''Cantegril'' is the name given in
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
to a
shanty town, such as those surrounding its cities including the capital
Montevideo.
It is equivalent to Brazil's ''
favela
Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...
'' and Peru's ''
pueblos jóvenes
''Pueblos jóvenes'' (, "young towns") is the term used for the shanty towns that surround Lima and other cities of Peru. Many of these towns have developed into districts of Lima such as Comas, Los Olivos and Villa El Salvador.
Population
P ...
''.
Many of the settlements in Uruguay are land subject to industrial contamination, such as in
La Teja
La Teja is a '' barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) of Montevideo, Uruguay. The neighborhood has a mix of residential and industrial properties, mostly occupied by working class communities, including with a number of informal settlements built ...
and around waterways like the Cańada Alaska in Montevideo.
According to 2007 census data, about 6% of the total Uruguayan population (174,393 people) lived in ''cantegriles''. A documentary about the phenomenon was produced in 1958, called ''Cantegriles''. Whilst ''cantegril'' first referred to all squatter settlements, now it only denotes shanty towns; other informal settlements are known as
asentamientos irregulares.
The term is an ironic reference to Cantegril, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods of the seaside resort
Punta del Este
Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este later became internationally known as a resort for the Latin and North American j ...
.
[ ] The word ''cantegril'' originates from ''cante gril'' in
Provençal dialect, meaning ''
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
sings''. Its modern use might derive from the 1921 novel of the same name by
Raymond Escholier
Raymond Escholier, real name Raymond-Antoine-Marie-Emmanuel Escolier, (25 December 1882 – 19 September 1971) was a French journalist, novelist and art critic. He was curator of the Maison de Victor Hugo and of the Petit Palais.