despojados

Despojados is a Portuguese term that can function as both an adjective and a noun. As an adjective, it describes someone who has been stripped of possessions, rights, or social status. As a noun, it can refer to people or groups perceived as dispossessed or deprived, due to poverty, displacement, or marginalization. In everyday language, the word often signals conditions of economic or social vulnerability.

In academic and public discourse, despojados is used to discuss processes of dispossession, including land loss, eviction, housing precarity, and other forms of economic marginalization. It can appear in analyses of social inequality, urban development, and historical transformations that result in people or communities becoming dispossessed. The term can also appear in literary or journalistic contexts to evoke sympathy or critique of structural injustice.

Because despojados is a descriptive label rather than a fixed organizational name, its usage varies by region and source. There is no single, universally recognized group or movement officially identified as “Despojados” in scholarly consensus. When the term appears as a proper noun, it typically refers to a specific local or cultural context and should be understood in relation to that particular source.

Etymology: despojar comes from Portuguese, meaning to strip away, deprive, or dispossess. See also dispossession, poverty, social movements, urban studies.