The first carnival in Rio de Janeiro at the time Bolsonaro: black, woman, anti-conservative – 02/03/2019

In the middle of the conservative wave that drove the far right Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian presidency, the carnival of Rio de Janeiro prepares an edition of irreverent parades that claim the role of women, blacks and Indians, 3 groups that the President has scorned.

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The traditional samba schools They will march on the Avenue Marqués de Sapucaí of the face Sambodromo in addition another year of budget cuts by local authorities.

The carnival of Rio started this Friday. The highlight is Saturday, March 9 with the parade of champions.

The worms of Mangueira, one of the most traditional groups, champion for the last time in 2016, claim to tell "the story that history does not count": that of these popular heroes conquered in their struggle and little mentioned in textbooks.

"The traditional narrative chose heroes, chose the facts, erected monuments, baptized streets and avenues, and we stayed with the winner. Indians, blacks, mulattoes and the poor have not become statues. Their names do not appear in school tests, "says the idealist Leandro Vieira to unveil the parade's plot.

Mangueira saves unknown names, such as the black warrior of the seventeenth century Dandara or the indigenous Cariri rebels. And he says that Portuguese colonization in Brazil was "more an invasion than a discovery".

"We show the bravery of blacks by saving very important names, mostly black women but also Indian women, by showing who are the true builders of the history of Brazil", explains Evelyn Bastos, Queen of Drums, at the last open rehearsal in the district of Mangueira, next to the Maracana stadium.

He also pays tribute to Councilor Marielle Franco, a great defender of human rights in the favelas of Rio, riddled with bullets last March.

"Marielle is not a partisan person, she is a favela who has beaten statistics, studied and defended human rights. This is an example of a womanVery important especially for our girls who believe that they can not have opportunities because of their race or their place of residence, "says Bastos.

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Mónica Benicio, the widow of Marielle, will parade in one of the wings of the school.

The school Portela, another carnival heavyweight from Carioca, pays tribute this year to the Brazilian singer Clara Nunes, musical icon of the 70s and first artist of his time to publicly defend Afro-Brazilian religions, with the help of songs, clothes and speech.

"There are people who are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, their religion, their badual preference … the spirits are tense and a tribute to Clara Nunes highlighting her flag of religious tolerance is very important, "said Raphael Perucci, press advisor for Portela.

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The neighborhood school of Madureira, which turns 96 in April, completes the costumes and the allegorical cars in its huge warehouse in the city of Samba, where it keeps the biggest secret: the costumes designed by French Jean-Paul Gaultier with the creative director of Portela, Rosa Magalhaes.

The high fashion artist, who will not be able to participate in the parade for health reasons, signs 2 figures (a man and a woman) that 120 members will wear in a sector reproducing the work. Carnival in Madureira, from the Brazilian modernist painter Tarsila do Amaral.

Since the evangelical expert Marcelo Crivella took the reins of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the money the mayor allocates to each school it was cut in half. According to Perucci, the groups received just 50% of the 500,000 reals that corresponded to them five days after the lavish parades. It's about $ 130,000.

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Crivella, who showed Unfriendly to carnival, ensures that it is necessary to gradually replace public funding with private initiative.

But the reduction of resources is not enough to discourage schools samba, almost century-old institutions.

In a country that has just suffered a severe economic crisis and an intense electoral process, the carnival continues to a sacred ritual of collective catharsis.

sources: AFP, EFE and Archive. AEZ