Davida and the bloco makes the pages of the Guardian
tom phillips
wednesday january 4, 2006
the guardian
friday night and in suite g of a dingy brothel in central rio de janeiro a revolution in brazilian carnival is springing to life. it's here - among soiled bed-sheets, x-rated porn movies and flickering light bulbs - that the city's night workers have dreamt up its newest carnival group: the bloco das putas.
part of a prostitutes' collective, which includes a fashion label and a modelling school, the bloco das putas or "*****s' carnival group" aims to strike back at prejudice against the city's call girls. the leader of the movement, gabriela leite, watches prostitutes, clients, curious onlookers and a smattering of gringos crowd into the narrow, cobbled streets outside suite g for the bloco's launch.
"this is one day that we *****s can be considered part of society," she says, on the verge of tears. "we were never part of brazil, and we have to be. we are specialists in sex and we are human beings," she says, seemingly oblivious to the naked bodies writhing about on the television above her.
over her shoulder a small grate looks out on to the street in praça tiradentes that will be the bloco's home each friday from now until february's carnival. nothing, not even a soiled pair of knickers that has been abandoned on the windowsill, can stop the group's unique blend of samba, techno and brazilian funk pouring remorselessly into the cramped boudoir.
the bloco de rua (street party) has been at the heart of carnival since the 1920s. while high society traditionally spends the four days of carnival holed up in glamorous ballrooms, brazil's povão (or hoi polloi) hit the streets in the form of alcohol-soaked blocos, with deafening drum sections, whistles and extravagant costumes.
these days, hundreds of thousands of themed blocos are rep001tered across the country. there's the bloco das piranhas, in which cachaça-fuelled men rampage across são gonçalo wearing high-heels and florid mini-skirts and the world-famous banda de ipanema which unites thousands of gyrating drag queens in ipanema each year. bloco is a way of asserting your identity.
"finally we are starting to show that we exist. we are a little different - we work with sex - but we exist," says leite from sao paulo, who is spearheading the "puta pride" movement as the president of the brazilian prostitutes network.
"sex professional?" she scoffs, as her colleagues touch up their makeup on the huge mirror behind the bed. "what a stupid name. we are putas. if we don't assume the name that we have, then how can we go forwards? we have to accept that our sons are sons of bitches. if we don't accept this, we'll never be happy."
unsurprisingly, the collective is no stranger to controversy. following the foundation of its sister-fashion label (called daspu, a tongue in cheek reference to the chic sao paulo clothing outlet daslu and a play on the words "of the *****s") the prostitutes are being threatened with legal action unless they change their name.
but at the merest mention of daslu - a shopping centre for south america's super-rich which opened its new £30m store in june - the putas erupt into laughter. the owner of the sao paulo boutique is currently being investigated for fraud, they point out, and they want to sue us?
besides, the putas themselves seem to relish the battle for visibility. and all daslu's lawyers have done, they say, is helped give them that.
American busted for beating a pro in Copa
04/12/2005 - 16h02m
Garota de programa denounces American for beatng her
Camilo Coelho - Extra
RIO - Delminha Fernandes da Veiga, a 25 year-old garota de programa filed charges last Sunday in the Delegacia Especial de Atendimento ao Turista (Deat) against David Steven Paul, an American. According to friends, Delminha met the American in the early hours of Sunday morning in a club in Copacabana. The two slept together in an apartment which he had rented on Avenida Atlântica, but the next morning, David refused to pay for the services rendered. According to Delminha, the two fought and the American beat her. She then contracted a lawyer and, together with her friends, filed charges against the supposed agressor at DEAT. The garota de programa has a swollen eye due to rceiving a blow. The American was taken to the Federal Police.
That gringo's name looks a little odd to me...
DASPU girls to be on a float in Caprichoso dos Pilares.
The ladies from Davida and Daspu will be on a float in the samba school Caprichoso dos Pilares during this Carnival, representing a 17th century Brazilian prostitute who lead the resistance againdt the Dutch invaders.
And the pros bloco "Prazeres da Vida" will parade from R. Imperatriz Leopoldina in Praça Tiradentes to join with a Banda da Bola Preta, the official "opening" school of Carnival on this coming Saturday morning.
Come out and show your support for the women who work to make tyour lives more fun. And Bola Preta is a blast...