Rocinha

Rocinha (literally, Portuguese for "small ranch") is the largest favela in Brazil. It is located within the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. It is built on a steep hillside overlooking the city, just one kilometer from the beach.

Community

Although Rocinha is technically classified as a neighborhood, 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, drug stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC, and, at one time, a McDonalds franchiseFact|date=August 2008, though it has since closed. These factors help classify Rocinha as a "Favela Bairro", or Favela Neighborhood.

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

Many celebrities have visited Rocinha, including Mikhail Gorbachev (during the Earth Summit of 1992), Michael Jackson and actor Christopher Lambert.

Robert Neuwirth discusses Rocinha in his book entitled "Shadow Cities".

ize

The population of Rocinha is estimated to be anywhere from 60,000 to 150,000 [cite book
last = Gay
first = Robert
title = Popular Organization and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: A Tale of Two Favelas
publisher = Temple University Press
year = 1994
isbn = 1566391202 ] [cite book
last = Carpentier
first = Nico
url = http://www.researchingcommunication.eu/
title = MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND DEMOCRACY IN AN ENLARGED EUROPE: THE INTELLECTUAL WORK OF THE 2007 EUROPEAN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION DOCTORAL SUMMER SCHOOL
publisher = Tartu University Press
series = THE RESEARCHING AND TEACHING COMMUNICATION SERIES
page = 128
isbn = 9789949114641 ] though some believe more than 400,000 people live in the favela.Fact|date=July 2008 It is the largest favela in Brazil and definitely one of the most highly developed in Latin America. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there. Also the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, had many scenes filmed in this favela.

References

External links

* " [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-22.988870,-43.247659&spn=0.009764,0.013189&t=k&hl=en/ Satellite view of a section Rocinha at Google Maps] "
* [http://www.2bros.org/ Two Brothers/Fundação Dois Irmãos website]
* [http://www.ar2com.de/radiofavela-blog/?p=83 The practical urbanity of Rocinha] , a podcast with Toledo, an architect having a side office in Rocinha.