Carnival in Rio (II) - The Second Night's Festivities in the Sambadrome

Porto da Pedra, Grande Rio, Mocidade, Salgueiro, Beija-Flor, and Uniao da Ilha, which overcame the fire from last month to win the Gold Standard prize for its theme "The Mystery of Life," about Charles Darwin and evolution. The images are spectacular as usual, and the songs this year were pretty strong as well (each school has its own song that it writes and performs during their 90-minute parades). For those interested in the music, here are the links for each school's samba, composed just for this year's Carnival (just scroll down a bit and click the little "play" icon in the center of the screen):

Sao Clemente

Imperatriz

Portela

Unidos da Tijuca

Vila Isabel

Mangueira

Uniao da Ilha

Salgueiro

Mocidade

Grande Rio

Porto da Pedra

Beija-Flor

Carnival in Rio (I) - The First Night's Festivities in the Sambadrome

Last night was the first of the major two-night spectacle of Carnival in Rio (although people have been marching in blocos, or informal parades, all weekend), and as usual, here's a great collection of photos for each of the schools that marched last night. The first round included the samba schools of Sao Clemente, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, Portela, Unidos da Tijuca, Vila Isabel, and Mangueira. Portela was one of the schools most affected last month by the fire in the warehouse storing Carnival floats and costumes, and it showed in their parade. That said, they did an excellent job recovering enough to march, and it's good that they can't face punishment in the "rebaixamento," or dropping to the second level, this year.

Fire in Rio - Carnaval Threatened?

This morning, a massive fire tore through the public building in the heart of Rio de Janeiro where Rio's samba schools keep their costumes, floats, and displays in the month leading up to Carnaval. As the photos here indicate, this was no small fire. The damage has been catastrophic for at least four of the samba schools; Portela, one of the oldest and best samba schools, lost over 2,800 costumes, floats, and props, while Grande Rio lost over 4,000 (at a cost of $10 million reais, or roughly 6 million U.S. dollars).

The cost should indicate just how ornate, elaborate, and important Carnaval is to Rio and to the communities that compete in the event. Worse, just as in football (the global version, not the American one), the poorest-ranked schools drop to the "second division," while the second divisions winners rise up to the main event. With four schools already eliminated by the sheer lack of materials to compete, Carnaval in Rio is suddenly facing major questions. Liesa, the organization that runs Rio's Carnaval, is meeting tonight; the mayor has already proposed not having the "eliminations" this year, since the four schools that would naturally dropped cannot be blamed for the building catching on fire. Initial suggestions that Carnaval be cancelled seem to have died down, and cancelling is a terrible idea; Carnaval is one of Rio's biggest events, and it brings in millions of dollars not only from corporate sponsors, but from tourism and more quotidian sources of income (like beers purchased). And the schools are keeping a strong and unified front in the face of this tragedy; the other samba schools that were not affected by the fire have offered to help those that were, and Grande Rio, which lost 90% of its props and costumes, said it will still march in Carnaval, even without the costumes or floats; after all, at the end of the day, the samba school is its members and community, not its flashy appearance.

Interestingly (and potentially even more tragically), somebody else may be responsible. When I spoke to a Brazilian this morning who had not heard the news, she immediately responded, "this was a criminal act," implying that a supporter (or member?) of another competing school had set the fire to remove the competition. While I certainly hope that was not the case, it makes sense - after soccer teams, the samba school you support is one of your most important identities in Rio.

Some (including myself) have been critical of how "commercial" Carnaval in Rio has become, but at the end of the day, it is still one of the most impressive and organic cultural expressions in Brazil, and it is egalitarian (and even reversing of traditional class- and race-based hierarchies) in ways that few other events in Brazil are. Hopefully, the schools that suffered losses can regroup, and nobody is punished for this fire (unless it was arson; in that case, may the arsonist be punished). As it is, this will be one of the more somber Carnavals in some years, as Brazil and the world are denied the cultural expressions and beauty of four different schools' participation.

Around Latin America - Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama

-A high-ranking official in the Argentine government is saying that the country does not plan to invade the Malvinas/Falklands islands or go to war with England, but that it does want to negotiate with Great Britain over the issue of oil drilling (part of the islands' new economic boom) in the ocean near the islands.

-Bolivia has opened up its military archives from its dictatorship period of 1960-1980. This is a major gain for historians and scholars interested in the Bolivian dictatorship, and scholars of dictatorships in the Americas more generally, as the Bolivian dictatorship has remained relatively understudied. Access to archives should lead to a new boom in research and new insights into one of the "forgotten" dictatorships in South America.

