Returning to my Roots and HomePart of why I return here was my father was sick and I wanted to be for him.My brothers who will remain nameless are full of shame of their origens. But after my father passed away were quick to take advantage and sell his house without telling me. Everybody has dishonest family members and my family is no diferent. I wanted to buy my part of that house so I could develop programs here. My goals and dreams are to be able to give something back to Rocinha becase Rocinha has made me the person I am today. I find it strange that my brothers who deny the Favela of Rocinha as being their birthplace but are willing to steal from the community that they now have turned their back on. How sad! The origens of favelas in Rio de Janeiro. First let me say that I am not a history expert but with what I write here, you will have a better understanding of how favelas came to be.  The word “favela” comes from the northeastern plant that thrived on the hills in Rio. Many soldiers who were released slaves, were promised land and homes if they would fight in the Canudos war in the Northeast of Brazil. After the Canudos War many of the vetrans moved south and were able to find work, but the promise of the goverment of homes for these people did not happen. The goverment basically said while pointing to the hills, “You can build your own homes there”. So, the people did just that, they built and built and formed their own comunities. The first comunity in the downtown area of Rio was in 1897, first called “Morro da Favela”. Later the name was changed to “Morro da Providencia”, or Providence Hill. And soon after in the 1920’s more immigrants came to settle in big cities like Rio and Sao Paulo becase of jobs and higher standard of living.RocinhaRocinha today is considered the largest Favela in Brazil. I think there are conjuntos  (several favelas linked together), that may have more people but people consider Rocinha to be the biggest with over 50.000 homes and aprox 250.000 people. Rocinha is little more then 80 years old and is celebrating the years of changes, struggles and conquests. Initially Rocinha was a people of italian, french and of portugues descent. The name comes from the farms where vegetables were grown on the hill.. Roca means farm and Rocinha means little farm. In 1939 the Estrada da Gavea (the main street that runs through the favela) was asfaulted where car races were held up and down the hill of Rocinha. In the 1950’s there was a large migration of Northeasterners to Rio de Janeiro.In the 1960’s and 1970’s Rocinha expanded even more and the tunel Zuzu Angel was built to help integrate the people of Rocinha to the city of Rio.  This enabled the people of Rocinha to gain access to jobs in the Zona Sul. In the beginning people only built weak looking homes as they had fear of their places being destroyed as they had no real land rights. Why build a strong house and invest much money when any day the goverment could come and tear it down. In the 1970’s many things came to be in Rocinha. Child care centers, Schools, Newspapers, basic sanitation, water and other basics but still the comunity needed more to function.The people often fought to improve their lives but the goverment would make empty promises. The favela often felt left out as the politicians would come to the comunity making all sorts of promises but after the voting was over, favelas were the last thing on the politicians minds. Finally in 1982 a health care center was built. The first “LIGHT” that came to Rocinha was not eletricity but lamps and candles. The Catholic church was the responsible for bringing formal eletricity to Rocinha. As we speak Rocinha still needs so much more to be developed to the class of the poorest who do not live in favelas. Over 80% of the residents have eletricity that is paid for by them. “gatos”  (pirated energy) do exist but somebody still needs to pay for the eletricity so in reality nobody gets it for free. There are still many myths concerning people who live in favelas. As you read further down, I will expose many things good and no so good about things in Rocinha.  I am not going to focus on drug dealers or all the negative stuff as I am sure you can read that anywheres. I will bring you through my life and experiences here. Today it is aproximated that Rocinha has about 250,000 (maybe more) residents in an area of 700.000 squared metres. After the “lei 1995”, on july 18, 1993, Rocinha transformed or recognized as a formal neighborhood. Much outside investment was brought inside Rocinha to suport the growing needs of the population. Today if you live in the lower areas of Largo do Boiadeiro or Via Apia you need not leave the neighborhood to get what you need.  This is the main commercial area of Rocinha where restaurants, furniture stores, farmacies, banks and anything you can think of exists. On the highest point of the hill called Visual, you can see Corcovado, Lagoa and on the other side of San Conrado. After many years of challenges the people have formed their own comunity goverment, clubs and non goverment associations.  I hope that in my writing and fotos, I can show you the potential this place called Rocinha has! The structure of a favela, especially in the hills is like nothing you have seen. Buildings are built by the people who live here. The structure of the homes varies on many things, where you live on the hill, materials available and how much money a family has. Location close to the bottom of the hill means that you can gain easier access to utilities. In the beginning people construcuted their houses out of what ever they could find. Barracos or shacks were the first houses that were common back in the early 1900’s.People had fear of their shacks being torn down so they did not put alot of energy into building anything permanent. Once land rights were given, the people then started to build stronger dwellings. But still it is often a common experience in some favelas where the houses will or can be destroyed due to heavy rains or winds especially if poorly built or located high up the hill. The cycle of home improvement goes like this. Once you have your shack built, you then save money to buy bricks. Bricks cost about about $1 real each. It is very common to see bricks next to a dwelling. Once you have enough bricks to build one wall, you then tear down the wooden wall and replace with the bricks. The cycle repeats until you have four walls. After you have a firm walled structure, people often, put cement or other materials over the brick to give a smoother look to the house. This also reinforced the structure. Roofs vary, but almost all are slightly slanted to let the rain run off them or have pipes that stick out the sides. There are tiles roofs and metal corrigated type roof and look like they can be removed or replaced. Most favela homes in Rocinha are red brick and some are painted diferent colors. The roof of a favela house is like the backyard of any other house. It is a multi use place. Children play on the roof and parties also occur there. I use my roof to relax and enjoy my view of the community. The average favela home has 1 main room, 1 bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom with a shower. There are no bath tubs here.Most houses have little or no shade unless you live on the bottom floor of a structure or deep within a beco. There are trees and in Rocinha you can see homes that are built every which way, even around large trees. There is no grass here, it is like an urban jungle.Becos and vielas are small alleyways that people use to navigate to their homes. Alleys can be 1 to 2 metres wide or as little as ½  metre wide. In these alleys can be seen many things. There are small home based businesses like barzinhos (small bars), creches (day care centers, schools, churches and much more. The becos are mostly made of cement but are not even. The stairs can be up to ½ metre in height or 10 centimetres. They are not even and in the rains one needs to be careful navigating these passageways. Its easy to fall becase the rain does not evaporate easily becase of no sunlight reaches the beco. My house is a small structure with four rooms. The first floor there is a small entry way with a metal door. The entryway also leads to the roof. Once you walk inside the door, you are in the living room/dining room area. There are two small bedrooms off to the left. The kitchen is to the right and behind it is the bathroom/shower area. The house is a humble dwelling but it is mine. I feel comfort here but I will be selling it to upgrade so I can start my programs.  I am proud to live here as what I have here is more than I have in the US.