I'm from the lyre, I can't deny it.

This Carnival, my dear Carioca (Rio de Janeiro native), enjoy the street parties and the beaches, but don't forget to visit the origins of the biggest popular festival on the planet, our own. big bangGet to know Morro da Conceição, Morro da Providência, Morro do Valongo and Morro do Livramento; visit Saúde, Gamboa and Pedra do Sal, that's where it all began, we were born there.  

Every year thousands of tourists visit Israel to see the Western Wall and Jerusalem, the land of Christ. We, from Rio de Janeiro, go to the city center every day, endure the ordeal of public transportation, and don't realize that the promised land, our Canaan, is right there in the Port Zone, the land of Machado de Assis. 

It was in that region that the first ranchos and cordões emerged, the embryos of the samba schools, and the famous entrudos, which many people still don't know what they are, but which have always been present in the lyrics of the samba enredos that we have always learned to sing.  

It was there that Donga's guitar, João da Baiana's tambourine, and Heitor dos Prazeres' cavaquinho were joined by Pixinguinha's flute, and samba and choro came together in batuque circles and soirées. It is a reference point for Black culture, Candomblé, and the Bahian women, personified by the food vendor Tia Ciata. 

"Traveling" through these places, besides being more affordable, is also a rescue of our history, a return to the roots of our much-undervalued culture. It's not like going to London, for example, although that would be interesting, but what is the connection between the Thames and the Rio Carnival? Going to Paris is a dream for anyone who has the habit of visiting museums, but I doubt that the Louvre has on display the costume of Dodô (a resident of Saúde), the first champion flag bearer of Portela. 

If Liverpool has Penny Lane Street, Eleanor Rigby, and the Cavern Club, here we have Camerino Street, Chiquinha Gonzaga (who was born on Senador Pompeu Street), and the cabarets of Sacadura Cabral; if Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, here we have the Hanging Gardens of Valongo built by Pereira Passos. 

Finally, locals and tourists from all corners and bars of the city, unite! This year's carnival represents the reclaiming of joy outraged by the coup, abhorred by the fascist scum, of rats and lizards tearing up costumes, but which emerges paving the way for a new era.