-Justice in Peru's Amazonian basin continues to be lopsided, as two indigenous peoples cleared of the killing of police in 2009 remain behind bars even while police officers involved in the murder of 10 indigenous protesters remain free.

-Speaking of the Amazonian basin, this article does a great job of demonstrating the vulgar and violent abuse of power that politicians and elites use in getting land in northern Brazil, as well as some of the ways that the poor and small-landholders are fighting back against elites' land-grabs. Another article does an interesting job in suggesting the ways in which the Landless Movement (MST) in Brazil has been disappointed by Lula's policies, and the uphill battles the MST is facing. Meanwhile, Brazil's agricultural production is looking at a boom year for soybean farming in the wake of beneficial rainfall. Of course, accompanying that rainfall is an increase in the mosquito population, with the result that five states in Brazil already have had dengue outbreaks this year.

-Although most in the world associate Carnaval with partying and scantily-clad women, this article does a great job detailing the complicated and conflicting meanings behind Carnaval for women and homosexuals. The article comments on how the relatively free attitudes towards sexuality, women, and homosexuals during Carnaval highlights the often-repressive social context these groups are forced to endure during the majority of the year, an argument that James Green has demonstrated has a strong historical precedent.

-A report in Pravda is saying that Colombian paramilitaries killed 30,000 people between the early-1980s and 2003. Though I'd like to see more research into the numbers, there's no doubt paramilitary groups are responsible for a large number of the total deaths in Colombia's civil war.

-RNS has a great preview of a few of the members of the Honduran Truth Commission, and what their appointments mean for the process of chronicling the abuses of the coupist government last year. Among other things, RNS suggests that "human rights abuses might actually be on the agenda after all."

-As Venezuela's economy faces the possibility of recession, as well as electrical shortages, Colombia is turning to look for trade partners elsewhere, and has begun exploring the possibility of a free-trade agreement with Panama.

-Finally, I'm not terribly convinced by this article suggesting that slums offer insights into how to better plan cities and help "save the planet." Among other things, it really glosses over the economic and socio-political issues that many slum residents have to deal with, focusing on global slums more as planning models than as the result of very real inequalities and suffering.

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (VI) - Carnaval Wrap-Up

Carnaval has officially ended - the blocos on the streets have come to an end, the massive parades are over, and a winner has been announced. The samba school of Unidos da Tijuca, with their theme of "It's Secret!," ended up being this year's champion in Rio. Meanwhile, placing a 7-year-old as its Rainha may have cost Viradouro dearly. Julia Lira got stage fright, which is more than understandable given the pressure of being the head of a parade at 7 and having cameras shoved in your face, and ultimately, Viradouro fell out of the first division for their performance, and really, it wasn't even that close.

Carnaval had other interesting moments, as well. It was very well attended, including by the likes of the two leading candidates for the Brazilian presidency, as well as Madonna, who was in Rio alongside Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral and PT candidate Dilma Rousseff for the event (and the accompanying video gives you a sense of the size and spectacle of Rio's Carnaval). And Geisy Arruda, who had been expelled from a school after her dress was declared "too short" and students brutally mocked her, was able to take part in the parades. (The second link is an interview in Portuguese, but again gives the sense of the sound and sights of Carnaval).

As I mentioned before, there were record-setting heats, making Carnaval particularly uncomfortable this year. Therefore, one of the regional expressions of Carnaval must have felt wonderful, as hundreds gathered in the colonial city of Paraty to partake in the annual mud-fest that marks Carnaval in that city.

Overall, this year's Carnaval looked as spectacular as it usually does, and made me wish to be back in Rio (though the heat reminded me why I was glad I wasn't). For those interested, here are some more semi-offensive, mostly-lascivious, and barely-SFW photos from the events this year.

Caranval in Brazil 2010 (V) - Photos from the Second Night in Rio

I should have my recap of Carnaval this year later this week, For now, here are photos from the schools that participated in the second night of parades in Rio (only made available online this afternoon). The schools that participated in the second day included some of the most famous and oldest samba schools, including Mangueira, Portela, Vila Isabel, Porto da Pedra, Mocidade, and Grande Rio. And once again, if you'd like to hear this year's samba songs from each school's second night, you can hear the songs from Mangueira, Portela, Vila Isabel, Porto da Pedra, Mocidade, and Grande Rio.

