Portela

The Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Portela or Portela for short, is a traditional samba school ,founded in 1923, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The school has the highest number of wins in the top-tier Rio parade, with 22 titles in total, including the 2017 Carnival parade. History At the start of the 20th century, in Oswaldo Cruz, a neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro forms a carnivalesque group of dancers called Quem Fala de Nós Come Mosca which literally translated as "Who talks about us eats flies". They are based in Dona Ester. A dissidence of this group of dancers (called "bloco" in Brazilian Portuguese) appears in 1922 and another bloco, the Baianinhas de Oswaldo Cruz (Baianas of Oswaldo Cruz) is created. Later, a dissidence of Baianas creates the Conjunto Carnavalesco Oswaldo Cruz (Carnaval Ensemble Oswaldo Cruz) on April 11, 1926. The founders are from Oswaldo Cruz however, Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Portela is actually founded, on 412 Portela Road, in the neighborhood of Madureira. After winning the contest between sambistas in 1929, performed in the house of Zé Espinguela, the bloco changes its name to Quem nos Faz é o Capricho (Who makes us is caprice). In 1931, when the samba schools are still being determined, the group changes its name again, this time to Vai como Pode (Go as you can). In 1935, the school is the champion of the first official parade of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The name "Vai como Pode" is used until 1935, when, after the Carnaval, on March 1 of 1935, on the occasion of the renovation of the licence of the school in the police, the officer Dulcídio Gonçalves refused to renovate the license with this name, considering it as vulgar and not dignified for a samba school. The same officer suggested a new name, Grêmio Recreativo e Escola de Samba Portela, in homage to the street in Madureira where sambistas had gathered. The change pleased the community; many had already been referring to the school as the "folks from Portela". In 1939, the samba of Paulo da Portela, "Teste ao Samba" (Test for the samba), was considered the first samba-enredo. In the same year, Portela renovated things by bringing to the parade costumes totally framed to the enredo (plot).