Final Thoughts on Carnaval 2008

-Beija-Flor (from Nilópolis, a suburb of Rio) won Carnaval again for the 5th time in 6 years. I don't get too caught up in the competition - I mildly root for Portela, and don't care about the rest save for Beija-Flor. I actively root against Beija-Flor, both because they are the Yankees of the Carnaval competition, and because of their roots of selling out to the dictatorship as part of their original victory.

-While I'm glad that ABC published a story on Beija-Flor's victory in English, I'm a little less pleased in how they dealt with São Clemente's fall to the "second division". The article comments that "A carnival queen who danced virtually nude apparently helped cause her Sao Clemente samba group to be relegated to a lower, second division of the city's highly competitive parading leagues. Judges took away points from the group because it broke a rule against skimpy attire. Judges did not mention Sao Clemente carnival queen Viviane Castro by name, but she was widely believed to be the offender because she danced samba in her group's parade for 80 minutes wearing only a 1.6-inch "sex cover," believed to be the smallest in Rio parading history."

Technically, everything in this is true - she was nude (the thin strip of metal to cover her vagina fell off while she was parading), and São Clemente was docked 0.5 points. However, the article makes it seem like A) the woman consciously walked nude when it was accidental (this always is a possibility with the covers the women wear, regardless of who it is), and B) it makes it sound like, because she was nude, they lost. São Clemente finished last, with 387.5 points; even if they hadn't been docked the 0.5 points, they would finish with 388, which would still leave them in 12th place (behind 11th place Porto da Pedra, who also fell but had 388.2 points; by comparison, Beija-Flor finished with 399.3). São Clemente lost because the judges ruled that their parades, song, costumes, timing - in short, the entire presentation - was lacking; not because some woman ended up nude.

-While I have been commenting on and including pictures from Carnaval, I have not been able to actually attend the major event that most interests me: the parades on Sunday and Monday night. The parade takes place in the Sambódromo, in downtown Rio, where there is over a mile-long stretch of bleachers, box seats, and below, the “avenue” where the samba schools parade. Although the festivities last from about 9 PM to about 6 AM, even seeing one night of the desfiles would be great.

Unfortunately, the commercialism of Carnaval in the last 30 years or so has made that rather difficult for a poor graduate student. Whereas Carnaval used to be an even that anybody could attend on one of Rio’s largest avenues, it has become an increasingly stratified event, both in participation and attendance. Tickets are extremely expensive to get into the Sambódromo, usually costing upwards of $200 for the cheapest tickets. As a result, the event itself often becomes a “who’s who” of Brazilian culture. When the popular magazines chronicling the events of Carnaval come out, they always devote 10 or more pages just to photos of which famous Brazilians attended the events. Thus, the stands are often filled with Brazil’s celebrities, the richest sectors of society, and some wealthy tourists.

This stratification isn’t limited to attendance, either. For generations, anybody and everybody could participate in the major desfiles. However, as Carnaval has become a commercial enterprise that focuses much more on the competition and drawing a profit, the elaborate production and accompanying costs for the schools to stage Carnaval has also skyrocketed. One effect of this has been the increasingly complicated and ornate costumes. People have to pay for their own costumes, which are extremely expensive; this isn’t to say the poor can’t participate, but they are extremely dependent on personal favors from well-connected friends, family, etc. More often than not, the desfiles of the schools are filled with the middle- and upper-middle class and celebrities, a fact made all the more ironic given how many of the schools are in poorer parts of Rio. Thus, even in the parades themselves, the “popular” aspect that once dominated Carnaval, when the poor and racially/ethnically marginalized people took center stage, has faded as it has become more and more of a commercialized endeavor

-Despite the commercialism and stratification of the Samba Schools’ desfiles on Sunday and Monday night, the popular element from Carnaval has far from disappeared – it has simply been relocated to the blocos, which are groups of semi-professional or amateur musicians playing live samba music loudly and parading slowly along streets while people gather, drink, and dance for several hours on end. These have really become the main cultural focus of Carnaval during the days, and are accessible to everybody (and indeed, almost everybody participates).

While many people absolutely love these, I stayed away from these for three reasons. First, I absolutely hate crowds. It has nothing to do with claustrophobia (I’m not claustrophobic) – I just hate people I don’t know running into me, being unable to escape through the mass, and having what would normally be a short trip turn into a multi-hour thing. (It’s the same reason I stay away from fireworks on 4th of July). Second, as much as I hate crowds, I hate dancing even more. Third, among the 20-somethings, blocos are a great way to make some random hookup during Carnaval. This tendency is so deeply ingrained into the youth culture that it’s common wisdom here that you never want to get involved in a serious relationship in January, because Carnaval is coming. This is fine for those kids, but as a happily married man, the “hookup” reason is a less than compelling reason for me to attend these things.

However, I’ve still been exposed to them (they are on the streets, and they are loud) – they are interesting enough. The music ranges from pretty good to pretty awful, depending on the ability of the musicians and their level of intoxication. This is definitely a far more popular and accessible event, and is what people really do druing the days, from Friday to Wednesday.

-In other parts of Brazil, despite Catholic Church's furor, only 31 morning-after pills were handed out for free in Recife during Carnaval, while 48 people were killed. The Catholic Church still hasn't complained about the loss of those 48 lives, though.