What is Carnaval? What is that special public feast that Brazilians
call Carnaval? The English word "carnival" does not mean the same as our
Portuguese (and French) "Carnaval." The English expression that most closely
translates Carnaval is the French term Mardi Gras, which means "Fat Tuesday."
Carnaval has become a yearlong event that happens practically every month in different
capitals or big cities in the Brazilian Northeast. So there is no need to wait an entire
year for the next Carnaval. There is always a Carnaval coming by.
By Bernadete Beserra
When I went to the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval in Los Angeles for the first time, it
took me a while to convince myself that I was in the right place. How could people dressed
like that be going to a Brazilian Carnaval ball? My first thought was that either they did
not know what to expect from Carnaval or the weather was destroying the spirit of Carnaval
that I was used to. Indeed, most of the people I met at the Hollywood Palladium entrance
were dressed in dark colors. Long black dresses with high heels were relatively common
attire for women, and nice slacks and casual shirts for men.
That Saturday night (February 21, 1998) it was raining. The temperature in Los Angeles
was below 50° F. It was 8:30 PM when my husband and I got in line to pick up our tickets.
Strangely enough, we did not hear any Portuguese. We could only hear parts of
conversations in English or Spanish! As a matter of fact, the two people in charge of the
entrance were not Brazilians. I spoke to them in Portuguese and one of them did not even
bother to try to understand me. The other one asked me: "¿Hablas Español?"
If most of the people were not "appropriately" dressed for a Brazilian club
Carnaval, many of them were dressing even less appropriately for a rock concert,
suggesting that something different should be happening at the Hollywood Palladium that
night. For instance, our neighbors in line, two blonde American girls and a Colombian guy,
wore costumes. Their excitement and anticipation could be seen by their helpless talk. I
asked the girl next to me if she had ever been at the Palladium Carnaval. Her reply was
negative. She explained that she and her sister were there because her sister’s boyfriend,
a Colombian, had been to Rio de Janeiro’s Carnaval and wanted to show them the craziness
of Brazilian Carnaval.
Since I have been insisting on clothing, what does it mean to be appropriately dressed
for a Brazilian club Carnaval? In Brazil it usually means to be dressed in clothes and
shoes that allow you to jump and dance freely. In that fashion, people usually wear short
skirts or pants, and colorful T-shirts. The Carnaval playful spirit also requires that
some people wear fantasias (costumes), and they do so for the sake of the game,
whether costume contests are expected or not. What, however, is notoriously an
indispensable component of the Brazilian club or street Carnaval is the colorfulness of
the outfit. In other words, color is certainly one of those symbols of joy and happiness
connected to the general spirit of Carnaval that cannot be missed.
By the way, what is Carnaval? Or in other words, what is that special public feast that
Brazilians call Carnaval? First, it is necessary to clarify that the English word
"carnival" does not mean the same as our Portuguese (and French)
"Carnaval." As a matter of fact, the English expression that most closely
translates "Carnaval" is the French expression "Mardi Gras", which
means "Fat Tuesday." For the word "carnival" Webster’s New World
Dictionary lists the following definitions: 1. The period of feasting and revelry just
before Lent, including Mardi Gras; 2. A reveling or time of revelry; festivity;
merrymaking 3. A traveling commercial entertainment with side-shows, rides, games, etc. 4.
An organized program of festivities, contests, etc. Even though the first two definitions
are equivalent to the ones we find for the word Carnaval in Portuguese dictionaries, in
the United States the word Carnaval usually refers to the last two definitions (3 and 4).
Cathy Bruington, an American woman who works at the University of California, Riverside,
and has attended the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval several times, explains: "It took
me a while to figure out that Mardi Gras is the same thing as Carnival. But I had no clue
at all that Mardi Gras was celebrated anywhere else in the world, besides New Orleans. I
don’t think that many Americans do."
