Graffiti in Brazil. Photo supplied by authors.As we sit down to write what we have witnessed here - in what may be the last days of Vila Autódromo, Rio de Janeiro’s embattled favela - what strikes us is the mind-boggling banality of the story.
When they established their community in 1967, the residents of Autódromo took pride in how tight-knit it was - and they continue to do so today. “There is no crime over here,” is the oft-repeated mantra, a reassurance that things here are quite different to “over there, in Rio”.
Over there? Technically, Autódromo is very much a part of Rio de Janeiro’s metropolitan complex, but its residents are entitled to see it as a different world.
