Good afternoon!
How have they been? Today I'm going to share with you a visit that ended a few days ago to a Lisbon neighborhood often associated with precarious conditions, and African ethnic groups.
I'm going to share with you a visit I made, in which it was
The visit included a tour of the communities within that locality, which are called Vila, and which are organized by type of construction and arrangement of dwellings.
Detail of a sedimentary stone collected in an ancient hydrographic basin, which supports the fact that in the past, thousands of years ago, it was covered by water
On this visit that we made to one of Lisbon's bordering areas, we had the opportunity to come into closer contact with a reality that we often don't have "in front of us".... A markedly fragile social fabric, with the condition that they are often people who have just arrived in Portugal, without work visas, looking for a house that they can rent without the necessary official papers.
In the first, introductory part, our guide spoke a little about how the community had settled in the region, whether they would be practically Portuguese, in the 60s, who, looking for jobs in the cities, came from the fields, and without resources to buy a house, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work, building in vacant lots. The constructions grew, and the city council, when it took care of the occurrence, only notified the offenders that they could not build without a license. At that time, the strategy used was to erect the house and buildings as quickly as possible, before the next visit by the council inspector. In this way, the community grew, gradually, and always without great infrastructure (sewers and basic sanitation). In the 1970s, basic infrastructure began to appear, but without actual legalization.
Homes often do not have the conditions for thermal comfort, and their conservation is not in a deplorable state, but with some flaws in plain sight.
At the end of the visit, I could not fail to capture a bit of the simplicity of the surrounding green fields.
In these communities, the locals, similar to what happens in their communities in their countries of origin, gather outside, either to share meals or even for shared tasks, such as haircuts and hairstyles, birthday parties, etc.
It was a reality I didn't know. I became aware of a population that does everything to be able to have a roof that protects them minimally.
In the middle of the visit, I was lucky enough to meet this fuzzy blonde "tenant" who with his bright blue-green gaze hypnotized me!
Hope you liked my post about a place that I can almost bet that any of you have been here.
Even if this isn't a "pretty" place, many pretty faces and sympathetic persons I came across with.