Yet the idea of amusement is clearly present in both words, but what we call Carnaval
in Brazil has a meaning closer to the one that Bakhtin (1968) found for Carnavals in
medieval Europe. In the Introduction of Rabelais and his World, Bakhtin summarizes
the elements that confer to Carnaval its uniqueness:
"Carnaval does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not acknowledge any
distinction between actors and spectators. Footlights would destroy a Carnaval, as the
absence of footlights would destroy a theatrical performance. Carnaval is not a spectacle
seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea
embraces all the people. While Carnaval lasts, there is no other life outside it. During
Carnaval time life is subject only to its laws, that is, the laws of its own freedom. It
has a universal spirit; it is a special condition of the entire world, of the world’s
revival and renewal, in which all take part. Such is the essence of Carnaval, vividly felt
by all its participants."
Bakhtin also explains that the spirit of revival and renewal, which is the essence of
Carnaval, "was most clearly expressed and experienced in the Roman Saturnalias,
perceived as a true and full, though temporary, return of Saturn’s golden age upon earth.
The tradition of the Saturnalias remains unbroken and alive in the medieval Carnaval,
which expressed the universal renewal and was vividly felt as an escape from the usual
official way of life."
At a first glance, the theatrical performance of the samba schools parade in Rio de
Janeiro does not seem to have much in common with the medieval idea of Carnaval. However,
they are both fed by the same idea of renewal and the need to escape from the usual
official way of life. A similar idea of renewal is present in all other expressions of
Carnaval in different regions of Brazil.
Olinda and
Salvador
The Rio de Janeiro Carnaval has been the model of Brazilian Carnaval diffused
worldwide. Proclaimed in a well-known song lyrics as "the biggest show on
earth", the samba-school parade in Rio de Janeiro is only one among the many facets
of street Carnaval in Rio. Beside the Carnaval parade, which is an obviously centered
spectacle (with well-defined actors and spectators), all the other expressions of Carnaval
in Rio de Janeiro as well as in Brazil as a whole are more or less decentralized,
including Carnaval balls.
Another element common to all famous versions of Carnaval in Brazil is that they happen
in cities where slavery took place, that is, they are strongly connected with the presence
of Africans and its different blends with the Portuguese. The Carnaval of Olinda,
Pernambuco, for instance, is considered the most democratic (or socialist?) Carnaval in
the country. Because of being very well attended by people from all social classes, it has
become the favorite Carnaval among Brazilian progressive politicians, intellectuals and
artists. Olinda is also the Carnaval most influenced by European medieval style. For
instance, wind instruments predominate over percussion instruments and the dance, which is
totally different from samba, is called frevo.
The blocos carnavalescos (Carnaval groups) are the most important organization
of the Olinda Carnaval. A bloco is a group of people that get together to
"play" Carnaval. There is always some sort of identification between the members
of a bloco: neighbors, widows, gays, "virgins", teachers, students, and
so forth. Some blocos take the names of their legendary founders, for instance, one
of the Olinda’s most famous blocos is Potato’s Bloc in honor of its founder, Mr.
Batata. Each bloco has a band, which is composed by the members of the bloco
themselves; a porta-estandarte (the standard’s bearer), and the others members who
may or may not be wearing a special fantasia. In some cases there is nothing to
distinguish the members of a bloco from people who join in during the parade. In
general, people follow each bloco for a little while and come back to a certain
place where their party agreed to meet.
As well known as Olinda’s, the Carnaval of Salvador, Bahia, is a clear expression of
the hegemony of African culture over European. There, the percussion instruments
predominate over others in the musical bands. Different African groups have different blocos
and members of each bloco are distinguished by their diverse fantasias. The
music varies from one tradition to another. During the parade the members of a bloco
are separated from people in general by a rope held by private security guards.
About 30 years ago, the incorporation of the electric guitar in the Bahia Carnaval
produced a revolution in the way of "playing" Carnaval in the whole Northeast.
Even though named after the number of people who invented it, trio-elétrico now
refers to any electric band playing on a motorized stage (a truck especially refitted for
this purpose). They have become a second version of the Carnaval spectacle, but, unlike
the samba-school parade, everyone can follow the trio-elétrico and there are no
tickets to buy, unless one wants to be inside the rope.
