Who is Marciele Albuquerque? Cunhã-poranga of Boi Caprichoso Aims for Third Championship at the 2024 Parintins Festival

Marciele Albuquerque, a 30-year-old indigenous activist from the Munduruku people, is a prominent figure in global debates.

As the Cunhã-Poranga of Boi Caprichoso, Marciele represents item 9 at the Bumbódromo during the 2024 Parintins Folklore Festival, which starts this Friday (28th). Before taking on this role 8 years ago, she was a dancer for the Caprichoso Dance Corps and even served as a substitute for the Porta-Estandarte. Once she assumed her new role, her life changed as she became the guardian of the blue Boi-Bumbá.

“Representation both inside and outside the arena, and as a completely passionate fan, my ancestry, my soul vibrates with Boi Caprichoso. The enormous responsibility of bringing victory to our boi transforms into strength, intensity, and energy to perform the best in that arena!” Marciele proudly exclaims.

Background and Advocacy

Born in Juruti, Pará, Marciele is an environmental activist who has lived in Manaus for 13 years. At 30 years old, she is single and has no children. With a degree in Administration, she focuses on debates about hunger, climate change, and the future of the Amazon.

On Instagram, where she has over 560,000 followers (as of June, 2024), Marciele shares her daily life, including moments of connection with nature and the traditions of her people and the Amazon region.

Carnival Debut and Recognition

In 2018, Marciele made her debut at the Rio Carnival. She paraded with Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel in the section that honored the Parintins bulls. The school presented the theme “Namastê… the star that inhabits in me, greets the one that exists in you.”

What is the Parintins Folklore Festival?

The event is an open-air spectacle starring the bulls Caprichoso and Garantido. It takes place in Parintins, on the Tupinambarana Island, in the state of Amazonas, near the Pará border. The performances always happen on the last weekend of June at the Bumbódromo, an arena shaped like a bull’s head with a capacity for 25,000 people.

For three nights, Boi Caprichoso (the current champion), represented by the color blue and a star on its forehead, and Boi Garantido, represented by the color red and a heart on its forehead, perform their presentations.

On the fourth day, a winner is chosen: the one who performed the best story within the year’s theme and had the highest score among the 21 evaluated items. Among them, item 9, defended by former BBB Isabelle Nogueira for Garantido, brings beauty, charm, determination, and incorporation through the narrative of the spectacle over the three nights of the festival.

The first edition took place in 1965 without the bulls, featuring only quadrilhas (traditional Brazilian dance groups). It was only the following year, 1966, that the two bulls were invited to participate, starting the competition that continues to energize the city to this day.