“Rolezinhos”: Bodies that Mobilize from the Periphery to the (Shopping) Center

Abstract

We will look at some elements of theatricality of the rolezinhos of poor youth from the periphery to elegant shopping centers in different cities of Brazil, whose occurrence intensified at the end of 2013. For this, we will review videos and newspaper articles. We will see how those young people who, at first, through these acts only intended to incorporate themselves into these spaces, with the mimetic and unexpected use of them soon became aware of the numerous prejudices and fears -as well as the politicity- that their bodies awakened there. Through the reactions they aroused, these spaces were symbols and scenarios of segregation in cities and of the structural violence that underlies deeply unequal societies, where, moreover, the “other”, who is different, is feared, (although he can, wants and has been educated in the imperative need to consume). Nevertheless, these became an instrument of visibilization, organization, power and resistance.