The mountain of stigmas: the social construction of the favela category (Rio de Janeiro, 1889-1909)

Abstract

From the last decades of the 19th century, when Rio de Janeiro was going through a period of intense population growth, its inhabitants witnessed the proliferation of a new urban phenomenon: the occupation of the slopes of its mountains by communities of workers, who settled there precariously - a phenomenon whose most visible example was the Morro da Providência, known since the 1890s as Morro da Favela. Although its occupation had developed throughout the second reign, the establishment of the Republic would significantly change the relationship between public authorities and this location, largely due to the social profile of its residents. By subjecting them to an intense process of stigmatization, the republican authorities began to define that community as a space apart from the city, a stain on the project of urban modernity that they wanted to see affirmed, which led its residents to fight to guarantee their right to housing. The aim of this article is to analyze the extent to which the images of this locality resulting from this process served as the basis for the affirmation of the category “favela” throughout the 20th century.