Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph showing a craftsman working in a workshop. In the foreground, we see a table covered with several medium-sized statues, arranged in rows. On the left, a man sits, focused on his task. Behind him, there are more statues in different stages of finishing. In the background, shelves hold more ceramic pieces. The setting appears well lit, with natural light coming in through the window on the left.Artesão trabalhando em uma fábrica de santos, junho de 1972. Arquivo Nacional. Fundo Correio da Manhã.
We are a people given to feelings and stories that weave together miracle, promise, and salvation. This trio has a great impact on our political and aesthetic formation, and on our imagination. Being a society in which catechesis performs an elementary function in the colonial process, these three aspects are cast in relation to different ways of interpreting, practicing, and inventing the world. In a place like the city of Rio de Janeiro, several forms of intimacy, trust, and negotiation with what is understood as sacred are woven into everyday life. These various ways of doing set up the circle in which the sacred and the profane drink together, saints and mere mortals who trace verses that cross the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Image description: This is a photograph of a home altar. On the left side, there is a statue of a white horse with a red crown. Next to the horse are two figures dressed in traditional clothing, one of them holding a white object. On the right, there is a figure dressed in a blue and gold cloak, followed by three smaller figures, also dressed in colorful attire. In front of the altar, there are drink bottles and glass containers. The wall in the background is white with red lines.Altar na entrada do Beco do Rato, Rio de Janeiro.
In the tavern that is the city of Rio de Janeiro, miracles are becoming increasingly common, dethroned from heaven to happen in the minutiae of the village's daily life, occurring as something commonplace. If the miracle is everyday and is a term of common survival, just like spells, salvation—something that seems increasingly difficult—needs to be shortened, and nothing is better for closing the distance than camaraderie. In this sense, nothing is more fitting for making friends with the saint than a good promise. In a city like Rio, what we notice in the most different ways of experiencing and weaving a relationship with mysteries, wonder, and the unfathomable is calling it into conversation and negotiating.
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph showing an urban scene with several people in an elevated location, possibly a platform or lookout point. In the center, a man is kneeling, covering his face with his hands. To his right, a woman walks with confidence. In the background, several other people are scattered about, some appearing to be in motion. The setting is composed of buildings and a mountainous landscape in the background. The caption mentions "kneeling worshipper," suggesting that the kneeling man may be a devotee or someone making a gesture of faith.Fiéis subindo a escadaria da igreja da Penha. Arquivo Nacional/Fundo Correio da Manhã.
The promise is not only what a person commits to asking, arranging, or proposing in a difficult situation, often overtaken by despair and betting on faith. In other words, steeped more deeply in this city's cultural broth and woven into the accent of the street, the promise is a call for a way out. As the sayings typical of this kind of negotiation put it: "Whoever owes me, pays me" … "I owe, I don't deny it. I'll pay when I can" …
In this game played out between intimacy, trust, wager, and the poor outcome for whoever fails to honor the deal, whether you're the one making the request or even the saint himself. The promise is cast into the hunt for possibilities, its limits, and constantly plays with the expectations of those involved. A good drinker either makes a promise to go without drinking for a while or has a proper booze-up with the saint. There are those who make more timid promises, and there are those who fulfill their promise by even making carnival.
Sweets, samba, feast, drum, cachaça, clothing, pilgrimage, and song. Toada, prayer, litany, toy, candle, basket, canjira, and mission. Guaraná, holy card, ex-voto, portrait, hair, bloco, flag, and procession. Bonfire, godchild, prayer, penance, fasting, pilgrimage, alms, and balloon. In the endless repertoire of ways to make friends with the saints, the promise still holds almost like a pact between godparents, which is more than being brothers.
