Writing
Diadema
Diadema, São Paulo is a city of more than 400,000 residents just 11 miles south of the center of the metropolis. Most recently, it has made news due to its soccer team EC Água Santa unseating big teams in the state's league, making it to the final for the first time since its founding in 1981 in 2023 and a housing boom in early 2026 attracting newcomers from São Paulo, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
During my childhood in the 90's the the city made headlines for different reasons. It topped lists of the most violent and the poorest of the whole state.
"In 1995, media dubbed the small, densely populated city of Diadema in the Brazilian state of São Paulo as “the most dangerous neighborhood in the world.” The reality was as menacing as the title. Diadema registered 180 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants (the world average is nine)," Americas Quarterly, fall 2007.
It was a city that people avoided and that most would not be given a chance to leave. If you were born in Diadema, you were guaranteed a life of poverty, violence, poor education and no opportunities.
Photo Cartoonized on PhotoShop