Diary of life in a favela
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A poor single mother of three, Carolina Maria de Jesus lived in a derelict shack and spent her days scavenging for food for her children, doing odd jobs and collecting paper and bottles. Her diary, written between 1955 and 1960, brought to life the harsh realities faced by thousands of poor Brazilians who arrived in cities like São Paulo and Rio looking for better opportunities. Her daughter, Vera Eunice de Jesus Lima, speaks to Thomas Pappon about how the book changed her family's life.
(Photo: Carolina Maria de Jesus in the Canindé Favela. Credit: Archive Audálio Dantas)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories. |
| 1:04.3 | And that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.2 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 1:09.4 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, firsthand accounts of events that have |
| 1:25.3 | shaped our world. I am Thomas Papon. Today I'm taking you back to 1960 and the |
| 1:32.1 | launch of a book by a poor black Brazilian single mother |
| 1:35.9 | which became a bestseller in Brazil and America. The diary of Carolina Maria |
| 1:41.7 | of Jesus who lived in a slum in San Paolo turned her into a |
| 1:46.3 | celebrity. It was the first time the world got an insider's view of life in a favela. |
... |
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