A samba school rises to Rio Carnival’s top league, bringing an economic boom to its poor residents

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Carnival always breathes life into the economy of Vila Vintem, a favela on Rio de Janeiro’s west side, but this year the pulse is even stronger with its Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school returning to the top samba parade league for the first time in almost 60 years.

As one of Rio’s 12 top-tier samba schools, Unidos de Padre Miguel will have its shot at fame, perhaps even glory — all while bringing in more money into its community.

Last year, competing in the second division, Padre Miguel received about 900,000 reais ($150,000) from City Hall, missing out on the lucrative sponsorship deals and revenue from television rights, pre-Carnival parties and ticket sales enjoyed by top-flight samba schools. But their victory in last year’s Carnival secured their place in the main event that kicked off Sunday night.

The shift has sent Padre Miguel’s budget this year ballooning more than tenfold, to about 11 million reais ($2 million), including nearly 2 million reais from the city, according to the samba school’s deputy chairman Dr. Willie Baracho.

The school has already invested a significant portion into the community, funding local seamstresses, carpenters and welders for parade preparations.

Economic windfall

Vila Vintem is already experiencing the positive effects. Several of the favela’s formerly jobless residents told The Associated Press they have bought smartphones and household appliances.

Padre Miguel’s new headquarters, nearing completion, will relocate rehearsals and other community activities from a hangar-like space that served as a vital center for the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our samba school has projects, it helps people, distributes food, throws parties for our children,” Luana Borges, 42, said as she fixed details on several costumes, some bearing the school’s traditional red and white colors.

“When Carnival comes, it offers opportunities to people like me,” said Borges, who used to be unemployed.

Nearly all samba schools sit in working-class neighborhoods around Rio’s metropolitan region and compete against each other in the legendary Sambadrome parade grounds. Favelas in Rio are typically associated with dense, hillside neighborhoods, but they feature other geographies, too. The 14,000-resident Vila Vintem cropped up almost a century ago on flatlands next to a railway under construction.

When first settled, the swampy area was said to be worth not even a “vintem,” the cheapest coin at the time, akin to a penny. Decades passed before basic services arrived, sometimes only after residents agreed to do the work themselves.

‘We fight’

Even with its new Carnival windfall, Padre Miguel remains a financial underdog.

Baracho said its more popular rivals don’t depend as much on city money, and can bring in up to 18 million reais ($3 million) when accounting for corporate sponsorships, sales of merchandise, coveted parade positions and cover charges for their pre-Carnival parties.

While Padre Miguel employs almost all locals, Baracho said wealthier samba schools can spend over 1 million reais, for instance, on coaches and dancers, whose performance is one of the categories scored by judges.

“The sky is the limit for some, but we fight,” Baracho said. “We managed to get promoted because we are invested in our people, we work hard to foster our own creativity.”

Padre Miguel was the first samba school to parade on Sunday night. Their procession told the story of Iyá Nassô, the founder of the first space in Brazil for rituals of the Afro-Brazilian faith Candomble.

Experts say the best path for scrappy samba schools like Padre Miguel to sustain their community impact is to focus on avoiding relegation, rather than pursuing Carnival’s top prize, amounting to 20% of the revenue of the tickets sold for the Champions Parade, which takes place the following weekend.

“There’s little chance for a samba school to win the title coming from the second division,” said Fátima Costa de Lima, a Carnival researcher and scenic arts professor at Santa Catarina State University. “It happened before, but it is rare. The main goal for a samba school like (Padre Miguel) is to stay on.”

Ingrid Lima Leal has worked for Padre Miguel for 15 years, and paraded with the school for even longer. The 66-year-old says that creating jobs in Vila Vintem and being at the world-famous parade is worth every cent. She wants to see more next year — hopefully still in the top division.

While sewing a white costume in her home workshop, Leal expressed the “amazing emotion” of marching in the parade wearing something she helped create.

“Carnival brings a lot of jobs. Not only here, but everywhere,” she said.

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