SaintGeorge

We are in Rio de Janeiro. As much as many people may turn up their noses, this mix of gossip, uproar, wonder, and beauty is irredeemable. That being so, we shall sing for our village and for that which makes us devoted, raising a toast to those free of sin who don't carry the burden of being saints. Kids in the street, beer held high, and onward. With our feet in the suburbs, backyards, and bars, amid the interweaving of rites of faith and revelry, we lay a bet on our people's devotion. We are a people more given to battles than to salvation, and that explains why we have a warrior on our float, carried because he's a person just like us. That's how we raise our fates and fortunes in procession.

Image description: This is a photograph of a crowd in an urban setting. The image shows people gathered closely together in a narrow space, possibly on a street or in a residential area. In the central part, an individual wearing a red shirt is raising a figure of Saint George, which is the focal point of the scene. The people around are looking at him with varied expressions, some with hands raised. The background reveals brick buildings with tile roofs, suggesting a favela or humble community setting.

Spotted high atop the row houses, the saint roams the city on foot, makes his home in altars lit with a little red light, struts gallant in the samba dancers' silver trim, nestles among the garden's sword lilies, saunters dashingly through the sambistas' verses, works his healing in the prayer-women's litanies, eats at the feijoadas, stands imposing on the umbanda altars, and jokes around through the botequins' late-night vigils. In these lands, where the bond with the horseman takes hold from the earliest age, allow us to venture an assertion: there is no struggle that can outmatch the power of a child's wonder and her keen-eyed gaze, gathering from time the signs she will mount to conquer the world. Thus, devotion here comes less from the saint's status than from the intimacy, fondness, and love for the rites that make up the village.

Image description: This is a photograph of a horseman in a festive parade. On the left, we see a horse with colorful floral adornments. The rider is dressed in golden armor and a red cape. In front of him, silver confetti flies through the air against a clear blue sky. On the right, there is a decorated arch structure with lights and confetti.

Saint George left Cappadocia and crossed the world. The warrior roams every corner, but it's in Rio de Janeiro that he bursts into dawn, crossing a sea of beer to roar in the iron of the agogôs, take over bodies, drink cups and throw a party. The gathering ground that was already a village before becoming a city took him in. And so the saint fell right into this ruckus, drafted not just out of belief, but through the inventiveness of a crowd that treats faith as the everyday task of turning dreams into a corner-store bet.

Image description: The image is a photograph of an indoor setting, possibly a bar or restaurant. In the center is a statue of Saint George mounted on a white horse, with a red lantern hanging behind him. The statue rests on a green base. In front of the statue, there is a lit white candle in a wooden holder. In the background, there is a bar counter with bottles of alcoholic beverages and shelves. The wall in the background is red and has a black frame with a picture hanging on it.

In the waters of Guanabara Bay, Saint George was turned inside out. Around here, he does battle and samba. If we take everything literally, we won't find much. Turning his inside out into verse, the toada doesn't end. Grounded at this crossroads, the saint multiplies himself in order to live, in ordinary fashion, like his own people. What attribute, after all, makes him so popular in a place like Rio de Janeiro, if not the fact that he's intimate with our common folk and shares in their tastes and struggles.