Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Once Unsafe, Rio's Shanty Towns See Rapid Gentrification

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:51:00 +0000

A new gastronomic guide to Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns — for a cool $35 — has just been published. A new boutique hotel perched on top of one of Rio's previously most dangerous favelas is about to open. And yes, there is a jazz club and yoga, too.

These are new services catering to a new kind of favela resident.

"It's actually very conveniently located for my work," says Natalie Shoup, a 22-year-old American who lives in a favela called Babilonia, or Babylon. "This has a good amount of transportation to every part of the city. It's nice.

Rio Goes High-Tech, With An Eye Toward Olympics, World Cup

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Fri, 31 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

We are standing in front of a huge bank of screens, in the middle of which is a glowing map that changes focus depending on what the dozens of controllers are looking at.

The room looks like something straight out of a NASA shuttle launch. The men and women manning the floor are dressed in identical white jumpsuits.

'We Are Not Valued': Brazil's Domestic Workers Seek Rights

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Mon, 27 May 2013 18:13:00 +0000

The phone is ringing off the hook at the crowded waiting room at the Domestic Workers Union in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In the past decade, millions of Brazilians have joined the middle class.

C-Sections Deliver Cachet For Wealthy Brazilian Women

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:44:21 +0000

The office is immaculate, as you would expect in an upscale neighborhood in Sao Paulo — all sterile, white, modish plastic furniture and green plants. Behind the reception desk are pictures that would look more appropriate in a pop art gallery than a private maternity clinic.

The list of services at the clinic in Brazil's largest city is long: fertility treatments, specialized gynecology and, of course, obstetrics. But one thing they rarely do here is preside over a vaginal delivery.

Dr. Alexandre Sasaoka struggles to remember the last time he assisted at one.

As Youth Crime Spikes, Brazil Struggles For Answers

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:39:00 +0000

In Rio de Janeiro, tourists are drawn to Copacabana for its wide beach and foliage-covered cliffs. But a month ago, not far from the tourist hub, an American woman and her French male companion were abducted. She was brutally gang-raped; he was beaten.

Perhaps what was most shocking to Brazilians, though, was the age of one of the alleged accomplices: He was barely in his teens.

"Why? That's what you ask yourself," says Sylvia Rumpoldt, who is walking with a friend at dusk by the sea in Rio. "It's horrible. It's criminal energy."

Her friend, Maria de Paula, agrees.