Rocinha is nowadays one of the most visible favelas in Rio de Janeiro, both due to the dense agglomeration of houses that constitute it and its location in the valued southern area of Rio de Janeiro. Few scholars have bothered to investigate this historical process of formation. As a result, the history of that community came to be affirmed through explanations outside the experiences and conceptions of the local residents themselves. Conversely, this thesis seeks, from the intersection between the concerns of urban history and social history, to understand the process of occupation and consolidation of space that became known as the Rocinha favela through the experiences, logic and strategies of those who effectively made the place their residences. Being permanently related both to the public power and to the different interests and social groups linked directly or indirectly to the constitution of that nucleus of dwellings, these residents are thought as active subjects of this process. It is from their perspective that a history is pursued here, which began in the early years of the twentieth century, when the locality was still far from the characteristics associated with it, ends in the late 1950s, when it began to affirm for Rocinha many of the images that still mark its definition as a favela.