Resistência evangélica como direito à cidade na luta contra as remoções de favelas no Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian evangelicals are the target of a certain stigma due to a majority moral and political tendency of proximity to conservatism. The purpose of this text, however, is to show that, although minority, contrary tendencies of struggle and resistance also exist. From the fight against the removal of a favela in the Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro, which began in the context of the city’s preparation for the so-called "Sports Mega-Events" and which continues today, we intend to present the case of a community leader, an evangelical woman, that led to the residents' collective struggle against the removal of said favela. To this end, we make use of a fieldwork that included a visit to the said favela and an interview with the said leader. The case illustrates how a totalizing approach to evangelicals always runs the risk of reducing them to stereotypes that are not always matched in reality. In the case in question, an evangelical woman supported by the institution of which she is a member has led a community to one of the most successful cases of collective struggle against removals and for the right to the city, a type of right that goes beyond the right to housing and includes the freedom to decide where and how to live according to the desire of the residents of a place.