FaithinArenga

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a public demonstration. The image shows a crowd of people walking together through the street, with some raising their arms in gestures of protest or celebration. On the left, we see women wearing short skirts and various blouses. In the center, men and women walk together, some with arms raised. On the right, a man is raising his fist as a sign of resistance or triumph. In the background, commercial buildings and urban structures are visible, along with flags being carried by the participants.

The suburban Bloco da Chave de Ouro was, for at least thirty years, the most subversive group of Rio's Carnival. What gave the Chave de Ouro its irresistible fame was the fact that the bloco paraded in Engenho de Dentro always on Ash Wednesday, at a time when the church condemned revelers with warnings of hell and the police cracked down on the revelry because of Lent.

Usually the beating went down between the block's members and the cops, with the public having front-row rights, dying to see the fight break out, packing the sidewalks of Rua Borja Reis to watch the mess unfold. Some say several revelers from the block were troublemakers who'd end up locked up during Momo's reign and were only released on Ash Wednesday. So they'd decide to play at Chave de Ouro to make up for the days stuck behind bars while the city was having fun.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph showing a work scene. On the left side, a man in a hat and white shirt is holding a piece of paper. In the center, a man is being carried by two other men, both also wearing white shirts. The man being carried has his back turned, barefoot, and wearing black pants. He is being placed into a vehicle with side rails. The background reveals a building with windows and doors.

The leader of Chave de Ouro, Luiz Macaco, held the theory that the block's appeal, and what gave it the support of hundreds of revelers, was exactly the defiance of the men of the law and of the faith. The greater the repression and the widespread conflict, the more fun the parade was. The men of public authority went to great lengths to deal with Chave de Ouro and failed to realize that the solution was easy: the appeal for the revelers was the subversion of order, the dodge around the ban, and the clash between the police's batons and the bass drums' sticks.

As soon as the block party, in the second half of the 1970s, stopped being banned, the joy withered and the ziriguidum lost its flavor. In Brazil, some believe that a saint is only that which is wrapped in Christian love, charity, and forgiveness. However, crossing that understanding, there is in the city of Rio de Janeiro an intimacy woven in the in-between of sacred and profane that makes many people devoted to quizumba, batalha, or however many other names we can give to different rowdy ways of practicing the world.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a crowd in motion. From left to right, we see people running with umbrellas in their hands, some holding musical instruments. In the center, an individual raises an instrument, while others take part in the festivities. In the background, there is a building with a thatched roof.

The Chave de Ouro bloco is just one of the fine examples of rites that mark this city and toss dendê oil onto the priest's cassock. Rio, whose bay waters are like a lake of milk, as the old-time locals used to say, also carries in its waters tides of dendê oil, honey, and cachaça. A Rio of flower and knife, of caress and quarrel, a city where quizumba can come down into the very same body as poetry and mandinga, as in the case of the bloco dos Arengueiros, which brought together people like Cartola, Carlos Cachaça, and Zé Espinguela and gave rise to Estação Primeira de Mangueira. The Rio of tough guys, malandros good with a fight, maltas, blocos de arenga, rodas de pernada, corridor dances, and other forms of quarrel that remind us that in this city what's really hard is finding anyone who's a saint.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a public demonstration. In the lower part of the image, we see the head of a person with short hair, followed by an animated crowd. Most of the participants have their arms raised, some with clenched fists, while others are holding up objects such as shoes and a bucket. In the center, a woman in a striped shirt is holding up a shoe. In the background, there is a building with several windows and a street sign. On the left, there is a telephone pole and electrical wires. In the upper part of the image, we see a banner with the text "LA DENTRO" prominently displayed.