Beyond the Institutional Order: Culture and the Formation of New Political Subjects in the Peripheries of São Paulo

Violence, Economic Change, and the Extinguishing of the Former Way of Life

The 2000s and the first years of the 2010s brought profound changes to the way of life of the inhabitants of the peripheries of São Paulo through an increase in urban violence that began in the 1990s ² and the expansion of the possibilities of social improvement due to rising incomes. The main consequence of these changes was the adoption of more individualized strategies for dealing with economic and social problems, weakening the collective impetus to fight for better living conditions. At the same time, the desire for social distinction (Bourdieu, 2007) on the part of the inhabitants of the urban peripheries, who dreamed of the possibility of more consistent social mobility based on opportunities for work, income, and schooling, further reduced internal solidarity among them. From this perspective, the experience of change produced what pragmatists call a problematic situation. According to Cefaï (2017), a situation becomes problematic when one’s customary reactions to a given environment no longer satisfy one’s needs and desires, thus creating a demand for new practices to adapt to or modify the new social structure.

The discontent that some residents of the outskirts of São Paulo feel in relation to these changes in their way of life can be synthesized in the native category “Freguesía spirit” that I heard from interviewees in Brasilândia. This idea expresses the shared desire of some residents to move to the adjacent neighbor Freguesía do Ó, which is middle- and lower-middle-class and closer to the city center. According to one of my interviewees, the “Freguesía spirit” is the opposite of the “community spirit” that was more common in other times and marks those who “live here but have the spirit of those who do not” (in other words, people who think, “I’m in the favela, but I want to get away from it”).

I will argue that, through various artistic, political, and cultural expressions, young people from the peripheries of São Paulo have sought to build an active and collective response to this problematic situation. This reaction is presented through a cultural struggle (see Hall, 1981) that seeks to bring about the valuation of a more communal way of life and the right to full participation in the political community of which they are part.

Marginal Literature and Hip-Hop: Empowerment and Peripheral Identity

Two movements have been central to the molding of the peripheral culture over the past few decades, either because their message focuses on the individual and collective empowerment of those who are in subordinated conditions in society or because they assign a positive character to the stigma of being peripheral.

The first of these movements is marginal or what Mário Medeiros da Silva (2011) calls “black” literature. ³ Silva points out that the idea of the periphery has gained over time among writers who at first did not talk to each other such as Carolina de Jesús, the authors of Cadernos Negros (1978–2008), Paulo Lins, and Ferréz. He identifies three main dimensions of this literature of the periphery: (1) the social position of its authors both in society and in literature, (2) the interpretation of the socio-historical processes to which the subjects have been submitted, and (3) the “shaping of attempts at a political project” once these writers are becoming privileged voices for dealing with the problems of the peripheral population (Silva, 2011: 411–412).

For Silva, the idea (since it cannot properly be called a literary movement or even a concept) of black or peripheral literature played an important role for subordinated groups in Brazilian society throughout the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first. It worked as an “element of socialization” capable of “forging individual and collective projects, confronting social reality and the historical condition bequeathed to these groups.” Additionally, peripheral literature enabled “black and peripheral subjects to redefine their symbolic place and reject historical impacts.” In his view, literature and art in general “provide this by affirming the power of the individual who wants to say something about his environment, something that goes beyond the lived and imposed horizon, that transmits a message to others like himself” (Silva, 2011: 431–432).

Silva concludes his analysis precisely where the movement that most interests me begins: the emergence of marginal literature. The writer Ferréz, author of the novel Capão pecado, has played a central role in this movement starting with the organization in 2001 of a special issue of the magazine Caros Amigos entitled Literatura marginal: A cultura da periferia (Marginal Literature: The Culture of the Periphery). Two other issues of the magazine, in 2002 and 2004, were published with the same theme, totaling 48 contributors and 80 texts including chronicles, short stories, poems, and rap lyrics. According to Nascimento (2011: 9), the idea was “a common intellectual project of giving voice to their social group of origin through literature on the problems that affect them and providing new meaning to the periphery by valuing its singular culture and pragmatic interventions that aim to stimulate the production, consumption, and circulation of cultural goods.”

