Mae Luiza: Building Optimism

ISBN-13: 9783037786826 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 276 str.

ION DE ANDRADE

Opis

Mae Luiza is a borough at the edge of the city of Natal in the northeast of Brazil with approximately 15,000 inhabitants - a favela with all the typical grievances. In the 1980s Padre Sabino Gentili came to Natal from Italy, and settled in Mae Luiza. He built the fi rst Catholic church in the poor community and in 1984 founded the Centro Socio with German, Swiss and Brazilian support. In a participatory process in which the community was able to voice its needs and priorities, the Centro initiated communal social infrastructure for education and medical care, and later for sports, culture and community life. After Padre Sabino's death in 2006 the Ameropa Foundation strengthened its commitment with further investments in the infrastructure, expanding social and educative services and community-building measures. The efforts culminated in the construction of an arena for sporting and communal activities and also a music school, two outstanding buildings and focal points in the neighborhood, designed by Swiss architects: facilities usually absent in the Brazilian peripheries. This richly illustrated volume documents the transformation of Mae Luiza as an example of how to build community, create citizenship and identity, and promote initiative and participation with timely and punctual investments. Alongside a novel written by the esteemed Brazilian author Paulo Lins, short articles and essays trace the history of Mae Luiza from the point of view of local activists as well as invited authors from various fi elds.

O autorze

Lins, PauloPaulo Lins was born in Rio de Janeiro on June 11, 1958. He is a poet, novelist and screenwriter for film and television, and a lecturer in Portuguese Language and Brazilian Literature at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His widely acclaimed novel Cidade de Deus (translated into English as City of God) was published in 1997. The 2002 film adaptation by Fernando Meirelles was nominated for four Academy Awards. Paulo Lins spent his childhood and youth in the Cidade de Deus community, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where his prizewinning novel is set. His novel Desde que o samba é samba (Since Samba is Samba, 2012) explores the history of popular music in early 20th century Rio de Janeiro. His writing has been translated into many languages.