In the comments of my recent article on Carnival and Frevo in Recife (you can find a link to it a few posts down from this one), a video was posted about a Frevo school in Pernambuco which won 2nd place at an international dance contest in New York. Excellent stuff!
Midway up the coast of Pernambuco, less than 40 miles from Recife’s International Airport, lies one of the best beaches in Brazil, called Porto de Galinhas (lit. Chicken Port). The Brazilian magazine Viagem & Turismo holds an annual contest for its readers to elect the best Brazilian travel options and Porto de Galinhas has won in the beach category for the last 9 years in a row, making it the paragon of paradise.
How did such a pretty place receive such a strange name, you might ask? Originally, it went by the name of Porto Rico due to all the money made from the large amounts of brazil-wood that left the country from its shores, en route to Europe. The port, though, would later serve as the main point of arrival for illegal slaves in the northeast of Brazil during the 18th century. It is said that the slaves were frequently hidden below the chicken crates (technically, helmeted guinea-fowl known as Angolan chickens in Portuguese). Upon the arrival of new slaves, one would hear the phrase “tem galinha nova no porto!” (“there’s new chicken at the port!”), and thus the beach eventually had its name changed.
Today, the chickens are hand-painted, made of coconut shells and tree trunks, by local artisans to later be bought by the purchasing power and for the viewing pleasure of the many tourists to the region. This wasn’t always so, though, as it was only a few years ago that the local artists decided to find a marketable image that would serve as their golden egg, so to speak.
Chickens are definitely not the only thing being sold in Porto de Galinhas. Aside from the endless beauty of the barrier reefs and the natural pools, there are now resorts, nightclubs and refined restaurants that have moved in and exist side by side with the rustic charm that helped to make this old fishing village so popular in the 1990′s. With all the ‘development’ and changes, I can’t help but wonder where the locals go to ‘get away from it all’.
Originally written for Street Smart Brazil.
I was looking at a tourism magazine from Recife called Recife Te Quer, from January of 2008 that a good friend sent me via mail a few years back and I found a really cool building with suggestive sculptures called Oficina Brennand. What follows is a bit on the location and the Pernambucan artist behind it, which I borrowed and translated from the official site. First, a few words on the artist Francisco Brennard, by acclaimed novelist Jorge Amado.
“Today he is unique – him and only him – a Brazilian artist with an assured place in the club of the principal (artists) of contemporary art. Of such importance, that alone he proclaims the universality of Brazilian art.”
Oficina Brennand
The Oficina Brennand came about in 1971 in the ruins of the ceramic factory dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, as a materialization of recalcitrant project of the artist Francisco Brennard. An old brick and roofing factory inherited by his father, installed on a piece of property called Santos Cosme and Damião, it lies in the historic neighborhood of Várzea, surrounded by what remains of the Atlantic Forest and on the waters of the Capibaribe river. The ceramics of São João (the former sugar plantation where the current property lies) became the inspiring source and depository of the story of the Pernambucan artist.
A unique place in the world, the Oficina Brennand can be found in a monumental architectural conjunct of originality, in a constant process of mutation, where the works associate themselves with the architecture to give form to subterranean, dark, sexual, religious, wild and abyssal universe.
The presence of the artist in his continuous work of creation gives the Oficina a daring character, identifying it as an intrinsically alive institution and with a dynamic that leaves the future of the project a mystery, even to the one who is creating it.
Visitation hours are from 8AM to 5PM, from Monday to Thursday and 8AM to 4PM on Friday. The admission fee is R$4.
Again, at Street Smart Brazil, there’s a post on desserts from Pernambuco and one caught my eye. It’s the cartola and although I don’t add chocolate, it’s something I’ve been doing for years without knowing it had a name. My invention just followed a grilled cheese, banana and cinnamon sandwich I used to get at the lanchonetes in Rio, only I wouldn’t use bread in the recreation.
“One of my favorite desserts is Cartola: sliced fried banana with queijo mateiga or coalho (two types of very delicious Brazilian cheese), topped with with cinnamon and chocolate. Oh it is so good! It is one of those things that you have to try; the list of ingredients may not sound that exciting, but the dish is fantastic. In fact, the state of Pernambuco has been discussing the idea of officially recognizing Cartola as cultural heritage.”