I'll have more tomorrow as Carnaval activities wind down and official winners are announced.

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (IV) - Photos from Rio on the First Night

I may have more later today or tomorrow, but the first night of the official Carnaval parades in Rio occurred last night. Here are photos from the parades of the samba schools of Salgueiro, Beija-Flor, Viradouro, Imperatriz Leopoldense, União da Ilha, and Unidos da Tijuca. As you can see, the parades themselves are much more than scanitly clad women, with remarkably complex floats and impeccable choreography (though the pictures have a harder time conveying that).

And for those who are interested, each samba school has its own song each year. For the first time, you can hear those songs by clicking the "play" button near the top of each school's page (União da Ilha, Imperatriz, Unidos da Tijuca, Viradouro, Salgueiro, and Beija-Flor).

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (III) - Stereotypes in Narratives of Brazil

Certainly, Carnaval is renowned for its sexualized atmosphere and the sense of partying going on, something that reflects more the puritanical attitudes of much of the English-speaking media than it does Brazilian society. Each year, reports on Carnaval manage to fall to base stereotypes of Brazil, as if this is the only time the country matters and it is simply as a land of sexual abandon. It happened last year, and probably every other year, and this year is no exception.

There is, of course, the understanding of Brazilians as only being serious about partying. Economics, social policy, education...none of that matters to Brazilians like partying.

Even stories that begin to delve into the very-real negative economic and social effects of Paes's policies can't help but close on the trope of Rio as site of forbidden sexual activity and sexual tourism. You do occasionally get decent stories that focus simply on Paes's policies and how they aren't as easily enforced as he would like, but these stories of what is effectively grassroots resistance are the exception that prove the rule on journalism during Carnaval.

Then there are stories that don't even bother to pretend to be serious, instead chronicling how many people kiss on the streets. Because really, that's what matters to all Brazilians.

Of course, some of the reports don't actually focus strictly on sexuality. This report on Eduardo Paes' obviously wrong-headed policies decided it would be nice to throw in a random, uncontextualized murder statistic, relating that "there were 4694 murders in Rio in the 10 months to October 2008." Of course, nothing in the report had been even remotely related to violent crimes; plus, while 4694 deaths is depressing no matter what, there's absolutely no mention of police violence, or even the fact that a majority of those murders are concentrated in the favelas. And nevermind the fact that the one incident of violence against a tourist this year didn't even result in his death, and that officials are worried about it. Nope - Rio is just a a den of sexualized sin and murder, and is to be portrayed as such.

Sure, some of these images reflect some aspects of Carnaval, but they're problematic for so many reasons. They rely on a very stereotypical exoticism of one city to equate it to all Brazilians (when there is Carnaval throughout the country, often with major regional differences). It treats Brazil as if this is the atmosphere all the time, rather than for one week a year. And by focusing on the party/sex/murder meme, it doesn't even begin to delve into the positive aspects of Brazil, nor the complexities of the society.

Why do research, when stereotypes are so easy?

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (II) - Racism and Class Warfare, in Rio and Beyond

So, Caranaval in Brazil has begun, even while Rio endures one of its most brutal heat-waves in decades (though Rio's most famous parades, which serve as the images and symbols of Carnaval worldwide, will not begin until tomorrow night, carrying on Monday night). It should be interesting to watch both during and after, for many reasons (including the fact that a judge this week OK'd 7-year-old Julia Lira serving as Rainha for the Viradouro samba school).

Of course, some are trying to denude Carnaval of some of the popular forms of expression and fun. Last year, I mentioned how Eduardo Paes was effectively launching class warfare in his efforts to limit beer sales during Carnaval (as part of his broader effort to strip Rio of much of its informal sector and street-life). Well, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes is at it again this year. While I have absolutely no problem in prohibiting people from pissing in the gutter or seeing the transformation of a brothel into a museum, I still believe the absolutist effort to clamp down on items like sales of snacks on the beach and prohibiting playing soccer before 5PM is not only ridiculous; it strips Rio not just of some of its vivacity, but also is directly trying to clamp down on popular forms of culture, expression, and leisure. The snacks and the soccer on the beach hurt absolutely nobody; they're simply ways for people to enjoy themselves in what is a public space. Paes's efforts to limit those legitimate and harmless forms of popular expression (which I dealt with in greater detail here) are appalling and ridiculous at all times of the year, but especially at Carnaval.

