De Jesus' diary was published in August 1960. She had been discovered by journalist Audálio Dantas in April 1958. Dantas was covering the opening of a neighbouring city playground when, immediately after the ribbon-cuttings, a street gang stormed in and claimed the area, chasing the children away. Dantas saw de Jesus standing at the edge of the playground shouting, "If you continue mistreating these children, I'm going to put all of your names in my book!". [10] The intruders departed. Dantas asked what she meant by "book"; she was shy at first, but took him to her shack and showed him everything she had written. He asked her for a small sample and subsequently ran it in the newspaper. However, de Jesus is known to have given interviews and made other newspaper appearances since the early 1940s.[11]
The inspiration for the book's title came from de Jesus' believing the favela was society's junk room: 'I live in the junk room. And whatever's in there, people either set on fire, or throw in the garbage'.[11]
De Jesus's story electrified the town and in 1960, Quarto de Despejo was released. The first edition quickly sold its 10,000 initial copies. 20,000 copies of the second edition and an additional 50,000 copies of the third edition were soon printed to meet the popular demand of the book.[12] Though written in the simple language of a favela dweller, the book was translated into thirteen (another source says fourteen)[11] languages and became a bestseller in North America and Europe. It was published in the United States and UK as Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus in 1962. The book was heavily edited by Dantas, and some critics suspected it a fraud; but the original manuscript was preserved and reprinted in full in 1999, proving not only that de Jesus wrote the book herself, but that she was a much livelier and more poetic writer than Dantas' edition seemed to suggest. Additionally, we know that while de Jesus wanted to publish more of her own stories and poems, Dantas heavily advised her against doing so.[13]
Carolina Maria de Jesus, 1960.The book's status as a bestseller came as a surprise to her neighbourhood as well as the country. Many of de Jesus' neighbours knew about her writings before the publication and would tease and ridicule her because of them. "Most couldn't even read, but thought she should be doing other things with her spare time than writing and saving old writings." Despite the large amount of publicity and popularity caused by the diary, de Jesus continued to be a social pariah.
De Jesus' diary detailed the grim reality of her life as well as that of those around her. She judged her neighbours based on their lifestyles, using actual names and circumstances in the book. "You wrote bad things about me, you did worse than I did", a drunken neighbour once yelled. Many neighbours despised de Jesus because she seemed to look down on slum people's way of life. One man "screamed at her that she was a 'black whore' who had become rich by writing about favelados but refused to share any of her money with them."[14] In addition to their cruel words, people threw stones and full chamber pots at her and her children.[15] They were also angry because she used the proceeds of her diary to move into a brick-house in the high-end neighbourhood of Santana. "Neighbors swarmed around the truck and wouldn't let her leave. 'You think you are high class now, don't you'", they would scream. They despised her for what they saw as a disparagement of their way of life, even though a major achievement of her diary was to increase awareness about Brazilian favelas the world over.
When I die I don't want to be reborn It is horrible, to put up with humanity That has a noble appearance That covers up its terrible qualities I noted that humanity Is perverse, is tyrannical Self-seeking egoists Who handle things politely But all is hypocrisy They are uncultured, and tricksters.
[16]
Seeing as de Jesus raised concerns about conditions in the favelas, local politicians started wanting to meet with her to discuss possible ways to amend the situation. São Paulo's governor Francisco Prestes Maia made a move to engage state agencies in providing poverty relief for favelados. Most of his projects were concerned with teaching women to sew, care properly for their children and practice good hygiene. However, these initiatives quickly faded.