It is also part of the Bahia Carnaval tradition to have a couple of Carnavals outside
the conventional time for Carnaval in other cities of the state, since the big Carnaval is
concentrated in the capital, Salvador. These Carnavals are called micaretas.
Over the last eight years, the trios-elétricos spread micaretas
everywhere, transforming them in one of the biggest cultural businesses in the country.
They have made Carnaval a yearlong event that happens practically every month in different
capitals or big cities of the region. Hence there is no need to wait an entire year for
the next Carnaval. There is always a Carnaval coming by. And the fashion has been
exported. Last year, for example, the northeastern Brazilians living in Miami had their
first international micareta.
Tutti-frutti hats and
"dental floss"
As a matter of fact, Carnaval has been one of the most important bases for creating
stereotypes of Brazil and Brazilians all over the world. I’d say that the international
spread of a Brazilian image connected to Carnaval was promoted by the Hollywood movie
industry during the 1940s. Walt Disney’s Los Tres Caballeros (1945), for instance,
is an example of a very romanticized image of Latin America that the United States created
and diffused worldwide during the times of the Good Neighbor Policy, when the U.S. was
interested in creating alliances with South American countries to guarantee its political
and economic control over this part of the world. The movie depicts Brazil as the land of
samba, joy, jokes and Carnaval, and Carmen Miranda as the embodiment of Brazilian and
Latin American female grace and rhythm.
Brazilian women and Brazilian artists and press have always complained that the
Hollywood version of Brazil and Brazilians was way too Americanized! Aware of the
Brazilian disclaimer of her image of Brazilianness, Carmen Miranda tried to explain that
she was still very much Brazilian and also emphasized that in a song that became very
popular "Disseram que eu voltei americanizada" (They said that I came
back very Americanized). Despite her particular efforts and declarations, the Hollywood
image was stronger and prevailed over less powerful versions, including her own.
Today, among the new generations, there are not many people who know about Carmen
Miranda and her tutti-frutti hat. Carmen Miranda’s image of sensuality has been replaced
with the idea of sensuality carved out by the samba-school parade in Rio de Janeiro. Thus
it has been a while since images of dental floss bikinis replaced images of tutti-frutti
hats. Still these stereotypes portray Brazilians as joyful, sexy, beautiful, happy, crazy,
playful, colorful, funny and promiscuous. Despite reactions against the stereotype, these
are the images promoted by the exportation of Carnaval. Brazilians living in Brazil or
abroad generally know the limitations of such images because they know about different
ways of being Brazilian as well as having at least heard about different ways of
celebrating Carnaval.
Carnaval
for Export
I believe that two major factors contributed to the spread of Brazilian Carnaval
worldwide: the international commercialization of TV programs and Brazilian emigration,
which has notoriously increased during the last 20 years. In the process of transnational
acculturation, samba and Carnaval are, with soccer, the best-known elements of Brazilian
culture. They work as bases for different social processes or institutions such as
Brazilian cultural business abroad, congregation of Brazilian immigrants and the creation
of a Brazilian transnational identity.
Carnaval and samba also work as privileged opportunities in the market of international
emigration. In other words, by founding samba-schools or becoming samba teachers or simply
sambistas many Brazilian immigrants have gone up in the social ladder. If such
social ascent does not necessarily mean considerable amounts of money, it means at least
prestige, respect and an enlargement of social networks.
In the recent history of Brazilian international emigration, Brazilians have been led
in one way or another to identify with and reinforce these widespread stereotypes of
Brazilian culture. In other words, if in Brazil, or even within Brazilian communities
abroad, people are distinguished based on their state of birth or regional accents, for
instance, at the level of international exchanges they are all Brazilians and as such they
have to deal with Brazilian national stereotypes.
Ah, Brazil? Carnaval uh? Sexy and beautiful women on the beaches!
