Morro da Providência

Morro da Providência.

Morro da Providência ("Providencia Hill") is a favela located between the two Rio de Janeiro districts of Santo Cristo and Gamboa. It is located in the port area of the city and is Rio de Janeiro's first favela.

History

In 1897, veterans of the Canudos War were promised land in Rio de Janeiro. They found no such land upon arriving, so they demonstrated in front of the Ministry of War. The soldiers were then moved to this hill, which belonged to a colonel back then. The hill was initially named Morro da Favela after the favela plant, a skin-irritating tree belonging to the spurge family, which is indigenous to the region where the soldiers fought against Canudos settlers in the eastern province of Bahia.[1][2]

In the early 20th century, freed slaves joined the soldiers and were joined by new European migrants as well, because it was the only affordable place to live in near their work in the city’s center and port.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Williamson, Theresa; Hora, Maurício (12 August 2012). "In the Name of the Future, Rio Is Destroying Its Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Pedro A. Pinto, Os Sertões de Euclides da Cunha: Vocabulário e Notas Lexiológicas, Rio: Francisco Al


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.