A favela is a specifically Portuguese word for a shanty town. The majority have electricity, but in most cases it is illegally tapped from the public grid. Favelas are constructed from a variety of materials, ranging from bricks to garbage. Many favelas are very close and very cramped. They are plagued by sewage, crime and hygiene problems. Although many of the most infamous are located in Rio de Janeiro, there are favelas in almost every large or even mid-sized Brazilian town. In Rio one in every four cariocas (as Rio's inhabitants are called) lives in a favela. As a general rule, Brazilian cities do not recognize the existence of favelas as a legal entity. The name originates from a species of plant with thorny leaves that grows in the semi-arid North-East region. Refugees and former soldiers involved in the Canudos Civil War (1895–1896) in Bahia would eventually settle on unreclaimed public land on a hill in Rio de Janeiro called Morro da Providência, because the government failed to provide any housing for them. There the former soldiers named their new settlement Morro da Favela, after a plant which had thrived at the site of their famous victory against the rebels.

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