Favela is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term, which means slum or ghetto, was first used in the Slum of Providência in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had lived under the favela trees in Bahia and had nowhere to live following the Canudos War. Some of the first settlements were called bairros africanos. Over the years, many former enslaved Africans moved in. Even before the first favela came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs.
City of God is a 2002 epic crime film co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Bráulio Mantovani adapted the story from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the plot is loosely based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the film's closure depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you."
Rocinha is the largest favela in Brazil, located in Rio de Janeiro's South Zone between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. Rocinha is built on a steep hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, and is located about one kilometre from a nearby beach. Most of the favela is on a very steep hill, with many trees surrounding it. Around 200,000 people live in Rocinha, making it the most populous favela in Brazil.
Paulo Lins is a Brazilian author.
The term City of God may refer to The City of God, a fifth-century book by St. Augustine of Hippo, and subsequently to the Roman Catholic Church and its unity with civil power, such as existed between it and the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages.
Brazilian hip hop is a national music genre in Brazil. From its earliest days in the African-Brazilian communities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the genre has grown into a countrywide phenomena. Rappers, DJs, break dancers and graffiti artists are active across the complete spectrum of society blending Brazil's cultural heritage with American hip hop to form a contemporary musical fusion.
Kátia Lund is a Brazilian film director and screenwriter. Her most notable work was as co-director of the film City of God.
Comando Vermelho, also known as C.V., is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, protection racketeering, kidnappings-for-ransom, armored truck hijackings, loansharking, irregular warfare, narco-terrorism, and turf wars against rival criminal organizations, such as Primeiro Comando da Capital and Terceiro Comando Puro. The gang formed in 1979 out of a prison alliance between common criminals and leftist guerrillas, who were imprisoned together at Cândido Mendes. The prisoners formed the alliance to protect themselves from prison violence and guard-inflicted brutality; as the group coalesced, the common criminals were infused with leftist social justice ideals by the guerrillas. In 1979, prison officials labeled the alliance “Comando Vermelho,” a name which the prisoners eventually co-opted as their own. In the 1980s, the gang expanded beyond Ilha Grande into other prisons and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and became involved in the rapidly growing cocaine industry. Meanwhile, Brazil’s shift towards democracy and the eventual end of the military dictatorship in 1985 allowed the leftist guerrillas to re-enter society; thus, the CV largely abandoned its left-wing ideology.
Zé Pequeno (1957-1985), better known by the nickname Zé Pequeno, was a Brazilian drug trafficker. He was a major criminal figure in the Cidade de Deus favela of Rio de Janeiro during the 1970s and 1980s. He rose to posthumous fame, thanks to the success of the 2002 Brazilian film City of God, in which he was played by Leandro Firmino and Douglas Silva. Starting out as a petty thief, Ze Pequeno became notorious in the favela for his cruel methods. He had a longstanding rivalry with Mane Galinha, and was eventually killed by the Valzinho gang.
Proibidão, which literally translates to "strongly prohibited", is a subgenre of funk carioca music originating from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro where it began in the early 1990s as a parallel phenomenon to the growth of drug gangs in the many slums of the city. The drug gangs sponsored DJs and baile funks in the favelas they controlled to spread respect and love for their gang as well as hate to the other gangs. The music that resulted is proibidão.
Elite Squad is a 2007 Brazilian crime film based on the novel Elite da Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares, André Batista, and Rodrigo Pimentel. Directed by José Padilha from a screenplay by Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani, and Pimentel, the film stars Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, and André Ramiro. In Elite Squad, Roberto Nascimento (Moura), a Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) captain, leads a crackdown on a series of Rio de Janeiro neighbourhoods to prepare for the 1997 state visit of Pope John Paul II.
Tati Quebra-Barraco,, is a Brazilian rapper, whose music consists mostly of hip hop and funk carioca genre. Tati is considered Brazil's first lady of hip hop as the first woman to break the barrier of male-only funkers. She is a popularizer of Baile funk in Brazil and, having been born in Rio de Janeiro's City of God favela, exemplifies that style of hip hop. Her stage name literally translates into "Tati Shack-Wrecker".
Afro-Brazilian literature has existed in Brazil since the mid-19th century with the publication of Maria Firmina dos Reis's novel Ursula in 1859. Other writers from the late 19th century and early 20th century include Machado de Assis, Cruz e Sousa and Lima Barreto. Yet, Afro-Brazilian literature as a genre that recognized the ethnic and cultural origins of the writer did not gain national prominence in Brazil until the 1970s with the revival of Black Consciousness politics known as the Movimento Negro.
The Cidade de Deus is a West Zone neighborhood of the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is also known as CDD among its inhabitants.
Cidade de Deus can refer to:
The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State (PMERJ) like other military polices in Brazil is a reserve and ancillary force of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection. Its members are called "state military" personnel.
Vigilante rap, also known as V-rap or rap das milícias is a musical style developed in Brazil and whose lyrics, as opposed to gangsta rap, are about praising vigilantism and violent acts against criminals instead of criminal enterprise or gangster life.
The Pacifying Police Unit, abbreviated UPP, is a law enforcement and social services program pioneered in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which aims to reclaim territories, most commonly favelas, controlled by gangs of drug dealers. The program was created and implemented by State Public Security Secretary José Mariano Beltrame, with the backing of Rio Governor Sérgio Cabral. The stated goal of Rio's government is to install 40 UPPs by 2014. By May 2013, 231 favelas had come under the UPP umbrella. The UPP program scored initial success expelling gangs, and won broad praise. But the expensive initiative expanded too far, too fast into dozens of favelas as state finances cratered, causing a devastating backslide that enabled gangs to recover some of their lost grip.
The armed conflict for control of the favelas in Greater Rio de Janeiro is an ongoing continuous, since 2006, armed conflict between Brazilian militias and subgroups, Primeiro Comando da Capital, Comando Vermelho, Amigos dos Amigos, Terceiro Comando Puro and the government.
