The story begins:
The sound of crackling explosions entered through the glassless window of Maiza Madeira's home, a hollow-brick shanty wedged deep within the narrow, twisting alleyways of this city's largest hillside slum.
She lifted her chin to acknowledge the noise, paused, then dismissed the sound as quickly as it had come: "Fireworks," she said.
I learned to tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks the same way, in the same place. I used to go there every day.
These stories are often frustrating, because they obscure the normalcy of life in these neighborhoods, life that goes on despite the violence. There are shops, daycare centers, students, parents, people who go to work every single day. There are also crime, corruption, pollution, poverty and disease.
It would not be accurate to say it's just like anywhere else, but having spent a lot of time in the neighborhood the story profiles, and having a couple of good friends who lived in Rocinha and in the Baixada Fluminense, the expectations these stories generate often obscure the stories of hard-working people trying to provide for their families, make home improvements, and get their kids through school. This WaPo piece does a better job than most.
And if you haven't seen them, two related Brazilian films: City of God and Bus 174. Posted by binky at April 21, 2007 09:24 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Latin America