In this article I discuss aspects of an ethnography conducted in the Rio das Pedras favela, with focus on issues of sexuality, gender, color/race, and mestiçagem (miscegenation). Located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, this favela is publicly known for two particular characteristics: the absence of armed drug traffic, and the concentration of migrants from North-eastern Brazil. In scenes from my fieldwork in Rio das Pedras I explore how those aspects imprint specific configurations of experiences and representations about homosexuality, gender, and color/race. I observe how, in processes of differentiation, those aspects intersect social structures and hierarchies within that space.
homosexuality; favela; gender; color; difference