Nor is Paes alone this year on trying to counter cultural forms of expression. A mayor of a town in Minas Gerais has banned Brazilian funk and hip-hop from being played during Carnaval. Of course, this measure is offensively authoritarian - it's not just that you can't listen to it in public places, but that people caught listening to it anywhere "during the Carnival period would have to turn it off or face arrest and up to six months in prison." However, I know that some in Brazil, especially from the upper- and middle-classes, probably support this measure, as they believe it to be "noise" and "crass." Certainly, the lyrics are often offensive, but funk and hip-hop both come from the favelas of Rio and Sao Paulo, and are closely associated with the culture, social life, and struggles of the poor in Brazil (not coincidentally, they are also seen as music that reflects the "darker brown" segment of society). So any ban on these types of music is not only classist in trying to impose more-elite forms of popular culture on the ceremonies; it is also racist. And blaming the music for "inciting violence," rather than blaming more deep-seated problems like racism and the enormous gap between rich and poor in Brazil, only further reifies the mayor's authoritarianism, ignorance, classism, and racism.

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (I) - Pre-Carnaval

Next week marks the official start of Carnaval, though informal street celebrations began this weekend in Rio, as well as in other parts of Brazil. As always, even the informal blocos (street parades and musical groups) had a "theme," and this year, they apparently were promoting keeping Rio clean (text is Portuguese only, though the pictures are universal).

While the official Carnaval events haven't begun yet, there are always controversies leading up to and during the celebration, and this year is no different. The government is gearing up to hand out 55 million free condoms to citizens throughout the country as part of its ongoing campaign to promote safe sex and combat the spread of AIDS. Though the Catholic Church has condemned the government in the past for this program, the Church has remained fairly quiet this year.

Additionally, judges have eliminated a ban on religious symbols during the events of Carnaval, ruling that the ban impinged upon free speech. Officials originally established the ban in 2007, believing it to be "imprudent" to have crosses and saints alongside the, shall we say, not-so-saintly clad women and men in the parades. This story is amusing not only because it features people being uptight about the religious implications of having scantily-clad individuals in the vicinity of crosses and saints (rather than being uptight about the scantily-clad individuals); there's also the fact that, well, Carnaval is (nominally) a religious event, celebrating debauchery and gluttony in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, which begins the religious season of Lent and the accompanying sacrifices many make in that season. So the fact that religious symbols had been banned from an ostensibly religious commemoration is more than a little amusing.

On a far more serious note, the Viradouro samba school (they of the banned Holocaust float a few years ago) is stirring up a much different kind of controversy by picking Julia Lira, a 7-year-old girl, to serve as its Queen of the Drum Corps (Rainha). As the article points out, the role is usually reserved for women in their early-20s due to the fact that the Rainhas are often among the most scantily-clad (and, subsequently, most famous) participants in Carnaval. The symbol of the Rainha has come to be equated with the sexuality and beauty that many associate with Carnaval. Thus, the selection of a Lira for a position that is usually associated with sex and nudity is causing quite a stir, and a judge is considering even blocking the girl's participation. While I agree with the girl's father (who is also president of the samba school) that anybody thinking sex when they look at a 7-year-old has a real problem, that doesn't stop some people from looking at 7-year-olds and "feeling excitment," as Lira's father puts it, and I think the concern over the fallout of viewing children as sexual objects in a country that has struggled with childhood prostitution is a legitimate concern. Ultimately, while it is completely in Viradouro's rights to pick who they want for their Rainha, it's pretty clear that they like to make controversial decisions. It's not that they couldn't have gotten some young model or starlet; it's that they deliberately chose not to do so. In the end, I think it will actually be disappointing if Lira walks as a Rainha; after all, there are real, negative effects that her participation in this particular role could have on cultural and social attitudes. I think it would be preferable if Lira waited until she actually was in her late-teens/early-twenties to serve as Rainha; she can still participate in the samba parades before then, in a less sexualized-role. We'll just have to wait until later this week, though, to see just what happens.

Brazil - Only Newsworthy During Carnaval When Some Women Might Be Topless!!

Though I often put news stories and commentary up on Brazil, it's really hard to find many stories that are available in multiple mainstream media sources in the U.S. Usually, my posts will involve one link because that's all you can find usually find.