The second element in the formation of this peripheral culture came to Brazil in the late 1980s and gained increasing importance over the next decade: the hip-hop movement. ⁴ As D’Andrea (2013: 16) points out, the hip-hop groups in the peripheries of São Paulo “at once exalt peripheral pride and are phenomena stemming from that pride.” Through its rap lyrics, the movement has outlined a profound and powerful critique of the social reality to which the residents of the periphery are subjected. The group Racionais MC’s is considered its best expression. Based, as Ferréz is, in Capão Redondo, a neighborhood adjacent to Jardim Ângela, “the Racionais position themselves in the periphery, identify themselves as poor and black, express an explicit racial and class antagonism, and create a style of confrontation that leaves little room for tolerance and negotiation” (Caldeira, 2011: 303). Drawing on an interpretation of their living conditions in the periphery, hip-hop groups have created a symbol that “simplifies and homogenizes the most diverse peripheries, highlighting especially the worst social inequalities and violence.” Rhetorically, the effects of individual and collective improvement have been erased, and unusual references for Brazil such as the notion of a ghetto have become part of their vocabulary (Caldeira, 2011: 307).

Thus the first important role played by hip-hop in the formation of political subjects is to describe the social situation in which they live and to create categories for critically interpreting the situation. More than a form of resistance or the political expression of a social group, rap is relevant because of its formative character. Denouncing and explaining the problems faced daily by the inhabitants of the periphery ends up becoming “a pedagogy of the word.” Rather than imposing an understanding of reality, it serves “to make the guy think” (Dayrell, 2002). Moreover, the rappers’ arguments deconstruct the negativity and deprivation on which hegemonic formulations are based in the periphery and transform them into something positive by resignification and confrontation. Terms like “bum” and “slang” (which turns into “dialect”), not to mention the idea of the periphery itself, acquire positive meanings (Bertelli, 2017). Thus, rappers seek to reformulate historically consolidated structures of stigmatizing attributes to emphasize pride in being peripheral and its possibilities (D’Andrea, 2013).

Social problems such as police brutality, violence, unemployment, social segregation, lack of urban infrastructure and of leisure facilities, and lack of social recognition are common experiences among the young people of the periphery. For these young people sharing the cultural elements associated with hip-hop strengthens “an idea of belonging and identity.” The periphery, no longer stigmatized, becomes a “social and geographical space that generates a common denominator for black, mestizo, Northeastern, and white youth, in other words, the poor” (Macedo, 2014: 9). Gradually, hip-hop has been transformed from black culture to a peripheral culture (Macedo, 2016).

In addition to providing elements for criticizing the social situation and raising awareness about the processes experienced and the construction of identity around the periphery, hip-hop has also played an important role in raising the self-esteem of its residents. As D’Andrea (2013: 102) notes, “the whole work of Racionais is a strengthening of the esteem of the inhabitants of the periphery, of Afro-Brazilians, of youth, emphasizing the beauty of the Afro-Brazilians’ condition and the capacity of peripheral youth to solve their own problems.” This message of individual and collective empowerment has important consequences in motivating action “against passivity and fatigue.” In short, hip-hop and marginal literature “participate in the same process of giving a voice to their social group” and placing themselves in the position of subjects experiencing marginality (Nascimento, 2006). In addition, song lyrics, poetry, and literature provide critical categories for reporting on life in the periphery from an “internal” perspective, the first condition for a struggle against any subordinate position (Bertelli, 2017).

As Cefaï (2009: 27) points out, the discovery of “commonalities” and “the constitution of a collective language to express group identity issues and to create modes of public engagement” are essential elements for turning private disputes and personal injuries into collective causes and thus constructing public issues. This construction “does not take place in a vacuum but is shaped by precedent in the form of a ‘public culture’ in which answers to previous problematizations are found” (Cefaï, 2017: 193). However, the message of the hip-hop movement is eminently negative and offers few options for creating concrete political alternatives.

While the social movements of the 1970s and 1980s opposed the negative view of the periphery with a positive self-image as “members of a united, caring community of working families” and expressed their needs through a posture of inclusion, demanding access to public services and equal rights (see Fontes, 2020), hip-hop artists are mainly concerned with reporting violence, especially state violence, rejecting the notions of justice, rights, and belonging asserted by the state in favor of their ethics (Caldeira, 2011: 316–319). Thus the creation of a new idea of community by hip-hop culture has its limits. As Bertelli (2017) notes, this is apparent in its very fragmented verbal and musical form, abandoning singing in favor of declamation. These limits have been overcome by the reappropriation of hip-hop and marginal literature by cultural groups in the poetry recitals mentioned above.

