What are the charecteristics of the favelas?

Question

What are the charecteristics of the favelas?

Answer 1

Favela's are shanty towns or irregular housing areas in Brasil. The exact same phenomenon exists in other parts of Latin America under the names barrios, assentamientos, ciudades miseria, etc.

They are usually created in abandonned or hard to build in or unstable grounds left aside by urban plan works (hills, on the side of highways, abandonned building sites, etc). The houses are built using cheap available material such as bricks, zinc plates (for roofs) and trash. Plus to provide services such as electricity and water, people manipulate available infrastructure to take it for free. Usually living conditions are very poor with high levels of pollution and disease.

Life in Brazilian favelas is often portrayed as folkloric. The people who live in the "morro" (favela's are often refered as "the hill" due to the place they are built on) will often work from home in sweatshop systems or in other parts of the city. The average income is below 100$ per month. There can be a strong community feeling though. As most of the population tends to be very young, there are regular parties of Funk where local artists sing and dance, people party and tend to have a high level of promiscuity. It is also known that very often to see criminal groups organized within the favelas and wars between them can be very bloody.

However, you need to keep in mind that things change very much from one city's favela's to the next. In Brasilia, where housing is very controlled, favella's tend to be poorer than the bigger ones in Rio or Sao Paulo. So the living conditions will be rougher. A lot of people, see Cidade de Deus ("City of Gods") as a portrayal of live in a favela. Yet this is the case of a very particular favela and modern in Rio. Some favela's such as Rozalia date back to the early 20th century. According to the history of each favela, there will be differences in pattern.

Answer 2

I did this in GCSE Geog at school. Favela's are low quality housing, they are often built by the homeless or immigrants. they are made from free materials like corrugated iron sheeting and old wood. The people who live there, often scavenge items to build this shacks. They are often on illegal land and owners of the land often find it difficult to get rid of them even with the help of the law. The people here will be living in thier own filth with no sewerage systems and often no fresh/clean source of drinking water.

Answer 3

They have poor infrastruture, high disease and crime levels, and most are illlegal, as the people build them theirselves