Apparently that "Brazil isn't interesting enough for mainstream media" rule flies right out the window during Carnaval, though, as several other journals (and those three are just a small sampling) are picking up the AP's report on a dancer who has allegedly set the record for "smallest genital covering ever." Nor is it limited to this - all of a sudden, a quick Google news search on Carnaval in Rio (ending this week) brings up numerous stories selling sex and dancers and little else. Nevermind that, as I've said before, Carnaval is a complex social event that involves enormous planning and preparation, detailed floats, parades, competing social clubs, celebration, somber topics, and societal issues. I haven't seen Brazil covered in the news this much since Bush traveled to Brazil back in 2007.

And yet, now that Brazil is back in the news, what do a majority of the stories focus on? The near-nakedness of some of the women. Does Carnaval include topless women? Yes. Yes, it does. But to say that that is the single thing that characterizes Carnaval is like saying that the Detroit Lions' football game is the single thing that characterizes Thanksgiving. There is so much that is going on in terms of complex societal relations, politics, and culture, all of which is worth celebrating and discussing and which goes well above and beyond a handful of scantily-clad women in a nation of well over 180 million people. And the U.S. decides to report on some good old-fashioned T&A.

Hey, American media - way to perpetuate steroetypes of the "exotic other" in Brazil.

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.

Carnaval 2008 in Rio: Photos from the Second Night

Last night was the second night of Carnaval's samba school parades in Rio last night, with the latter 6 schools marching. Once again, for any interested in seeing the photos of the cars, costumes, etc. (all 15 of you), you can find photos of Unidos da Tijuca, Beija-Flor (last year's champion), Grande Rio, Vila Isabel, Mocidade, and Imperatriz. It's still in Portuguese - I just haven't found comprehensive coverage in English, unfortunately. If you just click on the red links with "imagens" and/or "fotogaleria" in the articles, it will open the photos in a new window.

The champion of Carnaval, evaluated based upon organization, timing (all schools have to finish the entire parade in under 90 minutes), costumes, choreography, design, cars, and music/song, will be announced tomorrow, with one more parade of the champions on Saturday. Overall, I have to say the quality of the costumes (fantasias) and the cars this year was excellent, drawing on some great themes (the bicentennial of the arrival of the Portuguese court in Rio, fleeing from Napoleon and staying in Rio until independence in 1822, for example).

Carnaval 2008 in Rio: Photos from the First Night

Last night was the first of two nights of parades of samba-schools in Rio. Six schools paraded last night: Viradouro, Mangueira, Portela, Salgueiro (the latter three of which are some of the oldest schools in Rio), Porto da Pedra, and São Clemente all participated. For those interested in some photos that focus on the schools' displays (and go beyond photos of scantily-clad women), there are photos at the links. The stories are in Portuguese, but simply click on the links that say "fotogaleria" or "imagens" to see some of the images from each school (and if you really want an online translator for the photo captions, Babel Fish is generally adequate).

Carnaval, Fitness, and Gender

This article at the NY Times really does a fine job of detailing how much preparation goes into Carnaval at the individual level, involving improved diets, more exercise, and even (ugh) plastic surgery. It also reveals how gender-biased the process is against women. For the major Carnaval parade (tonight and tomorrow night in Rio), it is only the scantily-clad women who have to work out and make sure they are in shape. The article pays no attention to the men, who also are put through the physical wringer - samba schools have to perform for an hour and a half, and, among other things, men have to sing the same song, usually of 10 lines or so, for an hour and a half. Just last night, during the parades in São Paulo, they were showing the heart-rate of one of the samba school's singers, and it was 154 beats per minute, and he had to keep that up, in a huge, heavy costume, dancing around and leading the singers, for an hour and a half. Nor does it pay attention to the music, the songs, or the schools' themes (which, in São Paulo, included one school focusing on education, and another with the theme of global warming, including alas dressed like fish, polar bears, and icebergs).

Yet the article only mentions the women. It is true that much of the focus in the media and internationally falls on the scantily-clad women, who have come to embody the image of Carnaval worldwide. But it is so much more, between the parades, the different "alas" (sections) in their various outfits, such as the baianas, and numerous other sections that aren't nearly naked. Yes, Carnaval is a blast for Rio (though, as someone who hates dancing AND crowds, I stay away from the blocos), and it is one of the strongest, most popular, and best-known cultural expressions Brazil has. But with all of the debauchery and celebration, the role of objectifying young women still remains extremely high, to the point that, again, many see the need to get plastic surgery just to look "perfect". I think this is a bit of a shame (and probably tied to the commercialization of Carnaval in the past couple of generations), but it is important to keep in mind as Carnaval is celebrated.