The Formation of a Peripheral Culture: Poetry Recitals as Options for Recognition and Sociability

According to D’Andrea (2013: 26), “Racionais MC’s were a catalyst for the promotion of the operation of a mechanism based on pride in being peripheral.” However, “they were accompanied by an immense cultural movement” that included literary movements, theater, samba schools, poetry recitals, film clubs, and many other forms of artistic-cultural expression. For many young people, poetry recitals have become the most remarkable experience in their personal and collective lives. Most people attending these recitals are young (66 percent are between 15 and 29), born and raised in São Paulo (73 percent), and more highly educated than the average in their neighborhoods (57 percent have attended or completed college) (Silva, 2017). In addition, the majority of attendees are more interested in theater, outdoor shows, cinema, dance, and the visual arts than in sports and baile funk.

“The basic logic of hip-hop as marginal literature is directly related to identity,” which “requires and produces space” (Pardue, 2017: 165). Thus the recital can be seen as a development of “socio-geographical experiments of hip-hoppers” that “have changed the cultural geography of São Paulo.” The affinity of the recitals to rap becomes more evident when we observe the similarity of its declamations to rap lyrics and its use of rappers’ rhymes and gestures. Thus “the creation of a resignified ‘peripheral being’ is also part of the poems recited through the construction of a lyrical subject as representative of a collective with a shared enemy” (Tennina, 2013: 17).

The recitals are the direct outgrowth of marginal literature in that their initiators are the main organizers of the special issue of Caros Amigos mentioned above, especially Sérgio Vaz and Ferréz. ⁵ More than representing a tradition, they are central to an understanding of the expansion and consolidation of the marginal-literature project. Poetry recitals in São Paulo are not limited to the peripheries; similar events are organized in the city center with middle-class audiences. In any case, they are symptomatic of the “cultural effervescence that has been changing the depictions of the social spaces that border the geographic and symbolic centers” (Nascimento, 2011: 110). Furthermore, participants emphasize their peripheral character, differentiating them from those elsewhere in the city.

Their success may be the result of the ease of organizing a performance. The only thing needed is a location, which may be a bar, a cultural center, a school, a church hall, or the backyard of a home, depending on the number of attendees, with little or no sound equipment. It is impossible to say how many recitals there are in São Paulo. Most of them are publicized on social media since they are often organized informally with friends.

Another contributor to the success of the recitals is that the key players are chosen democratically so that everyone and no one is the main character of the event. “It makes a difference because you start to think you can do it too,” a 17-year-old girl from Jardim Ângela told me. Attending the recitals, I noticed a strong effort by those present to respect and encourage the performer, especially if the person was nervous or participating for the first time. In addition, the open, horizontal and democratic character of the recital allows the inclusion of themes that are relegated by rap, making the recital a space where even peripheral young people are appreciated. This democratic character is described by the poet Mariana Felix (quoted in Silva, 2017: 97), who in addition to recitals mentions slams (which differ in that they are competitions):

For me, recitals and slams are almost a religion. It is the religion that I practice because we are all gods of ourselves. It’s like a church, but it’s the moment when we can all speak a truth that is ours in that instant. And there is the respect of silence, respect for the attention that is given when the person is reciting a poem. Strong ideas, social ideas, are discussed—thoughts about life changes. I changed a lot when I started attending slams and recitals. I was a writer, but not the person I am today, and the recitals and slams made me destroy and reconstruct things several times. I gave up many things that I had believed in all my life and started building it all over again, listening to other people’s experiences and learning from others. The slam and the recital are spaces where the writer influences others and can be influenced. It is the moment when we are all “gods.”

Thus, themes such as feminism and homophobia gain prominence alongside traditionally treated topics such as inequality, violence, and racism. The poet Raquel Almeida’s account (quoted in Silva, 2017: 97) is representative: ⁶

It’s changed a lot, right? The extent of the expansion [of the recitals] in recent years is not written in the stars. Many recitals. I believe that this is very positive. I remember that at the time we talked about this—“Ah, the ideal would be a recital in every peripheral neighborhood.”—and this is happening. But for me the sudden change is the number of women who are writing, publishing, and being key players. . . . This didn’t exist before. Nowadays I see it like that, and I say, “It’s time to go to the recital and listen to more than one woman reciting.”