Beside the United States, which does not share the passion for futebol (soccer),
with the rest of the world, most of the other countries to which Brazilians emigrate also
connect Brazilians with soccer and besides referring to "sexy, beautiful women
dressed in dental floss’ bikinis they also refer to soccer stars Ronaldinho, Pelé,
Romário, etc.
Sandra Hirata, 25, a Brazilian from Belém, capital of Pará state, was born and raised
in the confluence of Brazilian and Japanese cultures. Her father, a Japanese immigrant in
Brazil, taught her and her siblings Japanese and many details of the Japanese culture.
When they had to emigrate to Japan five years ago the culture shock was bearable because
even in Brazil they were already used to live between two worlds. Having gotten used to
transnational moves, Sandra is now at the University of California, Riverside, improving
her English and wondering whether to go back to Japan for a college education or to stay
here.
While planning our anthropological observation of the Brazilian Carnaval at the
Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, she tells me about ways of enjoying Brazilian Carnaval
in Japan. She says that in Tokyo, the Carnaval parade happens in August because of the
weather. A parade of samba-schools following the Rio de Janeiro style takes place in
Asakusa, Tokyo’s old town. Based on what she observed, she believes that the organizers
are usually Brazilian samba professionals, who are contracted just to organize the event,
and Brazilian immigrants who work with cultural business. Everyone in the parade is
apparently Japanese, but it is hard to tell because Japanese-Brazilians are physically
very similar to the Japanese. Anyway, the Brazilian Carnaval in Tokyo is a public event
that attracts about 6 to 7 thousands people including participants and spectators.
Outside Brazil, samba-schools are institutions that attract Brazilians and people
interested in Brazil or Brazilians. Night samba houses are thus a place to meet Brazilians
and non-Brazilians, a place to expand networks, to find husbands and wives, to heal
homesickness (matar a saudade), to get some sense of self or to create the sense of
self that the surrounding market requires.
The Hollywood
Carnaval
There are several Brazilian Carnaval balls in California during or around Carnaval
time. The Mardi Gras ball at the Hollywood Palladium, which attracts some 4,000 people,
seems to be the largest Carnaval ball on the West Coast. In the ranking of the largest
ones, the Bay Area Brazilian Club/Friends of Brazil Carnaval Ball comes in second
place attracting some 2,500 people.
For Carnaval ’98, the Hollywood Palladium Carnaval had been advertised in the papers
and radio more or less in the following terms:
Korean Air and Samba e Saudade Productions present Brazil Carnaval ’98 17th Annual Mardi Gras Ball _ Hollywood Palladium SATURDAY, FEB 21st _ 8:30 PM to 3:00 AM When you can’t go to Rio for the Carnaval let the Rio Carnaval come to you. The biggest, the best, the most beautiful Carnaval outside of Brazil! Don’t miss this night of food, fun, fantasy, non-stop dancing and entertainment with Bring your love… or find your love at the "Carnaval of Angels"! Once a year, one night only! |
Taking advantage of the coincidence of taking place on Valentine’s Day,
the ads for the Carnaval ’99 read slightly different from the above.
Korean Air presents Samba e Saudade BRAZIL CARNAVAL ’99 _ Los Angeles The largest Brazilian Carnaval Celebration outside Brazil returns to the Hollywood The King of All Parties will take place on Saturday, February 13, 1999 from 8:30 PM-3 AM This year’s theme is THE GOD OF LOVE brings love to all. Celebrate the last Carnaval of the millennium, magically on the amorous eve of Valentine’s Day! Dance the night away with thousand of samba lovers |
During my interviews and observations of the Palladium Carnaval
dynamics, I heard many people curiously asking why the largest Brazilian ball in
California is sponsored by a Korean airline. That part I still do not understand. However,
what many people do not know is that it is a Portuguese lady, Maria Lucien, who organizes
the biggest Brazilian Carnaval ball in California. Maria Lucien has been organizing the
Palladium Carnaval for the last 12 years. Under her direction the Palladium Carnaval more
than doubled its attendance, which grew from some 1,500 people to some 4,000 people.
