Run

The Miohcão

Carandiru

View of the the remains of Carandiru prison on the right and the still existing women’s state penitentiary in Sao Paulo, on the left. On October 2, 1992 Sao Paulo’s military police erupted into the prison during a riot which became progressively harder to control. Over one hundred inmates had died before it was all over. One hundred and two of them were killed from gunshots wounds attributed to the Military Police another nine died from stab wounds. None of the police were killed. Survivors claimed the police had also fired on inmates who had surrendered or were hiding from the riot in their cells.

In 2002 the prison was finally demolished and developed into the park, Parque da Jueventude. Sao Paulo, with over 1,500 square kilometers and a population approaching 20 million has few recreational areas. The original plan for this park was actually never completed, due to a lack of fund.

The New Neighbors

In southern Sao Paulo, on 72,000 sq. meters, surrounded by an additional 52,000 sq meters of green areas, an all new integrated condominium complex is in it's final stages of construction with an investment of over USD $700 million. Parque Cidade Jardim, will hold nine residential towers, three commercial towers, an exclusive shopping center, a luxury spa, seventeen heliports and a mixed residential hotel tower linked to the Fasano chain. The apartments vary in size from 237 to 1800 sq. meters and are valued between USD $800,000 to $12,000,000. Sixty percent of them were sold before its inauguration in 2006.

The condominium looks over one of Brazil's most polluted rivers, the Tietê. The Panorama slum holding some forty families once stood in the same spot. Their shacks were bought out at USD $20,000.

Thank You Stern Magazine

Last year in September, Stern Magazine in Germany, assigned me to photograph the first day of school in Brazil. Soon after Carnival I arranged to photograph in the south of Sao Paulo, a very unknown part of the city for its abundant green areas yet very isolated and marginalized. I found a very poor family of four children with a single mother. The father due to alcoholism had abandoned the family.

The family lived in a wooden shack on private land. The landowner, had kindly allowed them to live there without rent. The children I photographed, pictured above with their mother are Daniel and Daniela, seven year-old twins on their way to their first day of primary school. The children must walk three kilometers to the bus stop and then drive another fifteen to an overcrowded public school.

The article was published in late August 2008 in Germany. The readers were moved by the tragedy of this family and voluntarily have begun a to set-up a fund to help them.

I just want to say, that this is what it's all about. This is why I take pictures. So I thank all the people who made this happen, Luis Viera at the social clinic who found the family, the two gentlemen who drove me around, the Instituto Socio Ambiental, Stern Magazine and of course it's readers.

Bomb Test

The wall in the background, divides the slum Jardim Elivana and separates the housing project, while protecting private land from being occupied. Three weeks ago, the body of a twenty-year old was found along this wall. Almost precisely where the two other children are walking along. Someone had tied a bomb around his waist and then blown him up. No one, really seems sure why they killed him in this manner, what they do know is that this boy was up to no good and got what was coming to him. Revenge? Justice? Murder? This is the life in the periphery. It used to be a lot worse I was told.

Out here it's best to keep the police out of it. Out here the laws are made at home.

The Silent Bride

I walked into a wedding on the eastern periphery of São Paulo in Guianazes. Odd? A white mute man and his black mute wife communicated in sign language amongst their guests.

Here in Brazil, people don't make a big deal about race. Interrelations are as common as the sun. It's much more about class. Who you are.

She was a funny girl.
Good Luck.

King of Sampa

Alemão is homeless, over sixty years old and from what I can tell quite possibly schizophrenic. He lives under a tree on a overpass in an upper class neighborhood.

On every ocassion that I have visited him he talks to me of multi million robbery, fraud, extorsion, murder and rape that ocurred twenty years ago. In this crime, an American was killed. As far as I can understand this American, named David, got involved with a woman who betrayed him because she was actually the lover of a man in the Comando Vermelho criminal organization. Somewhere along the story the man was killed, for his money and the woman's daughter was also raped in the process. Somewhere else along the line a transvestite appears, as usual?

Alemão also says, the criminals are waiting for him to die so that his mother will inherit the loot, located in his bank account which he cannot access because he lacks proper ID but is to his mother;s name. So the criminals are actually after his mother. How old would she be now?