In Brasilândia I frequented the Sarau da Brasa, and in Jardim Ângela I sometimes went to the Sarau da Cooperifa, ⁷ mentioned above as one of the pioneers in this movement. Despite differences in format, the ambiances of the two venues were quite similar. These are essentially spaces for the creation of bonds, sociability, ⁸ and, of course, cultural and political education. It is common in a recital, as at any party, for participants to talk and even share tables with people they do not know and build new relationships.

Karina, a resident of Jardim Ângela, is 36 years old and teaches nursery school in the municipal network. An assiduous attender of recitals both in her neighborhood and elsewhere in the city, she emphasized the importance of recitals as a place of coexistence and sociability (interview, São Paulo, 2016):

It’s kind of the way people get out of the house to contact others—in my generation, we used to do this in churches, and this generation has much cooler space, I think, the recitals. So, the recital welcomes youth who like rap, and with music and rhyme they can reflect on essential political issues. You pitch poetry, so you issue this concrete thing, and at the same time that you are gesturing with words you are doing it with your expression, which I think also helps a lot. And there’s the fact that people can talk to others in a happy place, you know? You develop the same kind of link because I think you just start to care about the place when you develop a bond with the people and with the place. It’s that notion of belonging, right? I think recitals make all of this so cool.

As Zaluar (2000: 177–178) reports of the samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, in the recitals “sociability is intensified and expanded in reciprocal exchange circuits generated and maintained by social rules that are negotiated.” It is, therefore, a space that combines private, community, and public orders, strengthening networks of social relations at the neighborhood level that have been weakened by the increase in violence and the changes in the peripheral way of life. As Pardue (2017: 168) points out, drawing on the texts of Sérgio Vaz, the recital is “a universal message that links the individual to society.”

The poem “Quilombo cultural” by Jairo Periafricania ⁹ is considered a sort of Cooperifa anthem, and a microphone is used so that it can be sung by almost everyone at the same time. Its lyrics say that in a recital the “bond” among participants is strengthened and thus calls to those “from the bridge to here,” ¹⁰ where it is “all ours”—which expresses at the same time the sense of belonging to the periphery and the idea that the periphery belongs to its inhabitants.

Moreover, contrary to what happens in some rap lyrics, in the recitals I have attended there is no exaltation of strength or hypermasculinity and no imposition of the “rules” of the “world of crime” as a form of violence control. There is often a defense of education and group struggle as a way to social change. This aspect is evident in the Sarau da Brasa manifesto, which states that the periphery is now armed differently: “The arsenal now is knowledge; the ammunition is books, and the shots come from lyrics.“ What the residents of these areas want is ”knowledge and changes in social relations. . . . We no longer assault madams at traffic lights, but we do want the same rights as madams.” ¹¹

The theme of social integration and citizenship rights, ¹² which in rap tends to remain in the background because of the focus on poverty, violence, and social segregation, takes center stage in the poetry recitals. Cooperifa’s self-definition as a “cultural quilombo” ¹³ suggests, on the one hand, the importance of the reference to black culture. On the other hand, it points to a dialogue with an “imaginary with a social and political organization created in quilombo communities of the slave period” and constituting “the maximum expression of resistance to the current economic, political, and social models” (Nascimento, 2011: 86). The imaginary common in hip-hop of the ghetto as an oppressed, segregated, and pauperized area is replaced by an imaginary of resistance through the construction of a community of equals. The lyrics of “Quilombo cultural” also reinforce the political character that the organizers attribute to the recitals by stating that they are not just events but a movement and that artists are citizens insofar as they express their thoughts. The recitals’ aim is to return to a view of politics in the periphery that interacts with the tradition of workers’ struggle for citizenship (Fontes, 2018a; 2020).

Thus the peripheral culture emerges from the world of culture at the convergence of the black and marginal literary tradition and hip-hop represented by poetry recitals. Following Nascimento (2011), I call this culture “peripheral” without intending to suggest that it represents all the cultural diversity of the increasingly heterogeneous peripheries of São Paulo or that it is more “truthful” or “authentic” than other cultural manifestations of urban peripheries. Rather, it represents a way of life—behaviors, values, practices, language, ways of dressing, and worldviews—of the periphery struggling against the dominant culture and the extinguishing of the old way of life by violence, individualism, and the desire to be different arising from the increased possibilities of social ascent.

