My blessed women, my blessed women, run the lyrics of a samba-enredo (samba anthem or theme song). This song, written in honour of the most celebrated women in Brazilian history, will be sung on 27 February by at least 3,500 foliões (festival goers) from Porto da Pedra, one of the biggest samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. It is Carnival time in Rio.
The foliões congregating for the annual event will not be much concerned with politics, but Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira is. As the president of the Porto da Pedra, Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira does politics for a living. In fact, he is widely known as the prince of São Gonçalo.
São Gonçalo, where Porto da Pedra is based, is a community of 950,000 people in Rio. With a literacy rate of 95% and 199 health centres, 57 of which are public, São Gonçalo has much to offer. It has a local economy of $2.5 billion, and the city hall manages costs of $125 million a year and (in typically Brazilian fashion) almost 80% of this is spent on its employee and administrative costs alone.
Much of São Gonçalo's wealth is down to Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira, and he is proud of its huge achievements: "We have doctors trained in nine different medical professions; we have a circus school for kids; we distribute food to at least 200 families; we have social workers; we are opening a dentist surgery for the community. I take care of at least 1,500 people." As he speaks I notice a big picture of a tiger the trademark of Porto da Pedra behind his desk. "But that is my wife's job", he concludes.
One of Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira's most notable investments more than $1.5 million is on a very special project that happens just once a year: Porto da Pedra's ninety-minute presentation at the top stage of Rio's Carnival parade, the sambódromo.
Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira's office is on the third floor of the Porto da Pedra premises, and elsewhere in the building, it is not only the dancers who are busy with preparations. On the floors below, builders and painters are working on ten elaborately designed, custom-made "floats" for the carnival parade, and the rhythm section is busy rehearsing, after just coming back from a TV recording.
"This is a very big year for us. We made a lot of investments", says Porto da Pedra's carnavalesco (carnival organiser) Cahê Rodrigues. During our conversation he is distracted by an employee working at a float, and he calls out: "Are you going to do it that way?"
Numbers is what samba is all about. The eighty samba schools in Rio provide the city with 30,000 permanent jobs and manage around $100 million a year. Porto da Pedra itself is housed in the enormous "Samba City" building complex a $35 million project begun by Rio's mayor César Maia that aims to provide a museum and a space where all the samba schools can operate. 100,000 dancers will be at sambódromo for the first two days of the parade presentations, and the whole event will be broadcast to more than 2 billion people. During this season, 700,000 tourists come to Rio, bringing almost $500 million to the city; all the hotels will be at full capacity.
"It is big business, but the community is the heart of the schools", says Shuma Schumacher, the author of a special reference book on the Brazilian women who are taking part in Porto da Pedra's 2006 presentation.
At the "heart of the school" is the Crescer e Viver (to grow and live) initiative, launched by Porto da Pedra in 2003. Crescer e Viver is a private philanthropic organisation that builds partnerships, for example with UNESCO, to work within the community. According to its statute, Crescer e Viver is especially interested in promoting the welfare of local children, and investing in educational, artistic and cultural activities. Its ultimate aim is to "(help) them to participate in the construction of a more just and democratic society."
Another big community around Rio, Vila Isabel, will also participate with around 3,500 foliões at the sambódromo. Vila Isabel has accomplished a feat that has evaded even Porto da Pedra: winning the top prize and the biggest honour at the Carnival in 1988.
"A lot of people get involved with the schools," says Renata Bonfim, a young carioca who has been working for years at Vila Isabel. "From the people who fix small details to ensure the whole carnival fantasy runs smoothly to those people who clean headquarters. There are also a lot of people around the president. Those who live in this carnival world take it very seriously. It becomes a ritual of daily life, and sometimes for all your life. Some girls in the community start very young; they become dancers, and sometimes even become the queen of the rhythm section [a great local honour]."
The samba schools are slowly moving away from the violent past of gamblers and murders and professionalising themselves. With the sponsorship support of a soap brand, a Brazilian perfume company and some subsidies (and no dirty money), Porto da Pedra will be dancing on 27 February at the sambódromo trying to win the coveted top prize of Rio's carnival or at least praying to stay in the grupo especial (elite group).
On the official Porto da Pedra website, Uberlan Jorge de Oliveira says to his community that "besides all suffering and tears, victory shines for the ones who have faith and work hard."
These photographs were taken by Marcelo Novaes; with thanks to Mariana Taboada
