SQUAT THRUSTSThe Fight to Occupy São Paulo’s Abandoned SkyscrapersWORDS AND PHOTOS BY COLETIVO GARAPA
 The Prestes Maia building was once home to the largest concentration of squatters in Latin America. Condemned and abandoned for 12 years, the once-glorious skyscraper had become a shithole infested with roaches, rats, and criminal activity among the widespread squalor of downtown São Paulo. In 2002, 468 displaced families, members of a group known as the Downtown Roofless Movement, decided it would be their new home. Over the next five years, they cleaned things up and transformed it into a sort of experimental community center with a library, artist workshops, and educational facilities. In 2006, it was revealed that the original owner owed over 5 million reais in back taxes and that the property would be repossessed. After a long and impassioned struggle between the residents and evicting authorities, the building was cleared out and sealed with concrete blocks on June 15, 2007. A few months earlier, many of the families who occupied the Prestes Maia had moved to another address near the city center. In its golden years, the building was known as the Hotel Santos Dumont; however, it had been closed for over a decade by the time they began to live there. Eventually, it became the residence of 120 families—many of them nordestinos (migrants from the Northeast) who undertook its renovation in an attempt to make it habitable. We visited the old hotel to speak with its current guests, whom most of São Paulo doesn’t want to meet or acknowledge.
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| catbird, on Aug 31, 2009 wrote:
how crazy that this hole building is full of squatters | | Anonymous, on Jul 27, 2009 wrote:
beautiful photographs. | |
| Stanleyhalen, on Jun 9, 2009 wrote:
Funny how simple it all seems. If we just took care of each other a bit better stories like this would be fiction. | | |
| Stanleyhalen, on Jun 9, 2009 wrote:
These days, packing up my girls and moving in to a squat or a commune doesn’t sound like bad idea. That old rant about all of us being nothing more than so much cattle or cannon fodder to the corporate beast doesn’t sound so far fetched. Maybe jumping off the grid and doing are own thing is the way to go.. Who’ll miss us, right? | | Anonymous, on Jun 8, 2009 wrote:
i’m almost positive the bottom picture is going to give me nightmares. | | Anonymous, on Jun 8, 2009 wrote:
i need to reevaluate. this squat is nice than my apartment. | | Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
I thought my appendicitis was bad. Sheesh, lil guy got a bullet in the head and lived. We need to step up our pain tolerance in this country. | | Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
The Oracle from the Matrix. If I say anymore I will feel bad about how fucked up the actual article is. | | Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
Really stepping up here with the photography. NOthing like creepy children isolated in abandoned buildings. You hit the nail right on the head. | | Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
yeaa!
cholera. | | Anonymous, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
I couldn’t agree more, greeksalot.
It would be understandable if the building was going to be used for something constructive, say a community center or homeless shelter. Boarding it up is pointless.
The owners are probably worried about lawsuits over negligence or liability. Have all the occupants sign an agreement that they have no rights to press charges and let them stay. Have inspections if you must. Don’t board it up and put all these people back on the street for no reason. | |
| greeksalot, on Jun 5, 2009 wrote:
For fucks sake, just let them live there. They’ve shown that they can sustain themselves and make a home out of a total shithole, so why not let them make some use out of it as opposed to letting the building rot? | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
scumnation says’ if it’s empty take it over’ | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
I read that part too about throwing away part of the kid’s skull and it made me think... What did they do with it? Did they throw it in the fucking paper shredder or wood chipper? I can’t imagine that the Brazilian trash people are coming by every fifteen minutes to fetch the biowaste.
Put on one of your rubber doctor gloves and reach in there and get the damn thing. This is part of his skull, for Christ’s sake! | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
"The doctors even threw away a piece of his skull because they thought he was dead."
jesus, how do you even deal with that...way to be professional docs. seriously | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
If I lived there I wouldn’t call it concrete. I’d call is stucco, ’cause that shit is classy as fuck. Slum life doesn’t have to be slummy. It’s all a state of mind. | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
wow, amazing. shot the entire family, including himself and they all lived but him. | |
| jizzmopper, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
sad and inspiring at the same time. well done. i love the grandma - glad she got the presidential suite! | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
so these people are like the social outcasts that nobody acknowledges huh | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
these photos are great. i wonder what camera was used to take them. the photo with the girl facing the wall reminds me of blairwitch | |
| Grant, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
The photograph is creepy but more than that it is sad. The little girl is too ashamed to show her face. | |
| poozer, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
one thing i didn’t catch from this: do the squatters have responsibilites like cooking, cleaning, gardening, making wares for sell? lots of squatter communities have guidelines for residents. same here or is everyone on their own? | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
that second picture is totally creepy! right out of a horror movie! | |
| road_kill, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
that last girl decorated her squat pretty nice. Thats the way to do it though. at least TRY to make it homey | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
jesus. that story about the homicidal ex boyfriend is terrible! poor little boy is going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life because of him | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
"Grandma"’s place doesnt look so bad actually. looks like shes got a nice kitchen area set up and everything. luxury squatting | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
those are amazing photographs!! really beautiful | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
Doesn’t look so bad for a squat. Working stairs. Hardwood floors. They even have shutters and window boxes. I could swing that I think. | |
| ghostfingers, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
the bottom photo is just outright frightening. one of the creepiest things i have seen in a long time. hints of the ring but worse. | | Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2009 wrote:
"How miserable. Why on earth do these people have so many kids and bring innocent people into such hell? Poor ghetto kids"...........one of the reasons that people in this and other ghettos have so many kids is the thought that maybe one of them will make it and come back to aid the family, better to count on many than to count on one...and in many cases...one or more do make it...and return to make a difference...believe it or not...hardship is a good incentive to succeed, whether or not you choose to be born in certain environments | | | Next 30 comments > |
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