Rocinha - Brasil

Rocinha as viewed from within Rocinha A hilly road in Rocinha Rocinha, 2008 Rocinha, 2010

Rocinha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁoˈsĩɲɐ], little farm) is the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is located in Rio's South Zone between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea. Rocinha is built on a steep hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, and is located about one kilometre from a nearby beach. Most of the favela is on a very steep hill, with many trees surrounding it. 69,356 (census 2010) people live in Rocinha, making it the most populous favela in Brazil, the second in Latin America and the ninth in the world.

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, medicine stores, bus lines, cable television, including locally based channel TV ROC (TV Rocinha), and, at one time, a McDonalds franchise. These factors help classify Rocinha as a favela bairro, or favela neighborhood.

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Community

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

Rocinha is home to most of the service workers in Zona Sul (the South Zone of Rio). Within Rocinha you can find numerous NGO's staffed by both Brazilian and Foreign teachers, volunteers, and workers. The diversity of people that inhabit this area, and the lodgings they live in in this densely populated area make it a unique environment for social movements to arise within.

2011 police and military operation

In November 2011, a security operation was executed where hundreds of police and military patrolled the streets of Rocinha to crackdown on rampant drug dealers and bring government control to the neighborhood.

Size

Rocinha is the largest favela in Brazil and one of the most developed. Rocinha's population was estimated at between 150,000 and 300,000 inhabitants in 2000s (decade); but the IBGE Census of 2010 was counted only 69,356 people.

In literature

Robert Neuwirth discusses Rocinha in his book entitled Shadow Cities.

In mass media and popular culture

Many celebrities have visited Rocinha, including Mikhail Gorbachev (during the Earth Summit of 1992) and actor Christopher Lambert. Contrary to popular belief Michael Jackson did not shoot the first version of the music video for his single "They Don't Care About Us" there. This video was instead shot in the favela of Dona Marta, another neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Some episodes of the Brazilian television series Cidade dos Homens (City of Men) were filmed there.

The 2008 film The Incredible Hulk featured an aerial take of Rocinha, an impressive low-altitude helicopter footage that gives a fair idea of the immensity of the favela and its complex assortment of seemingly endless chaotic constructions, as well as the sheer number of Intermodal containers repurposed as housing. Rocinha is also the setting for a map called "Favela" of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It was also featured in the 2011 film: Fast Five.