Ministry of cities RIP: the sad story of Brazil's great urban experiment

[Judi Lynn]

Greg Scruggs
Thu 18 Jul 2019 08.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 18 Jul 2019 12.38 EDT

Inside Maria Cleudimar da Silva’s flat, gospel music plays softly on the stereo, family photos and religious posters decorate the walls, and a wicker rocking chair and computer furnish the living room. The only evidence of her past life is a faded photo of the home she lived in for 11 years, a shack she called Noah’s Ark for its frequent floods.

She moved in in 1996, pursuing the promise of a better life from Brazil’s rural north-east to São Paulo, its largest city, where she settled in Paraisópolis, the city’s largest favela.

The path to a better life, however, was bumpy. As a squatter, she faced a constant threat of eviction. It was a challenging place to raise her daughter, who has the developmental disorder Williams syndrome.

“The government didn’t treat us like citizens back then,” she says, citing their inability to access regular water, electrical hookups or a health clinic for her daughter.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jul/18/ministry-of-cities-rip-the-sad-story-of-brazils-great-urban-experiment