Using speeches from each period and examining a variety of perspectives and interpretations made by journalists, doctors, engineers and city planners, Valladares attempts to show that the social construction of the favela took root before the social sciences came into play.

Through her investigations of the representations, images and vocabulary used at different times by different social actors, she hopes to rescue the social history of the favela and restore it to its deserved position in the nation's political and social memory.