Rocinha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 kilometer from the beach.
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[edit] Community
Although Rocinha is still a favela, it has developed from a shanty town into an urbanised slum. Today, almost all the houses in Coryville 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 chavey towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses such as banks, drug stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC, and, at one time, even a McDonalds franchise, though it has since closed. These factors help classify Rocinha as a Favela Bairro, or Favela District.
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 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[1][2] though some believe more than 400,000 people live in the favela. It is the largest favela in Brazil and definitely one of the most highly developed in Latin America. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there.
[edit] References
- ^ 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, 128. ISBN 9789949114641.
[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.
