batucada in the carnaval de Rio de Janeiro

Cidade de Deus

Favelas in Rio de Janeiro today do not differ than the favelas presented in the film Cidade de Deus, set in 1960 and 70s Brazil. Even today, some favelas still do not have access to electricity and running water. The film follows Buscape, an aspiring young photographer living in the favela called Cidade de Deus. What makes his unique is that he uses journalism as his escape from the danger of living amongst a gang dominated favela. The critically acclaimed film won international acclaim because of its creative cinematic elements.

The acting is notable in that most of the actors endured year-long training (Hart 206). Some of the actors, Alexandre Rodrigues (Buscape) and Leandro Firmino (Ze Pequeno), are actually from the real Cidade de Deus. Hart mentions the reality of the film with the recreation of dangerous shoot out scenes, however; they did not shoot the film in the real Cidade de Deus, because it was too dangerous, consequently, they shot in a nearby favela.

What is real to both the fictitious and the real favela residents is poverty. First, City of God is a story of structure and agency. And secondly, it’s a story about being Brazilian in Cidade de Deus. Buscape rises from his criminal surrounding and becomes a straight-laced journalist. However, nearly all his childhood friends become involved in a criminal life. The structure of City of God perhaps allowed the growth of violence. Favelas are shantytowns composed of people that work and live even below the working class (Pino 21). The bourgeoisie benefitted from the work of the people from the favelas (18). The influx of jobless farmers provided temporary work instead of formal elongated work bound to contracts (18). The favela worker thus becomes a “sub proletariat” (18). Pino defines a sub proletariat as a temporary worker that reduces costs of the reproduction. With such a low standard of living and temporary jobs, what future does a young kid from an opportunity-less environment suppose to do with his time? In the City of God, the Tender Trio stole for the community that lacked basic resources; in return, the community protected them from the police. Crime and lower class neighborhood are often fixed side by side. This favela was predominantly African American; however, people of different ethnic groups were present. Unlike American ghettos, favelas were never intentionally racially segregated (Oliveira 76). Race was not a debilitating factor for social mobility in Buscape’s story. He finds a professional passion after encountering the media photographing Shaggy’s body. Having a brother that was a hoodlum, friends that met their end because of a hoodlum life, and surrounded by the gang wars, Buscape could not bring himself to becoming part of a gang.

Being Brazilian in the Cidade de Deus meant experiencing the wave of industrialization and the consequence of urbanization after World War II (Pino 18). The film shows this through the flashbacks. First, Buscape remembers the Sixties when he was a kid. Cidade de Deus was a small establishment, but then a few years later, Cidade de Deus has expanded exponentially. Being Brazilian, the experience of religion runs deep within the culture, with Brazil being a traditionally Catholic nation. Religion is a silent presence. The city is called City of God; ironically, it is a playground for notorious gangs. It is also ironic that religion would protect Aligate, a member of Tender Trio, as he walks to the church right beside the police. The gang also prays before going into the final war. When Ze Pequeno breaks the rule from the Shaman, his infallibility dissipates.

In sum, being Brazilian means a mix of religions, races, and cultures. All these differences are not divided but have become a part of life in places such favelas. The film does not present race as an issue. The issue at hand was lack of positive opportunities for the children in the favelas.

Che

In the 2008 film Che, historically, Ernesto Guevara and Fidel Castro meet in Mexico, in July of 1955. In a private meeting enjoying the balcony air, Ernesto agrees to aid Fidel overthrow the Batista regime. Even though he agrees to join him, Guevara calls him a little crazy. But Ernesto has conditions, that Fidel helps him bring the revolution to Latin American countries. Fidel equally retorts that Che is a little crazy too. A few months later, Guevara sails on a yacht called the “Granma,” heading toward Cuba from Mexico. Had this meeting not occurred that night in Mexico, Guevara would have perhaps never become a Cuban citizen. But before that, he was one of the revolutionaries that brought the political and economical change that inundated the streets of Cuba.

It all began in Mexico. This time for Che, is similar to the silence before a storm. It is a different Guevara than before as a medical student and what he will become- a martyred revolutionary. His biographer describes Che during this time as “disengaged” (Zolov 9). He left Guatemala after a failed attempt for a Guatemalan revolution. Roots for his hatred of American imperialism were stemmed from his experience there. It is there he discovers the “connection between U. S. imperialism and reactionary politics” (Zolov 5). The Guatemalan president, Arbenz, faced the threat of a U.S. invasion, but American leaders explained his resignation as another victory over Communism (Zolov 6). Subsequently, Nixon toured Mexico to increase Latin American sentiment of the U.S. (Zolov 7).  Mexico was now an American ally and an “outlet for U.S. capital,” contradicting the revolutionary ideology that condemned foreign involvement partly responsible for the Mexican revolution just a few decades ago.

