Rio Carnival begins this weekend in Rio de Janeiro, and Porto da Pedra will use its main stage moment at the Sambodrome to center a population many say remains pushed to the margins: sex workers. The Sao Goncalo-based samba school says its parade will honor Lourdes Barreto and other sex workers of all genders in an effort to reduce stigma around the profession.
Barreto, 83, fled her home in Brazil’s northeastern state of Paraiba as a teenager and later entered sex work, according to the samba school’s presentation. Organizers said she never expected to be recognized in Rio, but Porto da Pedra plans to do so Saturday as annual Carnival festivities kick off.
“What would have thought that a prostitute would be honored?” Barreto asked during a video call from her home in Belem, before she traveled to Rio for the parade, according to the report. Porto da Pedra creative director Mauro Quintaes said the school is trying to make sex workers “more seen, less invisible,” adding that “It’s not an apology nor a glamorization.”
Quintaes described the theme as part of a longer creative arc. He previously curated two parades centered on populations living on the margins, including thieves and people with severe mental health issues, and the current parade is titled “From life’s oldest times, the sweet and bitter kiss of the night,” which he presented as the final chapter of a trilogy he envisioned at the beginning of his career.
The report said the samba school’s approach aims to put class struggle and a taboo occupation in the spotlight, even as Brazil’s legal landscape for sex work can be complex. Sex work is not described as a crime in Brazil when performed voluntarily by adults, and prostitution has been recognized as an official occupation by Brazil’s labor ministry since 2002, allowing sex workers to access social security and other work benefits. However, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects says police still target sex workers and carry out evictions, and the report cited a 2017 account by the nonprofit group Davida saying legal gaps give police discretionary power to regulate sex work arbitrarily.
Juliana Barbosa, a communications professor at the Federal University of Parana and a Carnival expert, said Carnival samba schools have a history of seizing on social issues to force conversation. “The theme stays for months within those communities, being sung about and discussed, and then it spreads to a very large number of people,” Barbosa said. She added, “It can contribute to social change. Not as a rule, not on all subjects, but it has that tendency.”
Porto da Pedra said that Andrea de Andrade, 39, will lead the percussion section as drum queen, a prestigious role, and that she has been a prominent social media figure. De Andrade recalled that themes from Carnival years earlier helped introduce her to issues and stories she said she had not heard about before. “Many people don’t have access to much, not just due to a lack of funds, but also a lack of time. Many don’t read, don’t study — but Brazilians love Carnival,” she said.
Organizers also said more than 50 sex workers of all genders from across Brazil are expected to march Saturday evening alongside hundreds of others. Thauany Laressa, a 27-year-old sex worker from Brazil’s northern state of Rondonia, said she reached out to the school after learning about the theme and said sex work has been taboo for too long. “I hope that people who see the parade will have more compassion when interacting with sex workers and help them accept it as a profession,” Laressa said. “I hope that people will start respecting our lives, our way of life and our job.”