Rafaela Silva is Brazil’s golden girl.
The 27-year-old can’t go anywhere in Rio de Janeiro without being bombarded by crowds asking for autographs. The Brazilian judo competitor captured her country’s first gold medal of the Rio Summer Games on Aug. 8. and her victory marks a fairy-tale ending to a real-life Cinderella sports story.
“It was so special to win gold at home in Brazil. It’s a dream come true,” Silva says.
After her victory last week, Brazil went berserk. But nowhere was the celebration bigger than in her old neighbourhood: The notorious favela ‘Cidade de Deus’ or ‘The City of God.’
“It was like Brazil won the World Cup,” said City of God resident and journalist Carla Siccos. “It felt like all of us had won a gold medal. Everyone was cheering and partying in the street.”
But their celebration was short-lived. A shoot-out erupted between the favela’s gangs and police, sending revellers running for cover.
“The shootings here are routine,” Siccos said. “They happen all the time.”
The favela was constructed in the 1960s and quickly became synonymous with drugs and violence. ‘The City of God’ inspired its namesake movie in 2002, about the slum’s rise in organized crime and the children it consumes. Robson Luiz de Mendonca was an actor in the movie and says it reflects “exactly” what real life is like in the infamous favela.
“They’ve spent millions of dollars on the Olympics, but it hasn’t improved our lives at all,” Mendonca says. “The shootings have gotten worse.” He recorded a video with his smartphone on Aug. 8, which appears to show a favela resident armed with a semi-automatic weapon firing at police in broad daylight. At the same time, Olympic events were happening just eight kilometres down street.
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City of God residents Sergio Leal and Bruno Rafael are producing a documentary to mark the favela’s 50th anniversary and are hoping show a different side of their neighbourhood. The documentary highlights the area’s youth programs, run by volunteers that teach children sports and music.
“We need to give young people a choice,” Leal said. “So they can choose a better path.”
Rafaela Silva’s father, who still lives in the area, says the original reason he signed-up his daughter for judo as a child was to keep her off the streets.
“She was a handful,” Luiz Carlos said. “We didn’t have a lot of money. But we made sure she had an activity after school. She was always outside doing stuff. And we didn’t want her to get involved with bad people.”
Silva says she hopes her story will show other children from her neighbourhood that there is a life outside of the ‘City of God’.
“There are opportunities and they can make their dream come true,” she said.
Silva plans to return to her old favela for a parade on Aug. 20. Her gold-medal victory offers a reason to celebrate. And to hope.
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