Brazil’s famed Rio carnival has a political tone this year
RIO DEJANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro kicked off its annual carnival parades on Sunday 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 one hour each to wow spectators and judges with elaborate shows flush with scantily clad dancers, small armies of drummers and floats built on seemingly impossible feats of engineering.
The event has taken on a particularly political tone after a year under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has deeply divided Brazil with his attacks on just about every cause close to the carnival community’s heart: diversity, homosexuality, environmentalism, the arts.
“This carnival has a lot of protests because we want the world to see what’s going on here (in Brazil). 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 gigantic 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, moonlike rock - the kind of environmental catastrophe that critics warn the world could face if Brazil does not do a better job protecting the Amazon.
Bolsonaro has faced condemnation from environmentalists and the international community over his policies on the world’s largest rainforest.
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 85.3 per cent in his first year in office.
Another top samba school, reigning champions Mangueira, threw religion into the mix.
They are planning a show about Jesus returning to Earth in one of Rio’s impoverished favela neighborhoods with “a black face, Indian blood and a woman’s body,” and preaching a message of tolerance.