She says that the success of the Palladium Carnaval is a combination of her passion for
Brazilian music and people with her experience as a producer of events with stars like
Steve Miller, Tina Turner and Carlos Santana. But that is not all. Not counting on
sponsors she had to mortgage her house to invest the money (one hundred thousand dollars)
in organizing her first Palladium Carnaval ball twelve years ago, in 1987. Although a bit
resentful about the absence of Brazilian sponsors, Maria Lucien is aware of the importance
of Brazilian presence at the event. She says, "Brazilians are definitely the ones who
give the Palladium Carnaval its glamour. After all, how could a Brazilian Carnaval be
performed with no Brazilians?"
Celebrating this year its 18th anniversary, the Palladium Carnaval is a
creation of its organizers, based primarily on Brazilian immigrants’ need to gather and
socialize as well as carve out a place for Brazil and Brazilians in Los Angeles. However,
its success is a product of Los Angeles cultural market demands, which constantly create
and recreate novelties and exoticisms. One way or another, beside promoting Brazil and
Brazilians on a broader scale in Los Angeles, the Palladium Carnaval also plays an
important role as an arena where important alliances or circumstantial commitments can be
established between Brazilians and Americans as well as Brazilians and other immigrant
groups, especially Latinos.
Sounding Out
Even though first created around Brazilians, the Palladium Carnaval is a party for all
races, ethnic groups and nationalities. At last year’s ball, for instance, I interviewed
people from countries as varied as Syria, Greece, Lebanon, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
India, France and Peru, to say nothing of Brazilians and Americans.
Eddie Sakaki, a Mexican journalist, who has been living in the States for the last 20
years, gives his impressions about the Palladium Carnaval:
"This is my second time here and it is hard to believe that I missed several balls
between my first time, 9 years ago, and now. I found out about the Palladium Carnaval
through the press and, of course, I felt very attracted by the idea of a sensual
celebration of all peoples and races. Beautiful and semi-naked women dancing and moving
around the main ballroom is very attractive, isn’t it?"
A white-American male, about 40, whose name I did not ask, says that he connects
Carnaval with music, dance, festivities, but mainly sexuality. He says:
"Do you know, for me the whole thing is very sexual, but sexual in a very special
way. It is like the celebration of the body with music, joy. Very positive way of bringing
out sexuality to the public scene. The whole thing; music, freedom, costumes
all
lead to a very special way of celebrating the body."
Even though rooted in a stereotyped Brazilian way of representing and living life, the
Brazilian Carnaval in Los Angeles calls for a universal celebration of the body. Eddie
Sakaki explains again:
"When I come to the Palladium Carnaval, the last thing to cross my mind is that I
am coming to an ethnic celebration or this sort of thing. First, the Hollywood Palladium
is not an appropriate venue for ethnic events, and second, the idea that I see in
Brazilian Carnaval is moving beyond racial and ethnic segregation to celebrate the
body."
It is still, however, "a universal celebration of the body" proposed by a
very specific culture, the Brazilian culture. In this sense even if working in a direction
different from other ethnic events in Los Angeles, the Brazilian Carnaval is still fed by
the logic of exotic consumerism. The impact of these ethnic cultural markets over
Brazilian immigrants’ lives is an important issue which cannot be explored in the scope of
this article.
The Frolicking
Venue
The 11,000 square foot oval dance floor of the Hollywood Palladium makes it the perfect
place for Carnaval balls and other dancing parties, even though now the venue is used more
for rock concerts. The Palladium main ballroom is like a theatre-in-the round, featuring a
stage (about 30 feet wide) surrounded by the audience. The stage was decorated with
colored balloons whose ropes were hanging down, reminding me of our Brazilian serpentinas
(paper streamers).
