Carioca
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Carioca is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro as well as its eponymous State of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original word, "kara'i oka", comes from the indigenous Tupi language meaning "house of carijó", which was a native tribe of Rio de Janeiro who lived in the vicinity of the Carioca River, between the neighborhoods of Glória and Flamengo.
Like other Brazilians, cariocas speak Portuguese. The carioca accent and sociolect (also simply called "carioca", see below) are one of the most widely recognized in Brazil, in part because Rede Globo, the second-largest television network in the world, is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. Thus, a lot of Brazilian TV programs, from news and documentary to entertainment (such as the telenovelas), feature carioca-acting and -speaking talent.
History
The archaic demonym for the Rio de Janeiro State is fluminense, taken from the Latin word flūmen, meaning "river." Despite the fact that carioca is a more ancient demonym of Rio de Janeiro's inhabitants (known since 1502), it was replaced by fluminense in 1783, when the latter was sanctioned as the official demonym of the Royal Captainship of Rio de Janeiro (later the Province of Rio de Janeiro). A few years after the City of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro had become the capital city of the Brazilian colonies. From 1783 and during all the Imperial Regime, carioca remained only as a nickname by which other Brazilians called the inhabitants of Rio (city and province). During the first years of the Brazilian Republic, carioca was the name given to those who lived in the slums or a pejorative way to refer to the bureaucratic elite of the Federal District. Only when the City of Rio lost its status as Federal District and became a Brazilian State (Guanabara State), when the capital city was moved to Brasilia, was carioca made a co-official demonym with guanabarino. In 1975, the Guanabara State was eliminated by President Geisel (under the military dictatorship), becoming the present-day City of Rio de Janeiro, and carioca was made the demonym of its municipality. Despite the fact carioca is not recognized as an official demonym of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazilians call the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro in general (state and city) cariocas, and most of its inhabitants claim to be cariocas. Nowadays, social movements like "Somos Todos Cariocas" ("We are all Cariocas") try to achieve the official recognition of carioca as a co-official demonym of the Rio de Janeiro State.
Accomplishments and influence
Template:See also Carioca people have invented a few sports; the most famous is footvolley.
Cariocas are credited with creating the bossa nova style of music.
Famous cariocas in film include "Brazilian bombshell" Carmen Miranda, a Portuguese woman who grew up in Rio de Janeiro. An eponymous song from 1933, Carioca, has become a jazz standard.
Carnaval Carioca is the Portuguese name for the largest Brazilian Carnival, the Rio Carnival.
Samba Carioca is a localized style of Brazilian Samba.
There is an exercise drill used for dynamic stretching called Carioca. It consists of a repeating Samba dance step.
