This is the land occupied by families that became the 'mini-Bolivia' in Brazil

“A friend came and said to me: 'Cosme, do you want to get out of the rental? Are we going to invade land there in the Novo Mundo Park?' She had five children at home, she had been paying rent for 20 years, my wife was unemployed and on a tight budget. I accepted right away… There was a big commotion, there were too many people.”

The one who tells this is the merchant Cosme Correa, 59, who, hoping to improve the difficult conditions of his family, chose a lot and quickly built his two-story house in the Douglas Rodrigues homeless settlement, in the Northern area of ​​Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Cosme and his family are part of the first wave of inhabitants of the settlement, which has 2,000 red brick houses, without plaster or paint, which changed the landscape of the Marginal Tietê, an important artery of the city made up mainly of residential buildings of middle class, decoration stores and garages for cargo transportation.

The settlement, one of the largest in Sao Paulo, with 12,000 people, hundreds of them Bolivian immigrants, celebrated ten years of existence in 2023.

And they achieved something rare in the real estate market of Brazil's largest city: expropriation and the right to use the private property they illegally occupied.

The land, abandoned for 22 years by the company that owns it, was occupied in 2013 by members of the Vila Maria Independent Housing Movement (MIVM) and poor families from the northern area.

The Douglas Rodrigues settlement is named after a young man who was killed by a military police officer in the region.

The place grew and became a small popular neighborhood with thousands of houses and bustling commerce, although public services remain precarious: dirt streets flooded by heavy rains, lack of sanitation and illegal electricity connections.

With the pandemic, this type of settlement became even more common in a municipality whose social housing list has 219,000 people registered, according to the Brazilian Housing Department.

In February 2020, for example, there were 218 irregular occupations in the city. Today, the City Council supervises 529 points, which represents an increase of 142% in just over three years.

It was with the occupation that Cosme's family finally achieved financial stability after leaving Pernambuco to try a new life in Sao Paulo.

After years of difficulties, getting out of renting meant improving income to invest in other family needs.

“Nothing like having your own roof, without anyone knocking on the door demanding rent. But I'm telling you: we suffered a lot,” says María Aparecida Nogueira, 56, Cosme's wife, from a living room full of plants and with a huge television on the wall.

“Here we have had floods, fires, rubber bullets from the police, threats. There was no water or electricity. We have done what we could.”

The couple, who prospered economically in the community, are now famous in the settlement for owning a bar made of wood, which is a meeting point for Bolivian immigrants who live in the neighborhood.

“The people who drive commerce here are Bolivians. With his money I built my house, I bought the refrigerator I dreamed of, my television…,” Cosme jokes.

“When they want to party, about 15 guys get together here at the bar and stay until the next morning.”

Bolivian holiday

The presence of immigrants is constant in the alleys and businesses of the community.

Of the 2,000 families, at least 80 are made up of Bolivians, but there are also dozens of Colombians, Peruvians and Haitians. There are always foreign representatives in the management of the settlement.

This year, one of those chosen is Andrés Cuarite, 47 years old, born in La Paz and who has lived in the neighborhood next to Marginal Tietê for eight years.

“If it is already difficult for poor Brazilians to find housing, imagine for a Bolivian who arrives in Brazil empty-handed in search of an opportunity in life, sometimes even going hungry,” explains Cuarite, who left his country to escape from poverty.

Before his current house, Andrés suffered a blow: he gathered all the family's money, 20,000 reais (about US$4,000), and bought a piece of land in Itaquera, on the outskirts of the Eastern Zone. But the land did not exist and the scammer disappeared from the map.

With seven children, some of them born in Brazil, Andrés' family lives off the income from a small sewing workshop installed in their home.

The sound of sewing machines, in fact, is constant in the alleys of Douglas Rodrigues.

One Saturday at the end of September, another noise produced by Bolivians shook the community: the sound of the Murilo Band, specialized in typical music from the neighboring country.

To celebrate ten years of occupation, a Bolivian party was held on the main street.

In addition to brass and percussion, immigrants performed traditional dances, such as El Morenada, which represents the suffering of Africans trafficked to Bolivia during Spanish colonization.

One of the participants was Rose Mari Mammani, 46, who has been in the neighborhood for six years. She says she ended up there because she couldn't pay the rent of 600 reais (US$122) having three children.

Preparing to enter the scene, he talked about how difficult it was to settle in Sao Paulo.

“There are many prejudices against the Bolivian people, even more so because we are poor working class people. But here, in the settlement, I feel comfortable,” says Rose, now the owner of a small market selling Bolivian products.

“But I won't take you there because now I'm going to dance,” he jokes.

Private property

Over the past decade, residents of Douglas Rodrigues also faced a legal battle against the owner of the land, a company called Ideal Empreendimentos Imobiliários SA.

In May, the mayor of Sao Paulo, Ricardo Nunes, signed a decree expropriating the 50,000 square meter area, paving the way for the regularization of the land and the urbanization of the small popular neighborhood.

The report found that the property, declared of “social interest” last year, was valued at R$ 7.5 million (US$1,524,285) by technicians from the City Council – and the value must be deducted from the debt that the company has. with the municipality.

Ideal Empreendi
mentos was a subsidiary of the Tenório group, from Pernambuco, a business conglomerate with a debt of around 1,000 million reais in taxes, according to the federal treasury.

The group managed to maintain possession of the land through judicial decisions from different instances, until the 33rd Federal Court of Pernambuco decided to place the housing movement as faithful custodian of the area. This decision was parallel to the expropriation ordered by the Sao Paulo City Council.

BBC News Brazil contacted the firm RPF Advogados, which represents the company involved in the process.

“We appreciate your contact, but unfortunately we cannot provide information about this case, due to the statutes of the law,” the firm responded.

BBC News Brazil was unable to contact the family that runs the business group.

“It was the resistance and organization of 2,000 families involved in a political movement that led to the occupation and the area being expropriated,” explains Henrique Ollitta, general secretary of the MIVM.

“Our movement was strategic in talking to everyone who could help, always having housing as the main issue,” says Ollitta, who is part of the Sao Paulo Workers' Party delegation.

“We had support from evangelical churches and priests, we spoke with politicians from the left and the right, with former mayors Fernando Haddad and Bruno Covas, and now with Ricardo Nunes.”

It is not yet known whether development work will be carried out in the community, such as paving streets, installing sewage and electricity, or if residents will have to vacate the entire area to build social housing.

The City Council affirms that “an urban study is being developed in the region that includes the construction of homes for the families who live there,” but did not detail the plans.

While waiting to see what will be done with the neighborhood, the neighbors celebrated the expropriation.

“Today I am under my roof. It is paradise,” says Cosme Correa as he leaves his house to go to the Bolivian party.

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