Beautiful masks and butterflies were decorating stage and ballroom. Hanging down on the
left-hand side of the stage was a big picture of Carmen Miranda, the Hollywood-made symbol
of Brazilian female grace and rhythm. The United of Los Angeles samba school started out
Carnaval ’99 by playing samba and presenting its sambistas (samba dancers) dressed
in typical Baiano clothing. After observing these first dancers for a while, my
eyes shifted to the audience. Most of the people were standing still in front of the
stage, just watching. Only a few were dancing.
The performance of Brazilian Carnaval outside Brazil requires somehow educating the
audience about Carnaval. Beside Brazilians and other non-Brazilians who have visited
Brazil, not many people in the United States have been exposed to Carnaval, since New
Orleans represents the Catholic exception in a Protestant world. In that manner, the role
of the Master of Ceremonies is very important. He is the one in charge of guiding the
audience into directions he and the organizers think the party should go.
Differently from the Carnaval ’98, this year the MC did not leave people standing still
for a long time. He kept inviting the audience to become real participants of the
Palladium Carnaval ’99. People were invited to follow the music regardless of following
the samba steps. "Move your body as you please but do not just stand still
Carnaval has to do with moving the body with sensuality
Let’s go – you can do
it!" His invitation was heard and before I knew it almost everybody was dancing.
Dancing and watching, of course. Even though I am Brazilian, and have been to several
Carnavals in Brazil, I confess that it was hard not to watch the show of music and dance
that the Palladium presents.
During the first few hours, considering the "spectator attitude" of the
people plus what was being shown on the stage made me see the show only as a commodity of
the international colonized cultural market. In this sense, the performers seem to be
selling a product that it is not that common in the Los Angeles cultural market: a naïve,
artistic and joyful sensuality, on the one hand, and a very special way of dealing with
racial diversity, on the other hand.
Sexuality and racial mixture á la Brazilian are thus wrapped up with samba and
sold to an interested, amazed, delighted and dreamy audience.
However, the more time went by the freer people felt to dance and flirt. Borrowing
from Roberto da Matta’s Carnaval, Rogues, and Heroes (1991), I’d say that the
possibility of having an erotic visual relationship with everyone seemed to become as
central in the context of the Hollywood Palladium as it is central in the context of
Carnaval balls or street Carnaval in Brazil.
The costume contest (concurso de fantasias) can be regarded as the high point of
the feast and a parting of the waters simultaneously. I do not mean that from the costume
contest on people’s mood magically change. As a matter of fact, people were getting into
the Carnaval mood little by little and certainly the massive presence of Brazilians after
11 PM contributed a lot for the mood renewal. And later on, when alcohol began to take
away remnants of shyness, or make people forget the world of lawsuits and sexual
harassment, they started to dance closer to each other and even risked touching each
other.
Conga lines weaving around the ones who were not dancing would make them fall into the
contagious rhythm of samba and other old and new Carnaval rhythms. From the higher
balconies where it is possible to have an entire view of the dance floor, we would see the
crowd moving as one body. I felt then the same kind of energy I used to experience in the
northeastern Carnavals in Brazil. In other words, the spirit of the celebration had
finally taken over. There were no more spectators on the dance floor, they had got into
the dancing, touching and flirting the occasion was asking for. In brief, they had finally
got into the Brazilian Carnaval spirit.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people whose help was essential to
make my study on the Palladium Carnaval possible. Sérgio Brito, my husband, and Sandra
Hirata helped me with interviewing, observing and discussing data. With Lauren Holt and
Eddie Sakaki I shared data and doubts. Maria Lucien patiently answered my questions in a
three-hour-long (and very agreeable) interview as well as offering me press privileges and
free ticket for Carnaval ’99. In thanking Edna Grover and Cathy Bruington I take the
opportunity to thank all anonymous interviewees who agreed to "stop-dancing" to
answer my questions.
Bernadete Beserra is doing research on Brazilian immigrants in Los
Angeles for her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. She
would like to receive comments about this article as well as talk to people who can help
her better understand the history of Brazilian immigration in Los Angeles. Please send
messages to brbeserra@aol.com
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