Rocinha

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Rocinha
Neighbourhood
Location in Rio de Janeiro
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country  Brazil
State Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
Municipality/City Rio de Janeiro
Zone South Zone
Administrative Region Rocinha
Area
 • Total 143.72 ha (355.14 acres)
Population (2010)[1]
 • Total 69,356
 • Density 48,000/km2 (120,000/sq mi)
File:Rocinha rio de janeiro panorama 2010.jpg
Rocinha as viewed from within Rocinha
File:Rocinha road 2010.JPG
A hilly road in Rocinha
File:1 rocinha aerial pano 2014.jpg
Aerial view of Rocinha
File:1 rocinha favela main road 2014.jpg
Top-down view of the main road winding through Rocinha

Rocinha (little farm) is the largest favela in Brazil, and is 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. Almost 70,000 (census 2010)[2] people live in Rocinha, making it the most populous favela in Brazil.[3]

Although Rocinha is officially classified as a neighbourhood, many still refer to it as a favela. It developed from a shanty town into an urbanized slum. Today, almost all the houses in Rocinha 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 shanty towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses such as banks, medicine stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC (TV Rocinha), and, at one time, a McDonalds franchise.[4] These factors help classify Rocinha as a favela bairro, or favela neighborhood.

Community

There are a number of community organizations at work in Rocinha, including three neighbourhood associations and numerous NGOs and non-profit educational institutions.

Rocinha is home to most of the service workers in Zona Sul (the South Zone of Rio). Within Rocinha there are numerous NGO's staffed by both Brazilian and foreign teachers, volunteers and workers.

2011 police and military operation

In November 2011, a security operation was undertaken where hundreds of police and military patrolled the streets of Rocinha to crackdown on rampant drug dealers and bring government control to the neighbourhood.[5]

Size

Rocinha at night

Rocinha is the largest favela in Brazil and one of the most developed.[6] Rocinha's population was estimated at between 150,000 and 300,000 inhabitants during the 2000s;[7] but the IBGE Census of 2010 counted only 69,161 people.[2]

In literature, film and music

Robert Neuwirth discusses Rocinha in his book entitled Shadow Cities.[8] Rio de Janeiro was recently made the setting for an animation film, Rio, where many scenes take place in Rocinha.

In 1998, Philip Glass wrote an orchestral piece titled "Days and Nights in Rocinha". It was meant as a reference to Ravels Bolero, written for Dennis Russell Davies, to thank him for putting Glass' works on stage. He was inspired by dance music that he heard during the carnival, resulting in a samba-like rhythmical structure with a lot of time signature changes and varieties, such as 14/8, 15/8 and 9/8+4/4.

In mass media and popular culture

Many celebrities have visited Rocinha, including Mikhail Gorbachev (during the Earth Summit of 1992) and actor Christopher Lambert. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there.

The 2008 film The Incredible Hulk featured aerial footage of Rocinha, showing the large number of intermodal containers repurposed as housing.[9] It was also featured in the 2011 film Fast Five.

In the 2009 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there is a multiplayer map called "Favela". The location is said to be in Rio de Janeiro and it closely resembles Rocinha.

References

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  2. 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. http://lista10.org/diversos/as-10-maiores-favelas-do-brasil/
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External links