And for images of São Paulo's carnaval (including pictures of the floats and other sections of the samba schools that aren't just the rainhas), see here and here, as well as the links included in those stories (it's in Portuguese, but the images speak for themselves).

Viradouro's Controversial Carnaval Float

As is probably clear given the ornateness and complexities of the event, Carnaval in Rio is not some thrown-together event. It takes months of preparation in deciding a theme, getting the costumes ready, composing your samba school's song, choreographing everything, and of course, making the floats. Given these complexities and the fact that Carnaval in Rio is an extremely commercial event (not in the perjorative sense), there is a Carnaval comittee that oversees the themes and makes sure everything is OK for public presentation. Sometimes it has to veto certain items, such as in 1980, when one school had the Christ statue dressed as a homeless man (a ridiculous rejection that refused to face the poverty of Rio).

However, this year, the committee rightly rejected a float based on the Holocaust. Viradouro, a samba school in Niteroi (across the bay from Rio de Janeiro) had planned on using a float that showed emaciated, contorted bodies and clothing similar to that of the victims of concentration camps, all under the banner "It's horrifying." While designer Raul Barros is correct that Carnaval is often used to remind people what's going on in the world (samba songs and themes have often had political messages), I didn't quite understand how portraying the Jewish holocaust was going to reveal what is (and not what was) going on in the world. I agree more with Israelite Federation of Rio de Janeiro's head, Sérgio Niskier, who comments in the article that ""Really, it makes no sense to highlight this issue with drums and dancing girls when there are still survivors of that horror and many of their descendants who carry the mark of that tragedy in their skin."

I think he's right on this. I don't think Barros or Viradouro meant any harm or offense, and maybe breaking up the generally-festive nature of Carnaval with a reminder of atrocities in the world isn't such a bad idea, but this just doesn't seem to be the appropriate float to do that (not that I know what the appropriate float to do that would look like).

And the Carnaval committee agreed, threatening Viradouro with a 250,000 real fine if they went through with the float and a person dressed in a costume that looked like Hitler. In response, Viradouro agreed to undo the float, and is now replacing it (quickly, given that the parade lasts 2 nights in the next 3 days) with a float titled "Freedom of Expression". This is a not-too-subtle commentary on how Viradouro feels about the ruling, and that's fine. I still feel OK with the ruling, though. Just because one has "freedom of expression" doesn't mean you shouldn't try to be a little more respectful. Additionally, Viradouro's "freedom of expression" hasn't exactly been removed; if it were, they wouldn't have any say in what their floats would portray. I think the Carnaval committee has simply exercised its control over the conversation that Carnaval is having, and I think in this case, the ruling was correct. Still, I'm eager to see Viradouro's parade this weekend.

Carnaval, Free Birth Control, and the Catholic Church

Much like last year,* the Catholic Church in Brazil is showing its reactionary views towards birth control at Carnaval. The celebration starts Saturday, and once again, health departments are giving out free condoms (and, in Recife, Pernambuco, the morning-after pill) as a way to promote safe sex and deter unwanted pregnancies. In the wake of last year's campaign (slogan: "With condoms, the good time goes on after the party," a phrase which could be seen anywhere from billboards to the metro here in Rio), the health department is promoting the condoms this year with teh slogan "Good in bed means using a condom." Despite the government's stance to try to combat AIDS and other diseases, the Church hasn't changed (not that I expected it to):

The church has nothing against having fun during the Carnival, but the banalization of human sexuality is something we cannot tolerate," Bishop Antonio Augusto Dias Duarte of the Life and Family Commission of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops said last week.

This isn't really surprising, of course, but it is still frustrating that unmarried men who've never had sex are concerned with "banalization" of the act. Still, I'm really glad to see the government (and much of the population) basically ignoring the Church** on this one, and promoting safe sex. Catholic leaders and the extremely devout can hem and haw that this will "encourage" people to have sex, but this is baloney, and the government's doing all it can to help prevent the spread of disease or unwanted pregnancies is a great idea.

*As in an interesting and fun aside, the image from the first story for last year actually shows the condoms, each with a different soccer team's symbol on it. It is probably a brilliant way to promote condom use, as Brazilian fans are dyed-in-the-wool devotees to their teams in a way that few Americans in any sport are.

**I also love the fact that, in the Catholic News Network story on this, it glossarizes the story under "excommunication". Retrograde views call for retrograde categorizations, I guess.

