Classe C
Maria Etevalda Nascimento Gomes's bedroom in her apartment in Rocinha, the biggest shantytown in Rio de Janeiro. Maria Etevalda is retired and lives alone with her two dogs in the apartment. “Favelas” are home to millions of people in Brazil’s biggest cities and carry a heavy stigma as places of violence and misery. But Brazil's recent economic good fortunes and successful social programs have been lifting millions of Brazilians from poverty and promoting an explosive growth of Brazil's lower middle class. It was thanks to the consumption of this new middle class, now the majority of the country's population, that Brazil managed to avoid being seriously afected by the recent global economic meltdown. It’s in places like Rocinha, which are getting wealthier together with its residents, that the impact of this transformation can be most clearly noticed.