He may be mentally ill, but it fascinates me every time I visit him to hear this story and try to make sense of the pieces he offers me in bits. His story actually never changes which makes me ever more curious. Yet, what really fascinates me his will and power to survive, feed his dog and apparently look quite happy.

On the first photograph above he was describing to me a king that had lost his clothes and tried to sell them to him as authentic.

Tenode Pora

Barely known to most of the nearly 20 million residents living in São Paulo, are the three Guarani Indian villages, two of them federal reserves, in the extreme south of the city. Located in the metropolitan area, the largest village known as Tenode Pora, meaning Beautiful Village in Guarani, is compromised of over 800 Indians.











This village, nearly ten years ago, was suffering from perdition mixed with a loss of identity and a victim of alcoholism. Today, with a new Caçique (Chief) Timoteo Wera Poty, the village and its inhabitants are recovering their ancestral dignity and reviving a living culture.

However, like 95% of the city, it also suffers from the effects of mass urbanization. Over the last fifteen years, the tiny 26 hectares granted to the Guarani are threatened by the urbanization slowly surrounding its natural realm. Anything from shantytowns to illegal settlements cause harm to the the reservation. Today ironically, urban planning has arrived from the inside, as a major habitat contstruction plan was practically imposed on the Indians to avoid a continuous subsidy of their natural way of life.

City Hall over the last four years erected a plan to build brick homes with concrete floor for the Guaranis. Nothing wrong with brick homes, but for people who are fighting a way of life and livelihood, concrete floors are cold and unnatural to the earth floors they prefer. The next three blog installments will speak of the importance of understanding the way of life these Indians have held for hundreds of years and why we still have a lot to learn from them in the XXI century.

Looking For A Battle

815 AM. Last stop in the Jardim Pantanal. Will not be back until October.

10 Million Daily Users

It's 6:15 AM. The trains have been coming in from the periphery since 430 AM. They are packed. The Subway trains to get here to leave the city at 530 AM was packed too. It's at least a 45 min train ride in or out from the station.

Castles

Eight o'clock in the morning. Northern of Sao Paulo, Brasilandia to be exact. Inside the Jardim Elisa Maria neighborhood, a soft fog rolls through the neighborhood. A river, a very polluted one, runs at the bottom of the valley/ A sort of hidden "favela" it is.

These houses reminded me of ancient ruins in the deserts of Morocco. Like homes coming out of the mountain. Caves almost. Will these houses remain 200 years from now? 500? Will someone dig them up or will the city actaully urbanize these areas properly someday? I doubt it.

Labor Day Countdown

May First, Labor Day. A date marked by struggle, but often nowadays a date marked by the innocence of humanity attempting to discover human rights. We have so few human rights that sometimes I believe we don´t have any at all.

It´s almost three in the afternoon and I´ve returned to the MTST (Movement for the Roofless Workers) camp Joao Candido. They have been out all morning marching downtown for their rights. The leaders compromised of students, militants, lawyers and vast army of popular supporters have united behind the movement to fight a pending eviction threat for Monday, May 7th. The mood in the camp was nothing but surprising. They are in their fighting mode and expecting to win a settlement that will at least drive them from where they are now to another land.

At the uppermost part of the camp, lies section 33. The last area of a total of 33. A group of children and their mother are playing soccer across one of the three they have established. Football may be a birthright in Brazil, but here each field is the only center of entertainment and a form of unison for the movement´s cause. Joao Rodriguez de Jesus, 55 years old, missing all his from teeth and originally from Bahia, is watching alongside three other elder sitting on a log. Leliel, only five years old and with the enthusiasm of gazelle. danced around Joao begging for attention. She also begged to be snapped by the camera. She kept calling out to him, ¨Tio, Tio¨(meaning uncle in Portuguese, but commonly used to refer to an elder friend). I asked to take their portrait and while doing so, tears rolled down Joao´s face. His eyes were small and his face showed the hardships of the land. At first I thought his eyes were ill and that the incessant tears were simply washing out his eyes from some malday. I asked him what was wrong with his eyes. Nothing he told me. They cry because of her. Joao explained to me that Leliel´s father was in jail and still to see a child so happy and full of life on this camp, struggling for a home, made him cry when she called out to him as ¨Tio¨. Joao has lost all hiss family..

