Elderly people: a heterogeneous group moving (or not) through the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)

The common image of ageing — and I imagine this isn’t just in Brazil — is often represented by an idealized scene: an elderly retired couple, a white-haired man and woman with fair skin, walking hand in hand through a middle-class neighbourhood. But if you walk around the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, you’ll quickly realize that this is far from the most common reality.

Ageing is not a process that affects everyone equally. Factors like gender, race, and class shape the experiences of people aged 60 and over. These social categories influence (though they don’t fully determine) their life paths and daily experiences in the city.

There’s a 78-year-old black woman who never learned to read, who travels across town to find the perfect dress for a celebration. A 75-year-old brown-skinned woman who, despite her age, has never learned how to navigate the city by bus. A 63-year-old brown-skinned man who leaves his house at least five times a day to buy construction materials. An 84-year-old white man whose health is fragile, while his 82-year-old wife is still remarkably active. A 67-year-old black queer woman whose leisure routine is vibrant and constant—she goes out to bars every week with friends, walks around the city, and goes to the movies. A 77-year-old white woman who spent two years unable to walk after breaking her foot and knee. A 64-year-old brown-skinned man who works as a street vendor. A 69-year-old brown-skinned woman who no longer leaves her home due to severe knee pain.

Social categories and varying health conditions create very different ways in which these people interact with and move through the city—and how the city reveals itself to them: sometimes as an ordinary, navigable space, but other times as a barrier, or even a threat. There are layers of urban vulnerability that play out within the same city.

Yet, elderly people find ways to adapt. If not through their own means, then through their support networks—family, friends, neighbours, and acquaintances. Take, for example, an 86-year-old woman who can no longer leave her home; her children take turns staying with her, cooking her meals, and doing her shopping.

It’s also clear that older people aren’t just relying on their networks—they are an essential part of them. Especially among women, older adults often take on caregiving roles. Grandmothers care for grandchildren, adult children, and husbands. One 68-year-old woman we interviewed was, that week, caring for her sick brother: bathing him, preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, helping him eat, taking him to doctor’s appointments, going to the pharmacy, and even paying for his medications out of her own pocket.

Whether talking on the sidewalk or welcoming us into their homes, each of these older adults showed us a multifaceted life where they continue to act as agents shaping their own realities within the city. They form a group whose daily lives and personal histories are remarkably diverse by nature.