Hard Times in the Marvelous City: From Dictatorship to Democracy in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro by Bryan McCann (review)

Book Reviews Throughout the work, Kuenzli does do a fine job of portraying the selective appropriation of history of Bolivian nationalism. I nevertheless remain suspicious of both the prevalence of the Inca past in the creole national imagination, and of the popularity of such a narrative among the Aymara population at large. The Inca past was merely one of several tropes that Bolivian indigenistas considered as they confronted their nonchanging demographic reality. During a moment that Peru was actively embracing an indigenous past (one being rendered all the more Glorious by archeological missions led by the likes of Hiram Bigham and Max Uhle), Bolivia on the other hand looked to more fantastic tropes to account for Tiwanaku, from the Antarctica autochthony of Arturo Posnansky to theories of the Lost City of Atlantis espoused by Belisario Díez Romero. As for popular reception/engagement with the Inca past, the case of Caracollo certainly is remarkable. But this review wonders just how representative the case is of the “highland Aymara population” in general. All minor quibbles aside, Kuenzli succeeds in highlighting Aymara participation in Bolivian nation building as Liberals, and demonstrates the strategic appropriation (and discarding) of long memory in the construction of ethnic heritage. Acting Inca is an engaging study of accommodation and resistance—with more of a focus on the former that the latter. Nevertheless , the work will appeal to students at both the undergraduate and graduate students and become a necessarily reference for those working in the modern Andes, and/or anyone interested in history, memory, and theater. R. Matthew Gildner Department of History Washington & Lee University HARD TIMES IN THE MARVELOUS CITY: FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY IN THE FAVELAS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. By Bryan McCann. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. p. 256, cloth $89.95, paperback $24.95. As the 2016 Olympics approached, problems marred the pristine, progressive image that Rio de Janeiro spent millions in publicity to construct . From a bay choked with refuse to beaches contaminated by sewage, from cost overruns to shoddy construction, the “Marvelous City” endured ceaseless questions about its ability to host the games. Yet alongside construction woes and pollution, another issue dominated coverage: the extent to which Rio balanced the Olympics’ infrastructural and security requirements with the rights of its population, especially the millions who inhabit its favelas. As favelas were razed to make room for Olympic venues, “pacifying ” occupations raised charges of police brutality and corruption, and communities in the wealthy Zona Sul faced gentrification, questions arose: Why has Rio failed to solve the “problem” of favelas? Why have plans to incorporate favelas into the larger city, to drive out drug traffickers and 427 The Latin Americanist, September 2016 replace them with a state presence, failed so miserably? Or, as Bryan McCann asks, why are favelas imagined as separate from the city and consequently treated as marginal? McCann’s new monograph provides a timely historically-based background to the crisis that Rio de Janeiro and its working class communities face. It complements the work of social scientists like Robin Sheriff, Erika Robb-Larkins, and others whose ethnographies have demonstrated how intersections between race, class, the drug trade, and the state structure residents’ lives. McCann shows that today’s debates surrounding criminality and policing are rooted in the ambitious, alternatingly progressive and conservative, yet ultimately failed attempts of the 1980s and 1990s to solve the favela “problem.” It is also one of the few monographs to focus on the governorships of Leonel Brizola (1983-1987 and 1991–1994), a key opponent of the military dictatorship and, other than his brother-in-law João Goulart, Brazil’s most important leftist politician of the second half of the 20th century. The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter one, “The Big Picture,” provides a brief history of the growth of favelas in Rio since the 1940s and introduces McCann’s thesis that favelas have, in the public imagination, been artificially isolated from the rest of the city. Chapter two, “Mobilization ,” explains how residents in the 1970s and 1980s mobilized to demand land titles, access to education and formal employment, and the end of police harassment. Favelas were a key source of support for...