*The following post is my observation and personal opinion. 

I was planning to write a post about all the Samba Enredo finals that I attended but then the election results happened.

Brazilians had to decide for themselves what they wanted in their government the choices were stark and they had global implications.

É Lula!

As the results were announced people started screaming from their windows "É Lula!, é Lula!" It's Lula! It's Lula! Fireworks were going off. The owners of my AirBnB were headed out to the street to celebrate and invited me along so of course I'm going to go!

Colors seem to hold more significance here.

Much like right wing politics in the US have adopted the American flag as their symbol, the same is true for right wing politics in Brazil. The left uses a lot of red but is trying to reincorporate the Brazilian flag back and not let it become a symbol of fascism. 

Social signaling is a big thing everywhere but colors seem to be especially important here. They can symbolize not only national pride, soccer team pride, Samba school and neighborhood pride but also signal devotion to Orixas. 

Things felt tense leading up to the election

People were handing out Lula stickers on all the Metro exits, Lula flags were being flown everywhere. Bolsonaro supporters were wearing their signature Brazil soccer jerseys and shouting from their cars. 

There were stands selling these kinds of things side by side. 

If someone comes out ahead in all of this hopefully it's the street vendors. 

Just like in the US politics is dividing the country. Mutual friends from previous visits are now not talking. People say that they are cutting out their friends and family who don't believe the same way they do. Unfriending people on social media who don't believe what they do. Putting themselves into silos of political belief. The exact same thing happened and is still happening in the US with Trump. Sad to see it happening here too. 

Street party

6 televisions in the bar, 5 were on the election coverage and guess what the other one was on.... yeah soccer! ha!

I love it here. And one of the things that I love that people feel their emotions strongly and express them. Of course this can have a dark side, of course. But it feels refreshing or maybe healing is a better word, to be around a culture where people get so excited for stuff that happens. In the US a lot of emotion, good and bad, gets pushed down. We celebrate things, but not like Brazilians do.