Paths of banana trees: passages of care between unequal worlds

Abstract

At a central region of Rio de Janeiro, several housing buildings take part of the old prison complex Frei Caneca. The buildings, named after two honorable samba musicians, Ismael Silva and Zé Keti, occupy what used to be an old forensic asylum, or the Hospital of Custody and Psychiatric Treatment (HCPT) Heitor Carrilho. It was built in the early 1920 to house those detained at the Lombroso section of the National Hospital for the Alienated, Rio’s very first asylum. The Lombroso section was responsible for the offenders and/or criminals diagnosed with mental disorders. The HCPT Heitor Carrilho, in this manner, represents and materializes the power of both medical and legal knowledges combined.