Amid a conservative wave that brought far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to power, this year's Carnival in Rio will feature irreverent, in-your-face parades highlighting the role of women, blacks and indigenous people in Brazil. The traditional "escolas" or samba dance troupes that will march along Marques de Sapucai Avenue in the so-called Sambodromo arena also face another year of budgetary restraints imposed by city officials. The songs of Mangueira, one of the city's most traditional troupes and winner of the samba competition in , aim to spread "the history that history does not tell" - that of grassroots heroes who fought losing battles and do not show up in in children's school books.
Indians, blacks, mulatos and poor people did not end up as statues. Their names are not in the school books," Mangueira artistic director Leandro Vieira said in explaining the plot of this year's performance by his company. Mangueira is dusting off little-known names such as that of 17th century black female warrior Dandara, or the Cariri, who were indigenous rebels. The troupe also argues that Portugal's colonization of what is now Brazil was more an invasion than a discovery.
The troupe also honors black city councillor Marielle Franco, a respected and outspoken defender of human rights in the slums of Rio, who was shot dead in March of last year. She grew up in one of those so-called favelas. She is a favela girl who beat the odds, went to school and defended human rights. She is an example for women, mainly for our girls, who think that because they are black or because of where they live they cannot have opportunities," said Bastos.
Portela, another big-name troupe at the Rio Carnival, will pay homage this year to a singer named Clara Nunes, a huge star in the s and the first performer in that era to defend publicly - in her songs, attire and commentary - the country's Afro-Brazilian religions. Today in Brazil "there are people who suffer discrimination because of the color of their skin, their religion, their sexual preference," said Portela spokesman Raphael Perucci.
Meanwhile the nearly century-old Madureira samba company is putting the finishing touches on its costumes and floats in a cavernous warehouse and keeping everything secret. Since a former evangelical pastor, Marcelo Crivella, became mayor of Rio in , city funding for the samba troupes has been cut in half.
