By Karl de Mesa
Tribe Diesel Diva helped a favela renovation to support the Babilonia fight community.
15 October 2022
Above the bucolic, sweeping beauty of Copacobana Beach in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is the shadow of the Leme neighborhood.
On one hill above the beach are two favelas: Babilonia (Babylon) to the west and Chapeu Mangueira to the east. Walk up to the favelas, via Ladeira Ary Barroso off Rua General Ribeiro da Costa, and you can’t miss the Mural de Babilonia near the bottom of the hill —a splendid and detailed mosaic conjuring art noveau and Gaudi-ism that spans the breadth of a 140 square meters wall, the product of visiting Czech artists.
About 4,000 residents call these informal communities home and make the best of life in homes that are literally often piled on top of each other, commonly out of reach of basic services like sanitation, water, or electricity. Despite the presence of traficante drug cartels or the Police Pacification Units who live and work in favelas like Babilonia full time like a permanent show of force, the residents find a way towards beauty and joy.
LEME FIGHT TEAM IN BABYLON
A few more strides from the mural and you’ll come across a painted sign with a bird’s eye view of a fist within a cage, the logo of the local Leme Fight Team. Around the cage are the martial services of the team: Muay-Thai, Boxing, Jiu-Jitsu, MMA.
There’s a great and thriving fight community in the impoverished areas of Leme and thus exactly the kind of partnership that the Diesel Diva brand of #PeaceThroughSports advocacy supports.
Daniel Hortegas, a Luta Livre and Jiu jitsu champion who competes under the banner of Nova Uniao, with notable bouts in Shooto Brazil and Full Metal Dojo, is leading one of the game changing projects to uplift lives in the Babilonia favela.
“There is a hill right in front of the Copacobana beach where refugees and recently free slaves start building their homes from clay, rock and wood,” said Hortegas. “Diesel Diva helps the jiu-jitsu program at that community.”
Like many favelas, Babilonia is just a short distance from the most affluent areas of Rio, thus making property around it rank high among the world’s most expensive. In the past, police used to raid the favelas, driving regular incursions to do battle with the drug gangs and then withdraw. But now that the traficantes activity has been subdued through the neighborhood Pacification unit, gentrification has taken hold.
The side effects of gentrification are almost always complicated, controversial, and rooted in historical oppression by elites. As in any gentrified place there are still areas beyond the new influx of foreign business owners and the upper class making their new home in Leme where the destitute reside, eking a living around the new hipster haunts.
“The impact of all this was deeply felt by the community of Babilonia and Chapeu Mangueira,” continued Hortegas, “As well as every community all over Brazil who have suffered for years with the control of violent gangs, corrupt cops, and confrontation of police following orders from a corrupt state going up the hill in unconventional ways and hours.”
The peace in the Leme favelas is thus an enforced peace. Once ruled by the traficantes, the success of “Pacification” in places like Babilonia is a peace nonetheless—as the drug gangs have been driven underground, the foreigners have moved in.
FINDING MR CELSO
These conditions however haven’t deterred the locals from flourishing.
“The residents of Babilonia are resilient, positive, and humble,” said Hortegas. “So you could call it Morro do Leme. Because of this organic growth, people give nicknames for their area and it goes with the years to sharpen locations. Chapéu Mangueira means ‘Mango Tree Hat.’ And Nativo [another BJJ black belt] told me that, in the old days there was a hat factory there and many mango trees around it.”
One of these destitute residents of Babilonia is Mr. Celso. Locally known as The Vegetable Fruits man, Mr. Celso came by the moniker because when he was young, he used to hawk vegetables and fruits through the Leme streets. And when the day was done, when he was back home, he would make vegetable soups at his house for the community people who were homeless.
“He did it for the survival of others,” Hortegas said. “He used to give all he got for people in need in the community.”
However, the 72-year old Celso has since fallen on very hard times.
“His family is one of the natives’ and when the refugees came to be freed slavery, they had nothing and nowhere to go so they went to lie on the Hill,” said Hortegas.
Definitely Celso’s makeshift house was no fit place for decent living conditions. Fortunately, Hortegas and his fellow Rio Fighters teammate Fabio, aka Nativo, had developed a start-up company called Favela Sonha (I.e Favela Dream). Their organization aimed to fight poverty while caring for basic necessities and finding efficient, smart, and collaborative solutions for the development of the community.
