Prison to park

The name Carandiru was once synonymous with one of Brazil’s most notorious prisons. So when Marcel said there was a park at that sight I knew I had to go there. Of course the biggest selling point is that within the park there is free canopy zip lining. The park is called Parque de Juventud. The subway stop still carries the name of Carandiru which at this point it the line the subway becomes an elevated rail system giving you great view of this section of the city. Most of my explorations have gone I have a general destination with no real idea of where we needed to go. So as I walked with Alexis, Justin and Caroline we asked a few people if they knew where the entrance to the park was. The general rule is to ask three people and hope that at least two of their stories match up. Though all the people we asked gave us the same general direction they all gave us slight variations. But we trudged forward and found ourselves passing by a large housing complex that definitely gave the impression of a favela, though it looked nicer than what I would imagine a favela would look like. After walking close to 2 kilometers we noticed the neighborhood quickly change from these dodgy housing projects to a more upscale area complete with auto dealerships. Then finally we stumbled on an entrance to the park. It looked like a park you might see in some suburb back in the US complete with a skate park.

Though the heavy presence of security officers certainly leaves one wondering what the reasons are for the heavy police presence.

We entered the park and sticking out like sore thumbs with our tourist attire and taking pictures of everything. This led to our first taste of the security system.

After Justin and I took some pictures at the skate park I noticed that a security officer was checking us out then radioed someone. We continued on and another officer approached us and asked us if we were journalists or researchers approached us. I quickly said were just tourists so the officer just warned us about having our cameras out because of thieves and welcomed us to Brazil. Its interesting that at this point in my time in Brazil I see the presence of how the government exerts its control and where. Why was there no police presence in the government housing yet the park was rife with uniformed officers checking out everyone that entered the park. Also why did he care if we were journalists or researchers? I wonder if it’s part of the government’s attempts to control how the image of a site with such an infamous history is being portrayed abroad.

Aside from the security presence I was also struck by the fact that the people using the park were certainly not from the neighborhood we passed by earlier. It’s been challenging for me to get my brain around the concept of race relations in Brazil. Since I’ve been living in a part of town that is much more “chic” you don’t see many people begging on the street nor do you get the sense that poverty exists in the high numbers that you hear of. You would also be left with the impression that Sao Paulo is mostly made up of European descendents. The park patrons are mostly lighter skinned and the housing project residents were mostly darker skinned. It’s quite an eye opening experience. Yet because you definitely see exceptions to this rule it’s hard to say that racism the way we think about it in the states exists here.

I have some pictures of the park for you to see just how much of a beautifully designed park it is. Elements have been left from the original prison including the wall and some structures that definitely remind you that something more ominous once stood there. But beyond that you see that the park is still some sort of a prison because it is walled in from the community that surrounds it. When we got the end of the park with the tree canopy zip-lining we found out that they only allow 4 groups of 15 a day. So we will have to go back again.



Since this was a park I had to leave my urban planning mind for at least a little while and actually take advantage of the green space. So before leaving the park we took some time to do some yoga and a few cartwheels. It felt so good to move around some and feel some grass and see trees. We were leaving the park when we realized there was an exit that was only 100 meters from the subway station entrance. I’m still glad we took the long way, because sometimes the short cuts make you miss out on the bigger picture.