Perhaps 1,000 people live in 200 or so meager dwellings. This favela has been around since at least the 1980s. It has two small churches, and I counted three tiny food stores. Iraneide, a short woman of 30 who is our guide, says that life is much better in the city than in northeastern Brazil, from where she migrated a year ago. She is probably right.
Most shacks have TVs and stoves.
Still, it's desperately poor. Many of these neighborhoods exist on the edge of the law. In 1999, greater Sao Paulo had 9,000 murders, says Norman Gall, an American who has lived in Brazil since 1977 and heads the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economics. Violence breeds security-consciousness. Houses and apartments in wealthy neighborhoods are typically walled and gated, frequently with security guards.