Carnaval Outside of Rio

I've commented before on Seth Kugel's colonialist writing style for the NY Times Travel section, and this article doesn't lose any of that tone, but Kugel does have an article worth reading about Carnaval outside of Rio. This year, I am unfortunately trapped in Rio for Carnaval (which starts next Friday). Last year, I was fortunate enough to escape Rio for Carnaval, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. Sure, Rio's celebration is quite a spectacle, but it's also expensive and loud, everything shuts down, and the city gets flooded with tourists, and the celebration itself has become so commercial that some of the grassroots expressions that Carnaval originally established have disappeared.

That's certainly not the case in other parts of the country. "Carnaval" is not one uniform celebration across the country, and Kugel's article chronicling 4 different options in 4 very different parts of the country just further demonstrates that fact. Every region has its own celebration, its own cultural expression, and each Carnaval brings its own cultural and regional particularities into place. Racial and sexual identities that tend to be marginalized in rural societies are on full display and celebration. The rhythms and music, while not professional, are still extremely compelling, and as I commented last year, the fact that Carnaval outside of Rio is far more a labor of love than a commercial enterprise gives it even more meaning (at least to me). For anybody who considers coming to Brazil for Carnaval, or who is just interested in Carnaval, it is well worth checking out Kugel's article, just to see how much more Brazil has to offer outside of Rio.

Notes on Carnaval (II): Carnaval outside of Rio

As I mentioned, I did what any logical person does when Brazil’s biggest holiday struck this past week: I left Rio (the combo of hot weather, lots of crowds, music played very loudly outside my apartment, and litter everywhere, all while everything except the bars shut down, struck me as a little less than appealing). Instead, I went to Carandaí, in Minas Gerais (situated next to Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais is one of the biggest agricultural producers of Brazil, specializing in cheese and dairy products and horticulture, among other things). We stayed at a ranch house just outside of Carandaí, a city of about 22,000, about an hour and a half away from Belo Horizonte (the largest city in Minas Gerais, about 2,300,000). This trip was supposed to provide an opportunity to get out of Rio for a few days and enjoy things like stars, birds singing, and no car horns honking. However, it turned into far more I could imagine on Sunday night, when we went to the “city” to see the Carnaval festivities there.

It turns out, Carnaval isn’t just a big parade in Bahia (in the Northeast), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. Even the smallest places celebrate it with huge festivals that shut the streets down and result in giant street parties. However, getting outside of Rio and seeing Carnaval elsewhere is one of the best things you can do during Carnaval weekend. Sure, you can stay in the city and see the samba schools parade through the sambódromo, but this is remarkably expensive (sometimes upwards of 200 dollars), and as amazing as Carnaval is in Rio, it has become amazingly commercialized since the 1960s, attracting tourists and celebrities in ungodly numbers. Carnaval is still an amazing cultural experience in Rio, but more than one person has lamented its “bastardization” and distancing from the original popular cultural expressions of the favelas that served as the origin of Carnaval in the early 1900s.

When you get outside of Rio, that commercialization isn’t present. Instead, as we learned in Carandaí, the parade, with all of the different costumes, the music, the floats, is a labor of love, done by people who want to celebrate the holiday and the unique cultural expressions it offers while not being concerned in winning prizes, getting more money, etc. The basic theme was the same – the celebration of the various cultural influences in Brazil (particularly African and indigenous), all wrapped up in a Catholic ceremony. Thus, there were floats with smiling African statues, zebras, tropical fruits, etc. There also were the stereotypical (but true) scantily clad women (and men dressed as women) dancing on the floats, and the “alas” (sections) dressed differently (including the Bahainas, older women dressed in traditional clothes from Bahia). The floats and costumes were not as grand as they are in Rio, but they were still amazingly ornate, intricate, and obviously created with a lot of love (and patience). It never stopped being amazing to me, seeing all this up close and in person (something that you can never do in Rio – even if you’re in person, you aren’t up close), and what is more, everybody in the parade was having fun. Like I said, it was truly a labor of love, a celebration of culture in which everybody had a good time, with none of the commercial overtones present elsewhere.