The next morning the camp began gathering at its base, preparing for another march to Itapecerica´s city hall. One more of many efforts to come, to pressure the mayor into finding them a solution. Maria Bonita, in her mid 50´s, she would not confess her age, was leading section 12. Her hat was a true representative of the land, the people and their struggle. Yet it was her hard cold eyes and their determination that really demanded a portrait.

Exodus

The Prestes Maia 911 occupation by the MSTC, after a four year battle for a dignified home, has lost and the building is now being vacated.

Beyond the Roof of the City

It's about to rain and heavily. Some 3,000 families are camped out under improvised plastic tents since March 16, demanding proper housing. They are part of the the MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto). The movement has occupied a farm area of over 1,300 square meters, just outside the southern edge of the city of São Paulo, in Itapecerica da Serra. It's a political attempt to further the cause of the lack of proper habitat and part of on going race to reach Labor Day celebrations/protest.

It's sad to see these people here. Most of them really don't seem to know what they're doing. Many come from the northeast. Many have lost their jobs and can no longer pay rent. Others come from the adjoining urbanization and are supporting the movement. Many have abandoned the site too. It's most evident among the hundreds of abandoned single person tents.

The camp includes some small commerce, mostly bars. It's like the begining of another periphery. Yet the illusion is that this is a grand scale occupation when in fact the original 12,000 population has been leaving. The population now floats on a daily basis. However, it's important to note that these people are in dire need of a home and have been flowing from the inner middle of the city and past the periphery. In other words the city may have reached it's denominated urban limit, but the population grows and wants to lay down new concrete that will adjoin to it. The Meta city is growning alive and well.

I walked the camp from edge to edge with "Tres Reais", a sympathetic ex marine corp who abandoned the military, tired of seeing the abuse he had to give to his own people. In fact he himself has participated of various disoccupations. He is here now to fight against that and support the cause. And find a home.

Most of the people I met had the same, perhaps orchestrated answer? "We are here because we are homeless." Some I could admit looked the part. Others, like the young crew cooking barbecue inside a smokey tent, seemed to have come in for a laugh and to add to the list of families. They came from the neighboring urbanization. It doesn't matter really, as if these families are not enough, there are hundreds of them elsewhere in the city in worse conditions.

The rain finally came, in a downpour and with it the wind that lifted a few tents. I took shelter with a family who explained to me how they had lost their rent privileges due to a single delayed payment. Unemployment wasn't helping. The father of the family is mentally incapcitated. The daughter still breast feeding her first born was abandoned by her partner. Like so many other families I have met in the occupations, the female is leading the household.

When I left there was an assembly gathering. A relgious one and a political one to boost morale. The camp is scheduled for eviction on May 7. The MTST is trying to reach an agreement to move them out into an area under the control of the mayor of Itapecerica. Whatever happens, these people will add to the continuous flow and growth of this city.

Still There

They are still there. Praça Republics is full of children living on the street. This one, is 13 years old.

Death of the Everyday Man

When death comes, it makes no difference of class, color or creed. It simply takes and leaves behind a carcass to remember. To the poor man in dire circumstances never makes the news and hardly the obituary, unless his death is violent and affects the interests of those who read the or hear the news.

This weekend I've returned to the Jardim Pantanal and death once more circled the neighborhood.

Ivo da Silva was 42 years old and a cook at a fancy restaurant in downtown Sao Paulo. He was run over and fatally killed while riding his bicycle on vacation. The details are sketchy. Ivo was cycling on a busy avenue and was hit by a 19 year old motorist, without a driver's license conducting his ill mother, most urgently, to the hospital in his father's mini public transport bus. The motorist claims Ivo was zig zaging and smashed against the bus. The window shield was smashed and could claim some truth to it. However, the bicycle was intact? The motorist appeared in court with two lawyers. No witnesses were found for the victim's family.

The only truth left is that dead people don't speak.

