In Recife, local artists and musicians celebrate centuries-old Brazilian Christmas traditions through the Ball of the Infant Jesus. Our correspondent Brian Mier has more. teleSUR
00:00And every Christmas in Recife, local artists and musicians commemorate centuries-old Brazilian Christmas traditions with the Ball of the Infant Jesus.
00:08A correspondent, Brian Mir, has more.
00:16Brazil's largest annual Christmas celebration is underway in Recife, the Ball of the Infant Jesus.
00:23It's a public theater performance which draws thousands of people to Old Recife every year to celebrate traditional Christmas folklore from the rural Brazilian Northeast with some songs tracing their roots back to the 1500s.
00:43The Ball of the Infant Jesus was created 41 years ago to bring Brazilian Christmas back to its rightful place.
00:51He places Joseph and Maria in the center of the celebration and expels what was imposed by capitalism, which are sleds, reindeer and snow, things that we don't have in the tropics.
01:03It's a ball that celebrates the people who formed our society, who were Iberian, Indigenous and African.
01:11During the 1970s, the military dictatorship encouraged local officials to theme Gramado in southern Brazil as a Bavarian city, despite the fact that it had no significant history of Bavarian immigration.
01:23It was part of an imperialist strategy to promote whiteness, and Gramado's annual Christmas parade with fake snow, based on northern European pagan traditions and Coca-Cola's image of Santa Claus, became a national tourist attraction.
01:38The Ball of the Infant Jesus was founded to fight back.
01:41The Ball of the Infant Jesus was founded to fight back.
01:45I play a Maria who exudes Brazilianness with a biracial identity who inhabits this hot and festive Brazilian Christmas, which is traditional here in the Northeast.
02:02I try to project the feeling that Maria is a great mother. For us Brazilians, there's nothing more secret than our mothers.
02:15In a nation where the far right worships everything from the United States, events like the Ball of the Infant Jesus are important for maintaining a sovereign cultural identity.
02:26Merry Christmas, from Brian Muir to Le Sur Recife.
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