Carnaval is Brazil’s famous festival of singing, dancing, and debauchery. The word comes from the Latin, “carnem levare,” or “farewell to flesh,” a double entendre referring both to the tradition of fasting from meat before Easter, as well as the hedonistic week before Ash Wednesday when bacchanalia rises for one last gasp before Lent. Like Mardigras in New Orleans, many people here presume Carnaval has its roots in African traditions that came to the Americans during the slave trade, and were then appropriated and recontextualized by the Catholic church. Samba music and dance, which arrived with people from Africa, is now considered a tradition of Brazil and is at the heart of the competitive parades which constitute the cultural heart of Carnaval. My host in Rio told me that the block parties start in December and continue even after the start of Lent, but things really heat up in the six days prior to Ash Wednesday, which this year is on February 26. My travel companion, Rodolpho, and I arrived on Saturday the 22nd after a 15 hour bus ride from Bauru, a small city in the interior of São Paulo state where I am working as a Fulbright Scholar until June.

The lush urban landscape of Rio de Janeiro

My first impression of Copacabana upon emerging from the General Osório subway station was that the city seems to be built inside of a rainforest. Lush greenery fills every pocket between buildings, especially the vacant spaces. The topography of the city includes pillar-shaped mountains which rise dramatically out of the hilly landscape, the most famous of which are Sugarloaf and Corcovado, upon which stands the Christ the Redeemer statue. Some of the mountains and hills are composed of metamorphic rock, while others are sedimentary, and the entire area is dotted with lakes, waterfalls, forests, botanical gardens, coves, and gorgeous beaches where girls from Ipanema go walking.

My second impression, as we pushed our way through a thousand drunk, sweaty bodies was that the streets are open sewers. If you’ve smelled New York in the summer, just amplify that memory and add steamy air. To be fair, the city has neither the infrastructure nor the personnel to adequately deal with the estimated half million people who come to Rio for Carnaval. The city’s neighborhoods supplement the official Samba parades with blocos, which are street parties. Sometimes the blocos are led by groups drumming and playing and singing as they march down the street, while other parties stay put. Participants, if they are wearing much of anything at all, are extravagantly dressed in bright costumes. Those who are serious about the tradition make the clothes themselves; but most of the revelers, including the thousands of people visiting from out of town, buy feather headpieces and adhesive rhinestones from touristic vendors who pop-up to take advantage of the once-a-year retail opportunity.

The blocos shut down entire neighborhoods to vehicular traffic, and they are everywhere. Some are permitted ahead of time, but many appear to be spontaneous and unplanned. Police are present but mostly let everyone do whatever they want, perhaps because the inebriated partiers are unpredictable, and maybe because police violence has left the population with resentments that are at a near boil just below the surface. The scene is something between a college kegger and an orgy in the streets. You need to keep your head clear when navigating the blocos because drunk guys in Rio for Carnaval are like drunk men anywhere: volatile. And yet, there is a permissive, anything-goes attitude that permeates the scene. People brought coolers full of beer and little charcoal grills to have barbeques in the street. Vendors traversing the beach called out in sing-song voices to advertise what they had for sale: caipirinhas, skewers of grilled cheese or shrimp, marijuana and cocaine. We saw a straight couple having sex in the bushes along the sidewalk, and women cheering on their boyfriends as they made out with other men. I was surprised to find myself on the receiving end of lingering kisses from men and women to whom I’d only said hello, coronavirus be damned.

Samba performances in 19th century blocos led to the creation of samba schools in Rio, as competition led to splintering of some groups, and the formation of distinct identities for each. Eventually, the city realized the need to build a stadium for the competitions, and in 1984 the Sambódromo, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, was built to celebrate Brazil’s traditions and modernity. The schools compete in the samba parades to score big with a panel of judges who grant points based on costumes, floats, the original samba song composed by each school, dancing, thematic cohesion, and timing of the parade. Each program must traverse the 700 meter length of the stadium in no less than 60 minutes, and no more than 70 minutes. The magnificent costumes are ingenious homemade concoctions made from discarded items and whatever people have on hand. What looked like gold brocade epaulettes from my stadium seat were revealed upon closer inspection to be plastic party plates. Many of the participants are from the city’s favelas, and the samba parades are the one time each year when people with few other privileges get to take the spotlight on their nation’s biggest stage.

We arrived at the stadium at 10:00PM, and stayed until 5:00AM watching most of that night’s scheduled processions. This year’s winning school, Viradouro, presented a spectacular program which paid homage to black domestic workers and mythical stories of fishermen. Their lead float featured the dramatic revelation of a mermaid in an aquarium. As she swam to the surface, the golden sides of the aquarium lowered and transformed into a transparent fountain. Their upbeat song, which included the lyrics -- “Who washes the souls of those who wear gold? It’s Viradouro. It’s Viradouro!” -- is a total ear worm that I’ve found myself humming for days (1).

