No pátio do Cabo Dito: memórias de uma favela em Pato Branco/PR (1968-2010)

Abstract

The present work consists in writing the history of the Cabo Dito favela, which existed in the municipality of Pato Branco/PR, between 1968 and 2010. Poverty, misery, invisibility, discrimination, everyday ways of life of Cabo Dito residents will be explained using oral testimonies with thirty-two people, crossing them with documents of another nature. Oral History and Memory are two key concepts that add to the theoretical contribution of English Marxism, which deals with poor workers and guides on the writing of History seen from below and the need to give time and voice to the favelados and their memories of the time they lived in inhumane situations. The history of the Cabo Dito favela helps us to think about economic exploitation in different scenarios, the creation of networks of solidarity and friendships between the residents of the favela and its surroundings, the daily life suffered by everyone and, despite this, they had happy moments. The destruction of the favela was a strategy of a political and economic group to expropriate the area, rent and build houses to fifteen families, in two different places, and later sell the area to businessmen. Ten years later, many of the favela's former residents say they were not heard; who were expelled; who want to go back to live in the neighborhood where the favela used to be, as life in the house provided by the City Hall is difficult, either to create new bonds of sociability or to travel to work and to the city centre.