I understand “peripheral culture” as similar to Stuart Hall’s (1981) “popular culture”—in other words, without trying to identify its “pure sense,” since it is, in fact, the “ground upon which changes are brought about. ” This culture was established as part of a dialectic of the cultural struggle with the dominant culture. Therefore the emphasis must be on the process by which relations of domination and subordination are established—“the process by which some things are actively preferred so that others may be dethroned.” In other words, the focus is on the “relationship between culture and issues of hegemony.”

The peripheral culture is developed in relation to the culture of the center in terms of incorporation and denial, negotiation and resistance. It is through this idea of culture that “the periphery unites and places itself at the center of all things.” The aim is to bring to “the center of public debate political subjects that identify themselves as bearers of the demands of residents of the periphery in a broad context of a struggle for social rights and affirmation of the particularity of their cultural productions” (Nascimento, 2011: 162). On the basis of this peripheral culture, increasingly shared, peripheral youth begin to take sides, identify their places in political struggles, and adopt certain forms, expressions, and collective political struggles.

From Culture to Political Action: New Political Subjects at Center Stage

Sader (1988: 60) argues that the constitution of a new political subject occurs “when a discursive matrix emerges capable of reordering statements, naming diffuse aspirations, or developing them in another way, making individuals recognize themselves in these new meanings.” The development of a peripheral culture is, therefore, the starting point for the creation of what D’Andrea (2013) calls “peripheral subjects,” that is, subjects who recognize themselves as peripheral, pride themselves on being peripheral, and are politically active in terms of this social condition.

Following this reasoning and understanding culture as Hall (1981) sees it—not only as a way of life but also as a “type of struggle”—I intend to defend in these final lines the hypothesis that the formation of this subjectivity is the foundation of the contemporary political activism of young people from the peripheries. This subjectivity is linked to an identity that seeks to act collectively in order to mobilize politically to change its social reality.

The cultural spaces promoted by the poetry recitals must be understood as subaltern public spheres (Perlatto, 2015)—“spaces of sociability in which the subordinate segments seek to organize themselves,” talk about counterhegemonic issues, and develop an infrapolitics (Scott, 1990), from which, as Nancy Fraser (1990) argues, they can “formulate interpretations and define their identities, interests, and needs.” It is from this public sphere that a public culture seems to emerge (Cefaï, 2009: 27–28): “the common background that shapes and provides materials for collective mobilizations. . . . Such a culture is developed through cooperation and competition in which, along with the defense of their interests and the demand for their rights, actors debate rationally and reasonably, configure explanations and interpretations, but also express and symbolize emotions, project imaginaries and utopias.”

In addition to the importance of the peripheral culture for self-esteem, identity development, and the formulation of critical categories and of recitals as opportunities for sociability, my field findings in the outskirts of São Paulo indicate that poetry recitals have played a crucial role in the development and spread of a discourse about rights among residents, especially the younger ones. As Novaes and Alvim (2014: 296) point out, “the notion of ‘rights’ suggests public power and, consequently, leads to ‘public political charges.’” Mari, a 17-year-old resident of Brasilândia, has discussed political issues at home since she was a child because her grandmother, mother, and uncles have a record of activism in ecclesiastical base communities, unions, and political parties. Despite this, she has no doubt that poetry recitals, especially the Sarau da Brasa, were instrumental in getting her to move out of her “comfort zone,” which she defines as the idea of “going to work and then to college.’” Thanks to the recitals, she says she has begun to “look beyond herself” and to recognize the importance of politics and of promoting such events in her neighborhood. Today, in addition to attending and performing at the Brasa recitals, she and her friends are organizing other recitals in cultural centers in the area. She says that she is “in love with Brasilândia” and that “it is important to stay in the periphery” because people are “marginalized” and “need to establish a bond” with their neighbors.

In Jardim Ângela, Jessica, who is 18, compares her generation with those of her parents and grandparents. While her grandfather was active in neighborhood associations for public services in his area, her mother’s generation, in a period of “consumption boom,” was more focused on “buying that crazy television, living in an apartment a little farther away, and getting out of here.” Her generation, she said, was “looking again to the periphery” because of the cultural movements that have “helped them feel identified with it.”

