Someday it'll happen

My last day in Rio and for the very first time I'm on a fast reliable internet connection, so I'm posting a couple more quick stories now. This has been my first trip in years sans laptop... my first DAY sans laptop in at least five years running. quite a weird and lovely experience.

I have to go catch a cab to the airport in about half an hour. Am right now scarfing down my last Guarana, my last little ball of cheese bread, soaking in my last 90-degree heat and searing sun for months, and getting my last sunburn. I still have so much I want to write about, especially the terrifically stunning Bangalafumenga moments (the parade at the Botanical Garden, and their last show in Lapa last Saturday). But I just wanted to point out one thing about women being drummers, here in Rio. It's been stunning how rapidly it's changed, in the last five years. When I first got here in 2005, women drummers were still kind of rare, and Mangueira (that bastion of tradition) still did not allow women in the bateria at all. Now they're just all over the place! Mangueira was the last holdout, actually; they folded a few years back and started letting women play, and they now regularly recruit the best female percussionists in all of Rio. There's even a little show group of the Women of Mangueira. There are at least three all-female blocos that I know of (two in Rio and one in Niteroi). Quite a few of the more "modern" blocos, the ones that play a variety of rhythms and that play more than just samba, are more than 50% women now. (Banga, for one, is probably about 2/3 women).

In the escolas, women are extremely common in tamborim and chocalho - those are the traditional "women's instruments", to some extent - and have crept to a surprising degree onto caixa and surdo.

One of my Rio friends said she'd seen a little tiny girl at a Grupo Especial escola a few weeks before Carnaval, about seven years old or so. You frequently see little boys in the bateria, and playing damn well too, but only in the last couple years have I ever seen little girls. A new generation of girls is growing up inside the baterias. Most of the little girls just play at being passistas (the sexy dancers) but now at least they have a choice, and they know they can be in the bateria too if they want.

Anyway, this little girl was pretending to be one of the escola directors, the guys that give the cues. She was correctly giving all the start and stop hand cues, signalling the breaks correctly. And watching the mestre - the conductor/director of the whole bateria, the guy in charge of everything - like a hawk.

My friend (a woman percussionist herself) asked the girl, "Do you want to be in the bateria when you grow up?"

The girl said "No. I want to be mestre."