Serra, Serrinha, Serrano: The empire of samba

The history of a samba school is always the story of the neighborhood, the region, where it emerged and evolved. There are exceptions, however: Mangueira, Portela, Salgueiro, and Império Serrano, institutions whose history can be traced back to Rio de Janeiro's 20th-century history. The trajectory of Império Serrano, for example, dramatically overlaps with that of the city. After all, the rise and decline of both schools don't just coincide; they're intertwined. Nine-time Carnival champions, the last in 1982, it's no coincidence that the school sang the praises of, and longing for, Guanabara state in 1988. Since then, there have been several relegations, soon followed by a return to the elite, until it stabilized in Carnival's second division. In 2017, when Império Serrano turns seventy, it already has eight teams in the access group, a period during which, also not surprisingly, Serrinha Hill, the school's birthplace, experienced an unprecedented escalation of violence. Nothing, however, can overshadow a story whose most important foundation is the revolt against authoritarianism, and whose suburban origins, shortly after abolition, include rural workers from the old parish of Irajá, people from the Paraíba Valley and the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, and longshoremen from the port of Rio. This encounter ensured, and seems to ensure, regardless of Carnival and the passage of time, that Império Serrano would become one of Brazil's most solid cultural hubs, a creative hub of reference for the vitality of samba, and home to geniuses like Silas de Oliveira, Dona Ivone Lara, Beto Sem Braço, and Arlindo Cruz. And no one better than Rachel Valença to tell, 35 years after the first version of this pioneering book, written with the late Suetônio Valença, this fundamental Brazilian story.