I am Favela “Morro Do Cantagalo” by Ernani Silva

In the late 18th Century, impoverished former slaves formed Brazilian communities including The Hill of the Singing Rooster where I lived as a child. After the abolition, the former slaves settled in the Hills of Rio. They built their homes from salvaged materials including lumber, wood and scrap metal to make their roofs. They lived off the land and raised pigs and chickens for food. 

The land was fertile; each family had their own little farm. They didn’t have a water supply or electricity so they used kerosene lamps. When the well dried upduring the hot summer, they went down the hill to fetch water. Men, women and children filled their cans; the adults carried two twenty-liter cans of water each and the children carried water on their heads in ten-liter cans. It was arduous work! The whole community united in this task. All day long, they worked to fill huge barrels of water.

1940: Most of the migrants were black as eighty percent were black and twenty percent were white. They came from Minas Gerais and other states in Brazil. They couldn’t afford to live in the south zone, which housed the prestigious neighborhoods of Lebron, Ipanema and Copacabana. They had no other choice but to move to the Hills of Rio.