Both Mari and Jessica have participated in two recent political movements that have mobilized people, especially young people, in the peripheries, in the past decade—the mobilizations of June 2013 and the occupations of public schools in the last months of 2015. Both report these experiences with pride in having mobilized and fought for their rights. Thus the message of individual and collective empowerment, horizontality, and, above all, the construction of a positive view about being peripheral and of cultural struggle around a peripheral way of life was disseminated. This message was crucial for the construction of a public culture (Cefaï, 2009) and a “willingness to fight” (Januário et al., 2016) that allowed a “societal overflow” (Bringel and Pleyers, 2015) of social mobilizations initiated beyond the outskirts but with significant consequences and applications there.

It is important to emphasize the political frustration that this new generation of residents of the outskirts of São Paulo posed for the PT governments. Political activists of previous generations report the loss of importance that channels of popular participation such as councils, conferences, and public hearings have undergone over the past decade. Spaces that were once considered fundamental for the expression of popular initiatives have come to serve mainly for the co-optation of civil society leaders by politicians interested in maintaining their electoral bases. In addition, historical activists complain that the holders of important posts in recent PT administrations, with a more technocratic background, are not interested at all in popular participation and have withdrawn power from these spaces, making them merely formal and of little effectiveness in the formulation and implementation of public policy. There are also complaints about the loss of individual and collective autonomy of activists and their organizations due to the relations they establish with the state and politicians (Fontes, 2018a; 2020).

Thus, in a context of progressive governments in which the political-party narrative has become unattractive to young people living in the peripheries of São Paulo (Feltran, 2011: 261) and in which none of the political actors is capable of reflecting and representing the wishes and aspirations of these young people, the cultural struggle and the more combative forms of political action have gained prominence. It is possible to observe, therefore, a redefinition of these struggles based on the actual experience of these subjects. The grammar of the “struggle for rights” and the horizontal character of the organizations—made up of small groups rather than large parties or movements and with patterns defined from multiple perspectives—are similarities in form and content between the recitals and cultural groups and recent political manifestations.

In addition, it is important to highlight the potentially decentralized character of these mobilizations. This decentralization interacts directly with the peripheral culture that emerges from the recitals and cultural movements because of their valorization of being in the periphery and being linked to it. Ultimately, these individuals want to achieve recognition as citizens in their own territories. “Everything happens in the center, you know, everything because you are only seen there. Great, but I want to be seen here. I’m going to stay here!” The third-year high school student who said this had participated in the public school occupations in Brasilândia in 2015. The phrase “but I want to be seen here” could not be more meaningful. For this student, his citizenship—represented by the logic of “being seen” as someone who deserves to have his demands heard and answered—will only be fully recognized when he is perceived as a resident of the periphery and in the periphery.

As Dayrell (2002: 144) points out, these young people “want to be recognized. They want visibility. . . . They want to have a place in the city, to enjoy it, transforming urban space into something with use-value.” I would add that they want to be seen without having to move to the center of the city, since the pride of being on the periphery is central to their identity. More than claiming the “right to the city” they demand the “right to the periphery” (Fontes, 2018b). Their conception of citizenship does not reject the demand for broadening the channels of popular participation and social rights but points to the boundaries of an unfinished democracy that is unable to recover our “urban culture of tolerance and the arts of negotiation” (Zaluar, 2009).

The phenomenon described here is restricted to a single generation—it is rare to find it in anyone over 40, even though its creators are in this age-group. However, its youthful expressions “may be the tip of an iceberg that makes visible the tensions and contradictions of the society in which they live” (Dayrell, 2002: 119). Thus, if we develop the issue of generations as Mannheim (1952) did—as the “origin of a new impulse” that may eventually extend to people who were born in other periods and thus as a fundamental part of historical dynamism—we can understand the recent demonstrations in Brazil as events that “crystallized” a new political generation (Nunes, 2014).

Final Considerations

This article has aimed to argue that recent cultural manifestations in the peripheries have become opportunities to formulate public issues. The “world of culture” is understood as a subordinate public sphere in which it is possible to develop an infrapolitics as the basis for a cultural struggle between the dominant culture and the peripheral culture.

In the context of the intense social and economic change experienced by residents of urban neighborhoods in recent decades, which has brought about an increase in individualism and a disruption of a former way of life that is seen as more collective and communal, a peripheral culture has arisen in defense of that way of life.

This peripheral culture is grounded in two cultural movements of recent decades: hip-hop and marginal literature. Poetry recitals based on these sources provide a message of empowerment to a horizontal space where social bonds are built. New political subjects may emerge from the frustration that these young people feel with regard to recent progressive governments and the traditional forms of political participation and from the affinities of this peripheral culture with recent political protests.