A Festa da Chiquita no terreno do Círio de Nazaré: uma experiência de lazer entrelaçando a devoção, a diversidade e a economia popular

Abstract

This study sought to understand the meanings that emerge from the sociocultural, political and economic experiences of the Chiquita party, set in the Círio de Nazaré, based on the interweaving of Devotion, Fun and Popular Economy. This way, it was possible to identify the peculiarities of the Círio de Nazaré and its relationship with other movements, not necessarily religious, having as protagonist the Chiquita party. This celebration of diversity mobilizes the LGBT public, connecting leisure to important movements of struggles for respect and for the conquests of rights for this community. An event that moves the Popular Economy, through informal sellers who see this period as an unmissable opportunity to generate income. Based on field research, with participant observation, this study used discourse analysis to treat the reports received during the interviews. These took place in the period between 2021 and 2022, with the participation of 15 people, 7 men and 8 women, aged between 19 and 80 years. Organizers and participants of Círio and Chiquita contributed to this study, in addition to street vendors who worked at these events. Although there was no intention to elect a specific theoretical current to support the analysis of the data, the Foucauldian perspective of power ended up standing out among the accepted theories. The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously damaged street leisure activities and all the opportunities that add to them, especially for the already fragile popular economy. In the considerations, it was possible to certify that the interweaving of aspects such as leisure, devotion and popular economy makes the Festa da Chiquita an important sociocultural, political and economic symbol, with strong warnings in the fight for the rights of the LGBT community and for the improvement of the working conditions of the street vendors who work informally. Thus, the constant need for public policies in favor of the LGBT population became evident, both in terms of gaining rights and maintaining the benefits already acquired, since Brazil is the world champion in murders of members of this community. The Chiquita party, for example, could make efforts to strengthen its performance, including raising funds, in order to broaden its horizon of debates, giving even more visibility to the causes it embraces. It was also evident the urgent need for legislation that is able to accommodate the specific demands of the Popular Economy, in order to guarantee these street workers training and qualification opportunities for a better exercise of their activities, as well as alternatives for fostering and credit access strategies, in addition to mechanisms to promote social security assistance in line with their reality. The main fragility of this work was due to the absence of Círio and Chiquita in their traditional formats in the years 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, limiting the performance of the fieldwork. As a tip for further studies, we recommend going deeper into parties that have a political, social and economic nature, where there is a wide possibility of investigations, given their multiple connections.