This growing anti-U.S. sentiment along with marital discontent led Che to join the revolutionary effort proposed by Fidel Castro. Part one of the Che film focuses on Che’s life as a guerilla fighter. The audience sees him struggle with asthma attacks yet sneak through the jungle and streets of Cuba. He credits victory to the efforts of everyone, not solely him. He believed guerrilla warfare was a people’s warfare so the revolution came from the people.

By the time Cuba is liberated from Batista, Che had fully developed thoughts on the American imperialism. In his message to the Tricontinental, he expresses the consequences of American imperialism in North and South Korea and Vietnam. His final judgment was that U.S. imperialism was “guilty of aggression” whose “crimes are enormous and cover the whole world.” His solution: a socialist revolution in the countries that the U.S. extracts resources from, and not just any socialist revolution. To Che, the only effective political change could be brought about only through a violent revolution led by people capable of emancipating those who could not emancipate themselves (Drinot 14). El Che died in 1967, bringing revolution to those who could not emancipate themselves.

Diarios de Motocicleta

“Que te pasa?” Alberto asks his che, Ernesto, as he looks out to the leper colony across the river that segregates them. Wanting to spend his birthday with the leper colony, he swims across the deep river and miraculously makes it to the other side. Many times, the audience sees the pensive eyes of Ernesto, played by Gael Garcia Bernal. These are the moments that captivate Ernesto and change the young medical student to a guerilla revolutionary. The Motorcycle Diaries is 2004 film inspired from Guevara’s writings traveling through South America with his close friend, Alberto Granado. What the film shows is the start of their journey across Argentina, Chile, Peru, and ends with their separation in Venezuela where Granado continues his scientific track and Ernesto on the road to revolutionary politics.

The implication of political and social injustices in South America changed the course of Ernesto’s life. These injustices gave Che a reason to become what he became; however, a character like Guevara would naturally take much of this into his platform as Eduardo Elena analyzes. Was it unusual that medical student Guevara deviate from his conventional life? To those who are not aware of his early life, the life of a revolutionary is uncharacteristic. However, Che was from a family that did not have a permanent setting. As a child, he heard stories from his grandmother of her father’s experience living in America during the gold rush (Elena 4). In his childhood, the traveling mindset was instilled in the young Guevara through either adventurer books to hikes to bicycling through unknown lands (Elena 4). Seeing the “unknown Latin America” was the utmost important priority for the young explorer. According to Elena, his non-conformist mindset set the method for his travel. He refused to travel as a common tourist, only exposed to the “symbolically important places.”

His strong opposition for traveling as a common tourist was influenced by the political surroundings around Che. His trip was an adventure, but an adventure is mostly an escapist act from a seeming reality. Although Guevara was indifferent to Juan Peron’s regime, the regime and its venues reminded Che of a façade that a government creates for its people (Elena 6). He wanted to see these places through the lives of "the sick, prisoners in jail, and ordinary pedestrians” (Elena 7). In fact, they make many stops that are unconventional such as their stay in the leper colony. Guevara remains loyal to his unconventional and anti-conformist ways, which only continued to grow stronger as he travels. In the film, he refuses to wear gloves upon his visit to the leper colony believing it is purely symbolic of a need for separation.

 In the film, once Alberto and Ernesto lose their bike, they resemble any pedestrian walking through. They begin the journey as fun-loving youth, but many ventures in Peru change Che’s motives. Characteristically reading, Ciro Alegria’s Broad and Alien is the World enlightens Che about Indian groups. (Drinot 7).  The future revolutionary mindset leaks out when he responds to Alberto’s plan at a bloodless Tupac-Amaru revolution. To Che, the socio-economic status of Indian families forced on by the elite classes “barely recognize the humanity” of this group (9). The mistreatment of Indian groups, American imperialism, and false face imposed by Latin American dictators all influenced Guevara’s transformation.

After his birthday speech of a united America, Granado facially expresses that he has noticed a change in Guevara. Indeed, the young Che was changed. Drinot best summarizes Guevara’s final views after his trek across South America as a man who believed that the only effective political change was “through violent revolution led by people capable of emancipation those who could not emancipate themselves.”