An Opening Ceremony Up in the Hills -- OpEd

(ATR) "Are you okay?" read all the texts I received last night while I was out watching the opening ceremony.

I would have responded, but at that moment I was clutching the back of a moto-taxi ferrying me down from one of Rio’s favelas. When acting Brazilian President Michel Temer officially declared the Rio 2016 Games open, the pomp and revelry did not reach Pereira da Silva, a favela, where I chose to watch the ceremony.

Favelas are not slums. This community is located on top of Rio’s Santa Theresa neighborhood. Upon hearing the world "favela," many of my friends and family back home believed I was voluntarily going into some of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Rio. It is true that some of Rio’s favelas are controlled by drug gangs. Downplaying that aspect whitewashes the truth, as gringos tend to do. But it is also important to note that favelas remain drivers of Rio’s culture, and that they are the neighborhoods where most of the city’s residents live.

Pereira da Silva does not have the violence other communities face, and the night was very still, a contrast from scenes on Rio’s metro just hours earlier. Trains were jam packed, and to my delight I ended up standing right next to a Hong Kong/American family. The five of them had traveled from either San Francisco in the United States, or took five flights from Hong Kong to see their first opening ceremony live.

"We have an extra ticket if you would like it," one of the family members said to me. "One of us dropped out. She is a [buzzkill]."

I happily declined, and continued my journey along with four other gringos. The party we were going to was organized by a mutual friend, Tom Ashe. He is a trumpeter who came to Brazil eight years ago and set up a charity to teach music in Pereira da Silva, where he lives. The charity, Favela Brass, organized a carnival-like parade earlier in the day to kick off a marathon of Olympic shows.

The charity ran into bureaucratic problems when it tried to join the Olympic cultural program and ultimately decided it was better to come up with their own performances to coincide with the Games. They will be performing 16 shows in 16 days around the city, so the kids feel part of the Olympic feeling.

The watch party was filled mostly with gringos, although members of the community did pop in. You could also see small impromptu groups sitting on plastic lawn chairs on the streets, drinking cheap beer and watching the ceremony.

I sat with two Pereira da Silva residents, Eliezer Gomes de Andrade and Claudia Pereira das Chagas. Both have lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years. They know each other well, but have diametrically opposed views of the night.

Chagas opened the restaurant where we were watching ahead of the World Cup, hoping to capitalize on the influx of tourists in the city for business purposes. He expects the same for the Olympics. Outside of that, he has little sympathy for the Games and what they represent.

"[The Games] may have brought some good, but it doesn’t help all the people," Chagassaid. "I don’t feel a part of these ceremonies. When we won the Games I was very happy, but [watching this] there is nothing in my heart, I don’t feel that happiness."

As Chagas stoically watched all 207 National Olympic Committees, Andrade vibrantly cheered taking in the spectacle. Andrade’s favorite team outside of Brazil was the refugee team, and he enthusiastically joined with the crowd heard on Globo’s coverage of the event.

"I love the carioca funk," Andrade said about what part of the parade was his favorite. "I’m very happy for the Olympics, it has transformed the city. I feel involved, there have been many good things done for Rio and for Brazil."

As the parade of nations wound down only our small group of gringos, Chagas, Andrade, and one other resident remained. They told us that opinion in the community over the Olympics is divided 50 percent for and 50 percent against.

There was one moment that lifted the mood for everyone, the entrance of Team Brazil. Watching the athletes enter the Maracana may not have put a smile on Chagas’s face, but it did bring a nod of approval and the concession that he was a little excited to watch the best athletes compete.

The night wound down and our group left Pereira da Silva behind for a night out at a club in a nearby favela known as "The Maze." Fireworks continued around Maracana long after the ceremony ended, echoing up the hillsides.

We could see the iconic stadium from the bottom of the neighborhood, still illuminated as the ceremonies dissipated. It was fitting because, in Rio, the Olympics will take place in a bubble as life goes on all around it. The Games will probably only touch a fraction of the population, yet tonight it was impossible to escape the Olympics. One cab driver I had ran with the torch earlier in the day and was eager to share pictures of the experience.

After a long, fun, night out I made it back to my apartment in Rio’s South Zone. The night doorman knows I work in some capacity with the Olympics and did not hesitate to give a thumbs down to the event. I guess not everyone was a fan.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Pereira da Silva

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