(Rio de Janeiro) In a din of percussion, lightning and songs, the Rio Carnival set off on Sunday evening to experience its strongest moment: the sumptuous parades of the prestigious samba schools.
“It’s the big day,” we hear. Or rather the first of two long nights, which each see six schools offer a sumptuous spectacle at the Sambodrome, an enclosure created 40 years ago by the architect Oscar Niemeyer.
“I cried before, during and after. It’s emotion upon emotion. I have no words”: Wanda Ferreira, 33, is still overwhelmed after walking down the legendary Marques de Sapucai avenue, a 700-meter-long artery flanked by stands with 70,000 seats.
She marched for the Salgueiro school, which chose to address a burning issue: the fate of the Yanomami, a people of the Amazon facing a humanitarian crisis caused by the incursions of illegal gold miners, leading to pollution, undernourishment and deaths.
A tractor that looks like a voracious monster, a nature that (literally) bleeds, but also the grandeur and resistance of natives the size of giants: the evocation is powerful.
PHOTO MAURO PIMENTEL, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
If the Yanomami drama has reached terrible proportions under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), his left-wing successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is struggling to reverse the situation.
For Kevin Rodriguis, it was “very important” to address this theme. “We came to show everyone what is happening in the Amazon, the deforestation, how the Yanomami people are treated,” said the 22-year-old young man after being extracted from his tank by a crane.
A sign that the fate of the indigenous people is mobilizing consciences, another school, Grande Rio, has chosen to depict the mythology of the Tupinamba people through the central figure of the jaguar.
Monumental “allegorical” floats, thousands of dancers in sparkling costumes, rhythm sections to wake the dead, sophisticated light shows: every year the schools try to outdo themselves in front of the public and the thousands of Brazilians glued to their televisions.
Gigantism at risk
The 12 most renowned schools have been preparing for a year to win the title of champion after a parade of 60 to 70 minutes each. Their fate will be decided by jurors on the basis of precise criteria, quality of floats and costumes, choice of theme or choreography.
Porto da Pedra School stands to lose valuable points due to a double disappointment – a misfortune that is not uncommon here.
She first lost a piece of a tank right in front of the jury. Then she hooked and dragged a safety barrier: a woman suffered scratches on her leg, according to municipal health services.
Like Porto da Pedra, based in the poor suburb of Sao Gonçalo, samba schools are mostly rooted in favelas and working-class neighborhoods.
PHOTO TITA BARROS, REUTERS
Beyond the magic, they talk about Brazil, its history and its identity: praise of regional traditions, exaltation of little-known black figures, or well-known ones like the singer Alcione.
Samba was invented a century ago by communities descended from African slaves forcibly taken to Brazil. Since then, she has been the emblem of popular culture in Rio.
“Playful citizenship”
Police deployment around the Sambodrome to ward off acute crime in Rio, measures to counter a dengue epidemic: it is a question of not spoiling a party with an enormous economic impact – 5.3 billion reais (1.44 million dollars) expected for the economy during the few weeks of carnival fever.
Alexandre Reis, 52, is a technician at the Beija-Flor school. A few hours before entering the scene, his team was handling an emergency: faulty lights on a huge tank.
“We give our sweat and our blood because we love” this school, he says.
At the same time, the street carnival, led by the “blocos” and their processions with varied musical styles, takes place during the day throughout the city.
The great black writer Conceiçao Evaristo, honored on Saturday with a “bloco” in the chic district of Ipanema, known for its dream beach, formulated this wish for her country crippled by inequality: “May this moment of celebration transform” the Brazilian society “and that everyone is integrated, not through playful citizenship, but through legal citizenship”.