Mass occupation underscores Brazil’s poverty, creates angst

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil — Luciano Oliveira, a bricklayer, gazes at the floor of his tiny wood shack, which is one of thousands of makeshift settlements that comprise a massive squat in this suburb of Sao Paulo.

Oliveira was fired from his job at a restaurant a few months ago, shortly after arriving from the northeastern state of Bahia.

“I can’t read. I can’t write. And I have nowhere else to go,” said Oliveira, 23. “But here I met so many people like me. I feel I am part of a movement now. This has become my family.