Ivo, leaves behind three adolescent children and his wife. He was mourned in his home. His body in a cheap and too small a coffin, his feet popped out, was laid out inside his garage. The neighborhood passed to see.

This man arrived in the Jardim Pantanal like thousands of other, some 15 years ago searching for work and place to live. Originally from Pernambuco, he was among the first to begin the occupation, in what used to be an environmentally protected area. A hard working man he had fought several floods to keep his home safe. The Jardim Pantanal continues to be a problem when it rains. The streets still flood and the sewage drains improperly into the Rio Tiete.

The real tragedy is what the family will now have to do to survive. Life claims its debt like it does anywhere else. There are only two ironies. One, out here in the periphery traffic is scarce and so to die of a bicycle accident can only reflect the inherent urban violence. Two, Ivo was an evangelist and on top of him lay a cross with a crucified Jesus.

In death we are at the mercy of all, not just the lord (sic).

Water: Guarapiranga and Billings Reservoirs

The Environmental Police department of São Paulo, still military police, were kind enough to allow me a helicopter flyover the Guarapiranga and Billings reservoirs. These natural reservoirs in the extreme south of the city, provide 30% of the city's water supply. Many of my friends and long time residents of the city have never actually been to this part of the city. In part due to its poor access and criminal history (The Jardim Angela, was once declared by the UN as the homicide capital of the world, today gravely reduced thanks to community and state work.) However it is one of the lushest and definitely the greenest area of the city. Rivers and waterfalls stream down into the reservoirs for sailing, water skiing, swimming and for the wealthy who own exuberant mansions on the edge of the natural reserve.

The problem has been the uncontrolled urbanization in many parts of the reservoir. Illegal slum constructions have reached the edge of the water. Since most of these constructions have been built by the owner's accord there's never been an appropriate sewage disposal system installed. The state water company, SABESP, works in the area but takes little providence to control the sewage disposal, claiming.. "If the house isn't registered we don't know about it." In part they are right while in others they have been completely negligent to this growing population. In fact the ISA (Instituto Socio Ambiental) has accused SABESP of actually being the largest polluter of the reservoirs.

As per the urbanization, the police informed me of a ridiculous law that impedes them of taking action against illegal settlements. According to the Brazilian constitution, it is illegal to remove someone from their home. The complications arises because the definition of a home is what is not established. A four walled room with a hay roof yet perhaps with a bed and a washing machine can be considered a legitimate home. However the construction of four roomed house next to the one shack for a family of four there lives, can be demolished. Basically it if has a roof, even if illegal built on natural reservation, the police can't remove it without a judicial order, otherwise its habitat dispossession. All requiring more paper work, more bureaucracy and more social problems to the area. The urbanization along these water marshes produces a large number of quick and cheap construction work. The consequences of which create large illegal disposal sites in the area. The picture above is evidence of the problem. Construction companies in the area as well as the resident will dump their waste here creating hundreds of little white litter mountains on the edge of the reservoir. In fact each little mountain can represent the waste of up to three houses.

It took me over an hour to drive down there from the most southern subway station. The entire area is a series of small densely populated neighborhoods with small roads. It's virtually impossible to patrol these areas without more resources. Even when residents have been informed of their illegal settlement and that they will be evicted and their homes demolished, they take little notice and continue. The fact is that this is only one of the many responsibilities the Environmental Police have.

I'm due back on Thursday for some demolitions.

Santos Dumont Occupation a Farse

Last month I blogged that on Sunday March 25, four occupation movements had taken over the abandoned Santos Dumont hotel. Last night one of my sources, an ex-Prestes Maia occupant and ex-member of the MSTC told me it was an arranged occupation. The four socialist movements involved reached an agreement with the owner to squat the building as long as the cleaned it out of the junkies already squatting and took care of painting and cleaning out the infrastructure. This would explain why the police did not interrupt the occupation when they arrived at the time of the break in. It would further explain why the local newspapers were unable to contact the owner.

It's worth noting that I have received word from some of the residents in the Prestes Maia, that the MSTC is attempting to lure many of the residents into obtaining the R$1800 being offered by city hall and then attempting to charge them of overdue condominium fee. In essence the movement has obtained housing for them and now wants their money?