The school that left the most lasting impression on me was last year’s champion, Mangueira, which presented the powerful, controversial image of five-story tall, androgynous, black jesus, with the word, “negro,” in place of “INRI” on the crucifix. The float was preceded by a troupe of dancers who reenacted scenes of contemporary police violence in Brazil, comparing it with the persecution of Christ’s followers in biblical times. Much as in the U.S.A., those who are black and brown and poor in Brazil are much more likely to be on the receiving end of police brutality than anyone else, assuming they even survive the encounter. Mangueira’s theme equated poor people with divinity, and called for an end to the structural violence, suffering, and poverty that are the result of the country’s grossly unequal wealth distribution. Our host, a presumably comfortable and well-connected property owner who watched the parade on TV, talked with me the next morning and lamented what she felt was the event’s devolution into politics. “Elevating the poor like that is polemical,” she complained. My travel companion and I kept our opinions to ourselves. Mangueira’s lyrics, translated to English are below (2) (listen and read in Portuguese here):

I'm from the first station of Nazareth
Black face, Indian blood, woman's body
Pelintra boy from Buraco Quente (3)
My name is Jesus of the people
I was born wearing my heart on my chest and with a clenched fist
My father is an unemployed carpenter
My mother is Maria das Dores, Brazil
I wipe the sweat of those who climb up and down the hill (4)

I can be found in places where there is love that knows no bounds
Search for me among those who fight oppression
And in the sights of your flag bearer
I'm hanging everywhere from cheap pamphlets to the Corcovado Mountain
But does everyone understand my message?
Because my body has once again been spiked
By the prophets of intolerance
Not knowing that hope
Shines brighter than darkness

Favela, see it through my eyes
There is no future without sharing
No Messiah with a gun in his hand (5)
Favela, see it through my eyes
I believe in my people
We are the seeds on your ground
From heaven I can hear
The syncopated outburst of the city
I made my own drum, turned the cross into splendor
And on a green and pink Sunday (6)
Resurgence of the phalanx of freedom

Mangueira
Dance the Samba as it is a prayer
If someone happens to despise it
They should fear the Samba's strength
Mangueira
A thousand sins will be invented for you
But I'm on your side
And on Samba’s side too

Sharing videos of the Samba Parades with Ada at a café in Botafogo. Photo by Rodopho Camargo.

On our last day in the city, while taking a break from sightseeing in the Botafogo neighborhood, we met Ada, a beautiful older woman having lunch by herself in a French café. I asked if I could take her portrait, and she was delighted to receive the Fuji Instax print that popped out of the top of the camera. I asked where she was from, and she responded, “Sou Carioca” (I’m a person from Rio). When I told her I was American, she switched into English and asked, “How is your president?” “A lot like yours,” I replied. She laughed and said, “Yes, they must be friends.” Then her smile dropped and she quietly said, “The whole world has gone crazy and it scares me.” I nodded in agreement. After a moment she lifted her head and changed the subject. She asked if we had gone to see the competition in the Sambódromo, and I showed her the videos and photos included in this post. She gasped at the vibrancy and energy in each short clip and exclaimed, “The competitions were amazing when I was young, but now they are even better! The spectacle is so magnificent.” As we parted she said goodbye with a little joke, “When God created Brazil, he said, ‘I’m going to make the most beautiful place in the world. But then I’ll make the people.” Our two countries -- our social inequities, wealth disparities, ideologically-motivated electorates, and even our presidents -- are mirrors of each other. Rio is gorgeous and troubling, both for the issues it raises, and for the equivalencies it reveals.

NOTES

The name of this school seems like a play on words, “vira d’ouro,” to turn gold, to become golden. Turn up the sound on the video to hear the song for yourself. The name of the other school I mention in this post, Mangueira means “mango tree.” The full name of the school is “Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Estação Primeira de Mangueira.” Most people call the school "Mangueira, or use the nickname Estação Primeira because the school started in the neighborhood near the first stop away from the Central train station. This note has been corrected from previous versions. Thank you Wagner Whitehead for linking me to accurate information.
Thank you for this translation, Rodopho Camargo!
My friend also notes, "Moleque pelintra" is a combination of both an ragged underage child who walks around Buraco Quente (which translates as, “hot pit,” the favela where Mangueira was founded) and Zé Pelintra, an Umbanda entity, a patron saint of gamblers, alcoholics, the homeless, and other “lost causes.”
Rio’s favelas are mostly built on the sides of steep hills.
The middle name of Brazil’s president means “messiah.” Jair Messias Bolsonaro.
The Mangueira school’s colors are green and pink.

SOURCES

Alecrim, Michel and Barbon, Júlia. “Viradouro Samba School wins Rio de Janeiro Carnival,” Folha De S.Paulo, February 27, 2020, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/culture/2020/02/viradouro-samba-school-wins-rio-de-janeiro-carnival.shtml

Dodd, Joseph, “Roots of Samba,” Fear and Hope in Brazilian Culture, March 26, 2017, https://sites.jmu.edu/fandtinbrazil/roots-of-samba/

Khan, Amina. “Getting killed by police is a leading cause of death for young black men in America,” Los Angeles Times, Science Section, August 16, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-08-15/police-shootings-are-a-leading-cause-of-death-for-black-men

Leão, Sofia. “Mangueira traz ‘Jesus do Povo’ com jovem negro e denuncia violência policial,” BHAZ, February 24, 2020, https://bhaz.com.br/2020/02/24/mangueira-jesus-jovem-negro-carnaval/

Ortiz, Erik. “What is a Favela? Five Things to Know About Rio’s So-Called Shantytowns,” NBC News, World, August 4, 2016, https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-rio-summer-olympics/what-favela-five-things-know-about-rio-s-so-called-n622836

Soares, Ingrid. “Trump elogio relação com Bolsonaro: Make Brazil great again,” February 27, 2020, https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/app/noticia/politica/2020/02/27/interna_politica,830835/trump-elogia-relacao-com-bolsonaro-make-brazil-great-again.shtml

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“Police killings in the state of Rio de Janeiro are at a 20-year high,” The Economist, September 3, 2019, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/09/03/police-killings-in-the-state-of-rio-de-janeiro-are-at-a-20-year-high

“Monobloco desfila neste domingo de pós-carnaval no Rio; veja lista completa,” G1, Globo, March 1, 2020, https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/carnaval/2020/noticia/2020/03/01/monobloco-desfila-neste-domingo-de-pos-carnaval-no-rio-veja-lista-completa.ghtml

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