tabajaras favelas as presi- dent of the tourism company Tabritur. Favela Tour offers frequent, intimate tours of Ro- cinha. Rio on Watch is a community-focused reporting organization that reliably follows Rio’s favelas and provides a communication platform for favela residents to speak to the broader public.
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