In the starting of any small business, location is key, and it often may take moving homes to put yourself in a better location for your future business. My Dad had my family and I move from Northeast Portland to Southwest Portland when I was young, in order to be closer to his new office for his new start-up financial advising business. A big problem in the favelas of Rio De Janeiro is that, although their living conditions are much less than ideal, these residents are not willing to move, even to make more money - they are happy where they are.

             “What does it mean to be at home? How does it feel to lose one’s home?” These were the first two questions posed in the course description for this Digital Humanities class. Throughout the course, I have learned that oftentimes, no matter what quality of life you live, home can mean everything to you. Wallace Stegner in his article “The Sense of Place” writes “in our displaced condition, we are not unlike the mythless man who lives ‘like one uprooted, having no true link with the past... or with contemporary human society”. When we are “displaced” and don’t have a true home, we lose our sense of self-importance. Why do you think Bruce Bechdel, Alison’s father in Fun Home, never left Beech Creek after all of those years there? We as humans get attached to places when we are born and raised there, and we can grow a strong affinity for it despite all of the shortcomings it may have.

              In a 2013 survey conducted by the Data Popular Institute of the residents of favelas in Rio De Janeiro, 85% reported liking where they lived, 80% said they were proud of where they lived, 70% said they would continue to live in their communities even if their income doubled, and 94% stated that they were happy (Data represented in the chart below). So despite the fact that these residents could have better business opportunities elsewhere, it is apparent that their love for their home is a significant handicap to them moving somewhere else in order to start their own successful business.