The Other Olympic Village Continues to Resist Displacement

The Other Olympic Village Continues to Resist Displacement

The Other Olympic Village Continues to Resist Displacement

Messages of resilience sprang up as quickly as the cookie-cutter homes Rio built for the favela’s remaining citizens.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

When I visited Vila Autódromo in May, there were only two dozen houses left amid rubble as the city was trying to sweep away the last holdouts. These were the people who resisted pay outs, police violence, and all matter of carrots and sticks. Finally, the city caved and built two dozen alabaster homes on the land to avoid the embarrassment of a forced removal concurrent with the arrival of the international media.

Vila Autódromo, once absolutely distinctive, now looks like an odd hybrid of favela and pre-fab suburbia: white-picket-fence precarious living on the edge of a polluted canal and Olympic sprawl.

All of this is in the Barra zone, which resembled more the worst of Miami Beach than Rio and is trying to be further developed as a new city center for the rich.

But Vila Autódromo will not be forgotten. No sooner were their new bleached homes built than they wrote political messages across their walls and set up a Museum of Removals so the memory of their struggle—and the struggle of other communities affected by the Olympics—would not be forgotten. And it’s a mere five-minute walk from the Courtyard Marriott where many members of the media are staying.

On Saturday at 4 pm, there will be a demonstration held by the community that would not bow down to the Rio city government or the International Olympic Committee. This is Vila Autódromo, once a self-contained neighborhood of 650 families that became inconvenient for the city’s 2016 Summer Olympic plans. There was a decade-long effort to displace them at the behest of Olympic organizers as well as real-estate developers, and now there are only 24 families left. On Saturday they will make an effort to be heard.

Thank you for reading The Nation!

We hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.

Throughout this critical election year and a time of media austerity and renewed campus activism and rising labor organizing, independent journalism that gets to the heart of the matter is more critical than ever before. Donate right now and help us hold the powerful accountable, shine a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug, and build a more just and equitable future.

For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and moral clarity. As a reader-supported publication, we are not beholden to the whims of advertisers or a corporate owner. But it does take financial resources to report on stories that may take weeks or months to properly investigate, thoroughly edit and fact-check articles, and get our stories into the hands of readers.

Donate today and stand with us for a better future. Thank you for being a supporter of independent journalism.

Thank you for your generosity.

Ad Policy
x