< Cartola
from the blog Cozinha Cani.
For more Pernambucan desserts, go here!
Recife Guide did a feature on the city of Bezerros in the interior of Pernambuco (about 50 min from Recife). Judging by the photos alone, it looks like a great place to be! Of special note is the Papangu Carnival and the Serra Negra region. Check out the link to know more!
For a peak at the Carnival there, see the photo slideshow below from photographer Jose Alves Gonçalves (with a song by Lenine called “Leão do Norte”).
“RECIFE, BRAZIL — Luca Sinesi, 36, came here for the first time in 2003, with no idea that this beach-fringed port city would become his permanent home.
“I left the city in 2005, but I missed it so much I was back within six months,” said Mr. Sinesi, an Italian who is now Brazil field director for the British charity International Service. “Recife has a way of life which sets it apart from cities in the south of Brazil.
“Neighbors know each other, help each other, and share living spaces,” he said. “It is common to see people playing music or singing together on a street corner or in a bar, or playing football long into the night in the local square.”
The city, the second-largest urban center in northeastern Brazil, after Salvador, has just over 1.5 million residents. About 2 million more call its sprawling suburbs home.” – NYT (more here)
Here’s an email I received from Paul over at Recife Guide about the tours he now offers, so I thought I’d help him out.
I thought you may like to know about updates to the Recife Guide Site.
Recife Guide is offering walking tours of Recife and Olinda in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. Details of each tours, and links to video highlights, have been added.
Four 1/2 day walking tours of Recife include visits to most of the interesting sites around Recife Antigo and the Downtown area. Tours 1&2 or 3&4 can be combined to make 1-day tours.
The tour of UNESCO World Heritage site, Olinda, is a 1-day tour.
Other tours will be added in the coming months. I also plan to add DAY TRIPS and SHORT ADVENTURES (2-3 day trips).
If you want any other information please email me paul@pbarnett.co.uk
Best Regards
PAUL
Although the video below shows Fernando de Noronha quite a bit, you can get an idea of Recife and Olinda and the beaches that dot the coast from watching the short clip.
Paul, an Englishman who has a thing for Brazil (sounds like someone I know), has created an online guide to Recife. More specifically, as the name of the title here suggests, he loves the Pernambucan Capital and had been visiting on and off for 12 years before taking the plunge and moving there, which he did 4 years back.
The site, although new, looks promising and I trust the resolve of the owner to make it into a great guide (which includes tours and services). Here’s the link!
Another great Singer that Died Before his Time.
Chico Science
Chico Science (March 13, 1966 – February 2, 1997) was a Brazilian singer and composer and one of the founders of the Mangue Bit cultural movement. He died in a car accident in 1997 in Recife, Pernambuco, at the age of 30.
Born in the Rio Doce neighbourhood of Olinda in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil’s Northeast, as a little boy he would sell crabs that he caught himself in the city’s mangrove swamps.
He became the lead singer and major creative driving force of the groundbreaking Mangue Bit band called Chico Science & Nação Zumbi (CSNZ). Influenced by such musicians as James Brown, Grandmaster Flash and Kurtis Blow, their music cleverly fused rock, funk, and hip hop with maracatu and other traditional rhythms of Brazil’s Northeast. Chico had a powerful stage presence that was compared by some to that of Jimi Hendrix.
Before CSNZ, Chico was a member of the bands Orla Orbe and Loustal (the latter named after the French comic book artist and cartoonist Jacques de Loustal).
Around 1991, Chico Science, along with singer Fred 04 of the band Mundo Livre S/A, founded the Mangue Bit cultural movement in response to dire economic and cultural stagnation in Recife and Olinda. CSNZ made their US debut at New York’s Central Park Summer Stage in 1995, opening for Gilberto Gil, with whom he collaborated during the encore. While in NY, they also performed additional shows at CBGB’s, SOB’s and at Bryant Park as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, on a bill with the Ohio Players.