In an interesting aside, there was significant participation of two groups often excluded or segrated from public ceremonies and celebrations: Afro-descendents, and homosexuals. While his argument is far more nuanced than I can do justice here, it struck me that James Green’s suggestion that Carnaval provides a rare chance for homosexuals in Brazil to occupy public spaces as a group (even if their power is tenuous) seemed to apply not just to Rio, but to Carandaí, as well. Yes, many of the gay community were dressed in exaggerated clothing and/or makeup and masks that sometimes “hid” their true identity (i.e., “João Batista da Silva, the guy at the clothing store”). Nonetheless, they were present in an obvious way that it seems only comes around twice a year in Brazil: Carnaval, and the Gay Pride parade at the end of June (the gay pride parade in Rio in 2005 attracted over 1 million people). Likewise, Afro-descendants were at the center of the celebration as well, both in terms of participation and in terms of the themes of the parade. Sure, many white and “brown” people were in the parade as well, but it was one of the few places where you saw whites, “browns,” and blacks all together on equal levels. It hit upon the perfect irony of Carnaval, for there was the open presence of Afro-descendants and homosexuals in Minas, which, as my girlfriend pointed out, is the most Catholic, homophobic, and racist state, yet has the highest populations of homosexuals and Afro-descendants in Brazil.

At any rate, if you are ever in Brazil during Carnaval, there are plenty of options, but given the events of this past weekend, I highly recommend you leave Rio (after all – you can see the Carnaval there on TV), and get to a more out-of-the-way place to see popular culture as it operates at the grassroots levels still.

Carnaval 2007 (I): Rio de Janeiro

My recent absence from Alterdestiny can be solely blamed on one event: Carnaval (I assure you, Matt, I haven’t resigned in protest – welcome aboard). Since last Friday afternoon, everything has been shut down over this event (which is more unreal than I ever imagined). In response to one of the biggest (if not the biggest) holidays in Brazil, I did what any non-native does: I left Rio (more on that in a later post). However, you can’t escape the happenings in Rio during Carnaval, even if you leave the city.

For those unfamiliar, Carnival here in Rio usually lasts two nights (Sunday and Monday). From about 9 PM until about 7 AM the following day, numerous samba schools parade through the Sambódromo (the lenghthy parade-ground for Carnaval). These schools have a major theme (for example, the Madureira’s floats and presentation revolved around the Portuguese language), several floats (5-10), dozens of alas (there is no English equivalent – it’s basically differently-themed and –dressed groups from the same samba school), and a song written for their school that they sing. Each school gets 90 minutes to parade, and is judged on items such as entrance, costumes, floats, harmony (in the theme and in the parade), and timing (going over 90 minutes leads to loss of points). Additionally, like futebol here, there are three “categories,” and the two best from Categories II and III move up to I and II, respectively, while the lowest two from Categories I and II fall to II and III, respectively.

This year, Beija-Flor (a samba school from Nilópolis, a city just outside of Rio de Janeiro proper) won. What I saw of their parade on TV (the event is nationally broadcast) was something else. However, in an interesting side-note Beija-Flor is particularly fascinating in that it never was a major contender in Category I until the mid-1970s, right in the heart of the most repressive phase of Brazil’s dictatorship. In this time, while many of the oldest samba schools (such as Portela, Mangueira, and Vila Isabel) were writing song that subtly criticized the dictatorship, Beija-Flor was gaining fame (and victories) with songs that celebrated the dictatorship with lines such as “Commerce and industry/strengthen our capital/which in the economic sector/has projected itself into the global economy” and “O Mobral [the housing organization in Brazil], its role/for so many Brazilians/it opened doors to attaining an education” (it’s far more poetic in Portuguese, I assure you). While such pro-dictatorship rhetoric has disappeared, it is interesting to note the songs upon which some of Beija-Flor’s previous victories have been based (though it must be stressed that the song iis most definitely but a small part of the total presentation at Carnaval).

For the next few months, the samba schools will lay low, trying to decide themes, floats, special guests (both actors/actresses and singers) who they will want to participate in their school, songs, etc. One can safely say, though, that other schools are already hoping to displace Beija-Flor next year.

(The material on Beija-Flor’s lyrics during the dictatorship come from Luiz Edmundo Tgavares and Adriano de Freixo’s article “O Samba em tempos de ditadura: as transformações no universo das grandes escolas do Rio de Janeiro nas décadas de 1960 e 1970” [“Samba in times of Dictatorship: Transformations in the Univers of the Great Schools of Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and 1970s”], in A Ditadura em Debate: Estado e Sociedade nos anos do autoritarismo [The Dictatorship in Debate: State and Society during the years of authoritarianism], edited by Adriano de Freixo and Oswald Munteal Filho.)