Assembly and Sorrow for Samara

I returned to the Prestes Maia that same night for an assembly meeting that would explain to the residents their options for obtaining housing, as described in the previous post. The assembly was led by Jaira, Jo Marina and Yanette an all women team of MSTC leaders. There were a lot less people as you can see.

Yanette made her points and then a series of questions and answers went around. During her presentation she also made note that through the grapevine she's heard of people talking behind her back. Samara, who I photographed last year, was included. In the beginning of February the coordinator on Samara's floor accused her of stealing a bikini, of all things to steal in city! The MSTC leaders searched her shack without warning and in front of her children. Nothing was found. The cocoordinator proceeded to threaten her and accuse her of having sold it already. After the search she returned with Jaira and Jo Marina and physically abused Samara, leaving her with a broken arm.

Days later, under Samara's threat to press charges, Yanette appeared in the building, apologizing and defending Samara. Yanette convinced her not to press charges, alleging it could endanger the negotiations going on at city hall. What I couldn't understand was why now Yanette, with microphone in hand, threatened to punch Samara's teeth out? By the way, the crowd at the assembly cheered on.

All in all it appears to be gossip and jealousy once again taking hold of these people. Samara is good friends with Veronica from the 12th floor. Yanette is dating Veronica's ex. Get the picture?

Samara out of fear for her life and her children, left the building, seek Mauricio her husband at work.

Sunday Mass for the Masses

The Igreja Universal and its Evangelists soldiers are back. I say they are soldiers because they stand at attention outside the Prestes Maia and at church. They also, have a one track mind, Jesus is everything you will ever need they repeat to me. Any time a woman would exit the building, the man at left would signal the woman at left to pursue and attempt to convince her to go to church. There's really nothing wrong with having faith. But as you will see I question the legitimacy of their goals.

I came along because I was hoping to have access to the church. I have been refused to photograph the Igreja Universal ceremonies several times. There's been a long battle with the media accusing them of fraud and manipulation. The truth is that only 10 min. after the beginning of the ceremony the crowd was already marching up the stage to make donations, just like I had seen in the periphery. Little white envelopes full of cash were being dropped into a large glass box. It looked more like Jesus was getting monetary votes of approval. The preacher repetitively revolved his sermon on becasue you give the lord now he will give back. Invest in the lord, he says.

On the bus there I sat next to Maria da Lapa and three of her twelve children. I had not seen Maria in a while. Maria has confessed to being a nymphomaniac. Reason why she is a mother of 12? The eldest married and living in the building too, with her own three children. Maria, lost her home four years ago due to her husband's alcoholism. She was a bit depressed now, even knowing she was going to get an apartment in Itaquera. She kept asking me if I knew of an NGO that could help her get her kids back to school so she could "get them off her back" for a while. Maria doesn't want to work but she did finally confess she's going a crazy with eight children in her single room shack in the Prestes Maia.

When we arrive at the church and before letting the residents off, the soldiers make it perfectly clear that they are here because God wants them to be. There are no coincidences, they say. God wanted you to be here today because it is God who has helped you find a place to live and has commanded that your situation be resolved. As the residents got off the bus, me included, the soldiers blessed us our heads with holy water.


The theatre operatics were at work. I must say the Evangelists make up for the boredom of Catholicism. Going to church here is very participatory. Anyhow I was in and shooting! Ha! I didn't last more than five minutes before the security and a lawyer member pulled me aside to know why I was shooting. It didn't matter that I explained how I was documenting the goals of the Prestes Maia residents and how faith had helped them survive. I needed the permission of the preacher, too busy on stage now and who would certainly tell me I needed permission from central headquarters. I had visited that building in Santo Amaro last year, asking for permission. It looked more like the vautl or general headquarters of multinational. I never got a reply.

The lawyer and second in command here told me to come back next week. They did invite me to stick around for the ceremony. Can't you shoot after the ceremony, outside? they said. Useless I told them, the moment was now. And so, I left. It wasn't long before Helena, who had invited me rushed out to ask me back in. She said, if you can't shoot stay and listen to the lord, he has brought you here for another reason. God wanted you to come church today not to shoot pictures, she insisted.