“Through the connections we’ve made in sports and life we are fighting the core of the problem,” Hortegas said. “Even though the pandemic struck, corruption and violence still exist. But still there are people are seeing the importance of uniting. This is the main reason why we are organizing as Favela Sonha.”
FAVELA DREAM
How the two brothers-in-arms who founded Favela Sonha got in touch with Mr. Celso and his plight was through two of Nativo’s teaching channels: The Leme Favela Surf Club and the Leme Fight Club.
One of the mothers involved in the surf program came to ask for help from Nativo, eventually roping in Hortegas for an ocular of the house in question later that same day. But what they found there was far from any definition of a “house.”
“We came to take a look at the house and walked into a sad scene,” narrated Hortegas. “The house was still made of mud, rocks, and wood with a ceiling about to fall over our heads. No fridge. No oven. A toilet at open air and shower from the bucket.”
Favela Sonha then asked for the support of Diesel Diva, sending videos and explaining the situation, while formulating a plan of action to uplift the conditions of Mr. Celso and his family.
“The initial plan was to change the roof so would stop raining inside, but we realized it would be impossible to do anything to the house, we would have to do it from scratch,” said Hortegas.
IT STARTS WITH ONE
When Favela Sonha got the funds to finally execute their plan, everyone in that room was speechless, enjoying the genuine smiles and laugher that hope creates.
“Now for the first time we getting to the level where we have all the documents, strategy, and crew working together on this platform,” said Hortegas.
Now that the renovations are finished, it’s not just an abode for living that has been restored to Mr. Celso’s life but also a baseline of dignity and respect. Favela Sonha has gone above and beyond a renovation, giving Mr. Celso not just literally a new roof over his head, but also painted walls, basic furniture, basic electricity, decent clothing and appliances like a refrigerator, an oven, a washing machine, and a TV.
“Hate grows from unfair hunger,” said Hortegas. “But hope just starts with one project and through channels like sports, arts, business, music, technology and nature preservation and eco-friendly solutions the plan is to become a reference for the whole community. Then, I believe, it is possible to end misery through cooperation, disciplined work, and good faith.”
Hortegas himself has been given hope in many examples of shining philanthropy through the local fighting community. Like how the Jiu-Jitsu master of the community, Marcelo Penca, has been saving lives through sports for decades now in the Leme area. One such recipient of a game-changing perspective is his own co-founder and teammate Nativo, who had been deeply involved with crime in the region but was rescued through Leme Fight Club.
NEW CHALLENGES NEED NEW PERSPECTIVES
Favela Sonha and The Diesel Diva have already successfully collaborated to change the life and restore the dignity of one man through a renovation project, but one victory under the aegis of peace and development through sports isn’t a reason to rest on achieved laurels.
Hortegas believes that though their success with Mr. Celso’s house, a benchmark has been established and that future social projects can be developed through this template now.
He outlined three kinds of uplifting efforts currently being implemented at the favelas of Leme.
“The first are the ‘Ghost Projects,’ a vicious, old time way to make some people rich over people’s misery,” stated Hortegas. “They exist only in paper and words, in practice they distribute garbage and crumbs, when they do anything at all.”
“The second kind are the projects from the pure, wounded, and resilient hearts,” continued Hortegas. “Individuals who truly believe in what they are doing and have almost no incentive to be there for others.”
“The third kind is how we are trying to change perspectives,” Hortegas said. “Being so organized, engaged, and respected by the community on a daily basis that we can make serious partnerships with major companies. This is not just to fulfill basic needs for the community but develop, transform, and build together. This is with businesses and other people who have enough information and resources to become successful professionals in whatever area they wish.”
Before they finished the renovation, Hortegas was pulled aside by Mr. Celso and personally expressed his gratitude to Favela Sonha. “Mr. Celso personally told me that his beloved mother, before passing on, used to tell him ‘My son, one day God will come to lift you up.’,” narrated Hortegas. “He looked me in the eyes and said: ‘It took a while, but He indeed came, it happened.’ In him telling me that, it was something that words could not describe.”
END
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