"Bodies of Water: Landscapes of Afro-Brazilian Women in São Paulo""

"Bodies of Water: Landscapes of Afro-Brazilian Women in São Paulo"

Presented by the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society

The Jardim Prainha favela, or slum, is situated adjacent to the Billings Reservoir, a critical water source in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. The nearby city of Guarujá, known as the “Pearl of the Atlantic,” hosts the Cachoeirinha favela, nestled within a mangrove swamp. In both favelas, Black women navigate water shortages, polluted water, and histories of water as state violence dating back to Atlantic slavery. This paper analyzes race, territoriality, and ancestral memory in these two favelas, exploring the relations of human water creatures, environmental racism, and the violence inflicted upon Black bodies.

This interdisciplinary project draws from art, anthropology, law, and literature, using ethnography, self-ethnography and cartography as methods to examine the social dynamics shaping the contemporary environmental landscape in São Paulo.