Rio de Janeiro on Sunday started its annual carnival parades in a swirl of glitter, sequins and barely covered skin, an over-the-top spectacle that this year is packed with political commentary on Brazil’s far-right government.
Vying for the title of carnival champions, the city’s 13 top samba schools get about one hour each to wow spectators and judges with elaborate shows flush with scantily clad dancers, small armies of drummers and huge floats built on seemingly impossible feats of engineering.
The event has taken a particularly political turn after a year under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has deeply divided Brazil with his overt attacks on just about every cause close to the carnival community’s heart: diversity, homosexuality, environmentalism, the arts.
Photo: AFP
“This carnival has a lot of protests, because we want the world to see what’s going on here. There are lots of people who are against this very extreme government,” said Camila Rocha, dressed as an enormous gemstone as she prepared to enter the “Sambadrome,” the massive avenue-turned-stadium where the groups parade.
Her samba school, Estacio de Sa, kicked things off with a show on the theme of “rocks” that featured floats covered in dinosaurs (prehistoric rocks), sparkling diamonds (precious rocks) and, finally, the moon.
Director Rosa Magalhaes said that was meant to evoke the Earth turning into a barren, moon-like rock — the kind of environmental catastrophe that critics warn the world could face if Brazil does not do a better job protecting the Amazon rainforest.
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 85.3 percent in Bolsonaro’s first year in office.
Reigning champions Mangueira then threw religion into the mix.
Their show depicted Jesus returning as a resident of one of Rio’s impoverished favela neighborhoods and preaching a message of tolerance — only to be beaten and persecuted by the police.
Mangueira presented various revisionist versions of Jesus — black, a woman, a man in eyeshadow and rouge.
That drew backlash even before the parade started from a key group of Bolsonaro supporters, Christian fundamentalists, who sent the school a petition calling the show “blasphemous.”
Other schools have chosen themes such as fake news in Brazil’s 2018 presidential race and black and women’s rights.
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