The central hombre was, in my opinion, the poster child for this political event. He was never without his trusty beer, slogan flag or improvised hipwiggle dance...
The proud local rancheros both led and simultaniously impeded the progress of the parade.
Politics, partying and picturisque sunsets mix well together....
Hello all,
There is of course another side to Abadiania...I like to refer to it as ``Brazil``. It (Brazil, that is) has very few crystal shops, does not mandatorily dress in white...and does not spend its days drinking strawberry Guava smoothies at gringo cafes with names like ``fruitti´s´´. Honestly, i rather prefer this other side of things...because it actually reflects real life. Until just about five years ago, when Joao got discovered by North Americans and Europeans, this cultural dichotomy did not apparently exist here....things have since shifted radically.
This in no way, in my opinion, undermines the power of what the Casa do Dom Ignacio is doing...it is still completely real and valid. It has however created a bit of an unrealistic micro-culture, with unfortunate similarities to gringo tourist locales throughout the 3rd world. It is for this reason primarily that while I am indescribably grateful for the healing that is very quickly happening to me hear, i am not about to hang around any longer then necessary....
Anyway...the photos here show one aspect of the `other Abadiania´...the one that is filled with rancheros on horseback, the one that cuts they´re grass by lighting the whole damn field on fire (i missed an amazing photo of this happening) and, the one that, for local political rallies (like the one yesterday), gets completely smashed on Skol (Brazil´s answer to the king of beers) and parades around town on tractors and horseback blaring absurd campo music campaign songs....
Daniel, my pousadas young caretaker and trapped rural intellectual, bemoaned the entire fiasco. I found it incredibly amusing and, generally speaking, a much more honest expression of what politics is really about. We both agreed that brazilians will find any excuse, and i mean any, to party....
I dont think these photos really capture the experience though. To begin with it was so loud, i had to wear earplugs the whole time...there were over 50 guys on horseback, another 100 on motorcycles, dozens of tractors, dumptrucks and other random farm vehicles, all waving flags and blaring the same 10 second frenetic campaign song... as well as countless flatbed trucks full of dancing, screaming, drunken brazilieros. I have no idea what policies this new candidate has to offer...but it certiantly didnt seem to matter to anyone involved.
So Basically, like American politics, just drunk on horseback and a lot more fun.
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