Rocinha is the paradigmatic touristic favela, with tours taking place regularly since the early 1990s and with 3,500 tourists visiting the site each month. What do the inhabitants of Rocinha think about these tourists and their cameras? Do they perceive this presence as something that humiliates and objectifies them or as a possibility of empowerment? The methodology included different strategies: field observation, participant observation in different tours, long interviews with qualified informants and semi-structured interviews with 175 inhabitants from Rocinha. The article concludes that between the total approval of and unconditional disagreement towards the touristic practices, there are some nuances which should be carefully examined.
Tourism; favela; favelados; poverty; Rio de Janeiro