(1 Mar 2020) THOUSANDS ATTEND CARNIVAL CHAMPIONS PARADE
Thousands attended the Carnival champions parade in Rio de Janeiro to see the six best samba schools perform on Saturday night.
Unidos da Viradouro, from the neighbouring city of Niterói, won the 2020 Rio de Janeiro Carnival title with lyrics honouring the strength of the "Mulheres Ganhadeiras" (in English; Winner women), who back in the 19th century were slaves and worked as laundresses and also sold food to earn money to buy their own and other women's freedom.
"It's wonderful, after 23 years, we've returned with a title and talking about women, women empowerment, women have always been warriors but never valued and now this is changing recently" said Raquel Leite, a 37-year-old physiotherapist who has paraded with the samba school since she was a child.
Runner-up samba school Grande Rio also explored a more politically engaged theme addressing the religious intolerance issue in Brazil.
6th place samba school Mangueira, which won last year's carnival title, had a controversial theme exploring the life of Jesus Christ if he had been born today at the Mangueira Favela, adressing police violence, religious intolerance and other social issues.
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