Dona Capitolina, Ulisses Bispo Medonça: Bumba-meu-Boi Linda Joía de São João

Dona Capitolina, Ulisses Bispo Medonça:

Bumba-meu-Boi Linda Joía de São João

Matinha (Maranhao), Brazil

Dona Capitolina and Ulisses Medonca. Together they are the leaders of the Bumba-meu-boi celebration group Linda Joía de Sao Joao (Beautiful Jewel of Saint John). Sao Joao/Saint John is the patron saint of the Bumba-meu-boi celebration throughout the state of Maranhao.

Dona Capitolina and Ulisses Medonca are old friends whom we have visited in Matinha several times in the course of our research on folk celebration in Maranhão. On a recent visit Dona Capitolina asked where are all these pictures.

Here they are, at least of few. They are divided into several sets:

Part I. A gallery of portraits of Dona Capitolina, Ulisses Bispo Medonca, taken during several visits over the years

Part 2. Rehearsal and Preparation for performance Matinha 2017

Part 3. Performance of the group Linda Joía de Sao Joas (Beautiful Jewel of Saint John) Matinha 2017

Masked Cazumba, an iconic figure in the Baixada tradition, It can represent various spiritual entities, and those in the tradition will give many explanations. Performatively, the cazumba interacts with the audience (especially children) and often maintains the boundaries of the performance when the crowd is mingling closely (as is often the case in village celebration)

Part I: A gallery of portraits of Capitolina taken during several visits.

Simone Ferro and Meredith Watts with Ulisses Bispo Medonca, Matinha 2017

The small city of Matinha in the interior of Maranhao is a center for celebration of the Baixada style (sotaque) of the Bumba-meu-boi celebration. The festival is traditionally celebrated on and around the day of Saint John the Baptist (São João). Customarily this occurs on the night of the 23rd into the day of the official day of Saint John, June 24th.

The name of the Bumnba-meu-boi celebration group — Beautiful Jewel of Saint John — reflects this lasting power of popular Catholicism in Northeast Brazilian folk culture..

The festival is held in a town square prepared as a performance venue and attended by a host of local leaders and hundreds (thousands?) of viewers. In this small city, over a dozen groups will perform on festival night.

In 2017 we photographed them in the headquarters of the group — which is actually their home — during the days of the festival.

Part 2, Rehearsals and Preparations, Matinha Baixada Festival, June 2017