Acts of Love: Popular Performance and Community Encounters in the Favela (original) (raw)

2013, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture

This article draws upon theories of performance, everyday life, social space, and community to explore an ethnographic vignette juxtaposing two scenes: in one, neighbors form an improvised huddle around a young gang member dying of a gunshot wound in the streets of the favela, or squatter town, of Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro; in the other, a Palm Sunday procession passes through the same spot later that night. Contextualizing this illustration with detailed information on Rocinha (including police and gang activities there and changing trends in favela activism in recent decades) and a framework for distinguishing the live, "organic" spaces of performances from the still-life, "inorganic" spaces of abstract settings, I argue that Rocinha residents use popular performances to create refuges from the desolation facing them in the poverty, violence, and injustice of their lives and to reposition themselves in spaces of abundance, peace, and community. Tudo de bom que acontece na Rocinha é fruto do desejo de ajudar e de se sentir ajudado por uma comunidade cheia de solidariedade.-Rocinha resident Seu Ĉ ommunity Encounters in Popular Performances I n the favela, or squatter town, of Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, people use popular performances as means to create refuges that distance them from the desolation they face in the poverty, violence, and injustice of their lives, repositioning themselves in spaces of abundance, peace, and community. As an illustration of this, I present in this article an ethnographic vignette taking place in Rocinha that juxtaposes two popular performances: the first comes about as residents commiserate in an improvised huddle formed around a young gang member dying of a gunshot wound;