Montevideo Carnival
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The call of African drums starts this Carnival which lasts for 40 days. The first day is Parade of the calls day which went on throughout the night known as desfile de las LLamadas. The calls derive from the days of the black slaves when they would meet to celebrate or deal with social issues to the call of the drums. The candomble drums and rhythm of the parade is based on the many African slaves that were brought over to work for the white man. The parade consisted of many samba and African based dances. The huge multi coloured plumed headdresses and scanty costumes of the samba dancers vied against the old African man (gramillero) with his white beard and his cane dancing with his wife, Mama Vieja, wearing her Porgy and Bess style old fashioned dress. The broom man, Escobar, sweeps the streets clean of negative waves in front of the dancers and drummers. Theatre groups performed their productions along the parade route. If anyone is left standing at the end of 40 days I would be surprised.