Chico Science & Nação Zumbi toured several times in Europe and brought massive attention to the new generation of Brazilian artists in the 1990s. With only two full albums released during his lifetime “Da Lama Ao Caos’ (‘From Mud To Chaos) and ‘Afrociberdelia’ (as well as a postuhumous double CD of remixes and live recordings “CSNZ’), his influence and vision became the foundation to a whole new generation of musicians in Brazil. Chico’s genius was to celebrate the rich and fascinating local culture of his home state of Pernambuco state and fused it with all the modern global trends of the 1990s – Computers (hence the word bit, first confused for and now accepted as a musical beat), Mud, Misery, Cyberspace, Hip Hop and roots music co-existed peacefully in Chico’s world.
Nação Zumbi have continued to record and tour internationally after Chico’s death. Many artists have been greatly influenced by the Mangue Bit movement and by Chico himself. These artists include Cordel do Fogo Encantado, Mombojó e Otto, going on to Sepultura (more specifically the album Roots), Cássia Eller (interpreting his songs Corpo de Lama and Quando a Maré Encher), Fernanda Abreu (Raio X album) and Arnaldo Antunes (O Silêncio album).
Here he is singing Maracatu Atômico
Maracatu is a term common to two distinct performance genres found in Pernambuco state in northeastern Brazil: maracatu nação and maracatu rural.
Maracatu Nação
Maracatu nação (also known as maracatu de baque virado: “maracatu of the turned-around beat”) is an Afro-Brazilian performance genre. The term, often shortened simply to nação (“nation”, pl. nações), refers not only to the performance, but to the performing groups themselves.
Maracatu nação’s origins lie in the investiture ceremonies of the Reis do Congo (Kings of Congo), who were slaves that occupied leadership roles within the slave community. When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the institution of the Kings of Congo ceased to exist. Nonetheless, nações continued to choose symbolic leaders and evoke coronation ceremonies for those leaders. Although a maracatu performance is secular, traditional nações are grouped around Candomblé or Jurema (Afro-Brazilian religions) terreiros (bases) and the principles of Candomblé infuse their activities.
Traditional nações perform by parading with a drumming group of 80-100, a singer and chorus, and a coterie of dancers and stock characters including the king and queen. Dancers and stock characters dress and behave to imitate the Portuguese royal court of the Baroque period.
The performance also enacts pre-colonial African traditions, like parading the calunga, a doll representing tribal deities that is kept throughout the year in a special place in the Nação’s headquarters. The calungas, usually female, are traditionally made of either wax and wood or of cloth. They may have clothing made for them in a similar Baroque style to the costumes worn by the other members of the royal court. The calunga is sacred and carrying this spiritual figurehead of the group is a great responsibility for the female Dama de Paço’ (Lady-in-Waiting) of the cortège.
The musical ensemble consists of alfaia (a large wooden rope-tuned drum), gonguê (a metal cowbell), tarol (a shallow snare drum), caixa-de-guerra (another type of snare drum), abê (a gourd shaker enveloped in beads), and mineiro (a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds). Song form is call and response between a solo singer and (usually) a female chorus.
Today there are around 20 nações operating in the cities of Recife and Olinda. Although several have an unbroken line of activity going back to the 1800’s, most have been set up in recent decades. Well-known nações include Estrela Brilhante, Leão Coroado and Porto Rico. Each year they perform during the Carnival period in Recife and Olinda. Maracatu Nação Pernambuco, while not a traditional maracatu, was primarily responsible for introducing the genre to overseas audiences in the 1990s.
The genre has inspired the establishment of performing groups in a number of cities outside Brazil, including Toronto, New York, Cologne, Hamburg, Lyon, Stockholm, London, Edinburgh, Auckland, Brighton, Oakland and Manchester .
Maracatu Rural
A Maracatu Rural performer
Maracatu rural is also known as maracatu de baque solto, maracatu de orquestra, and maracatu de trombone. It is rooted in the Pernambucan interior and evolved in the early 20th century as a fusion of pre-existing forms of Carnival revelry. It is considered to be Afro-indigenous in origin. Its members, typically sugarcane workers, are involved with the native-influenced Catimbó religion. Maracatu rural has a high participation rate with dozens of groups operating all over the state.
