Word: samba
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...days, Elbrick, 61, had been known to drop in on local samba clubs and dance into the wee hours. Now his ebullient style has been severely cramped. A couple of Marines camp out in his Rio residence. As many as 30 Brazilian security men shadow him at times. So many guards follow him to Sunday Mass that he has to come late and leave early to avoid a commotion. Only once since the kidnaping have Elbrick and his wife ventured out for a private dinner with friends, and security precautions turned the evening into a shambles. The besieged ambassador cannot...
...pretty, plump Dona Flor is a well-loved member of the community. She is also pitied because of her impulsive marriage to Vadinho, one of the great gamblers and womanizers in all Brazil. The novel begins at carnival time with Vadinho's sudden death while dancing the samba in drag, "with that exemplary enthusiasm he brought to everything he did except work...
...those gags! The political jokes ("I greatly appreciate music. You know that's one place I'm like Harry Truman--I used to play the Piano myself.") the bilingual wisecracks ("We have to quit thinking of Latin America in terms of siestas, manana, Rumba, Samba, and Cha-Cha-Cha." Cha-Cha-Cha!), the self-deprecating quips ("I'm a dropout from the Electrol College. I flunked debating...
Carnaval, as everyone knows, is the time when Brazil plunges into the world's biggest binge, a wild four-day pageant driven by the intoxicating beat of the samba. There are no politics to carnaval, and no Brazilian government-however tough-minded-would dare deny its people their great annual excursion into tun and fantasy (see box following page). Yet there is a slightly unreal air to Brazil this week, as carnaval dances toward its pre-Lent climax. Since the military crackdown last December, Brazilians have had to put up with a tough, moralistic, even prudish regime. While revelers...
There are really two festivals, one for the rich and another for the poor. For the poor, carnaval takes place in the streets, to the cheers of thousands of onlookers. The escolas de samba, neighborhood associations that practice intricate dances for months to put on the most stunning show, come into their own then, singing and prancing their way past the reviewing stands of judges, who choose the winner. A total of 43 escolas de samba are taking part this year, and the larger ones, like the Estacāo Primeira de Mangueira-last year's champion, named after...