São Luís (Brasil), 1933 – 2011

By Equipe Latinoamericana

The visual artist from Maranhão of Lebanese descent, Joãozinho Trinta, was one of the most prominent carnival designers (a kind of art director for samba schools) in Rio de Janeiro. He began his career as an assistant director at the traditional school Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, with which he won championships in 1965, 1967, and 1971. Promoted to carnival designer, he partnered with the visual artist Maria Augusta and won the carnivals of 1974 and 1975. Transferred to the then-unknown Beija-Flor, from Nilópolis (a poor city in Greater Rio), he brought the school from Baixada Fluminense into the league of major players, winning the carnivals of 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1983, and several runner-up titles.

It was during this peak period that he coined the phrase that summarized his style: “The poor like luxury, those who like poverty are intellectuals.” Despite his reputation for excess, in 1989 he led a historic parade that earned Beija-Flor an unfair second place. With the theme “Rats and vultures: leave my costume alone,” the school paraded entirely covered in recycled materials imitating garbage. A float carried the image of a shameful Christ the Redeemer — which, by court order at the request of the Catholic Church, was forced to pass through the Sambadrome covered.

Joãozinho reinvented samba school parades by reinforcing the use of large floats, heavily using glitter, and reinventing luxury by incorporating recycled materials into costumes and floats, thus encouraging community projects like Mutirão. After a cerebral ischemia that left him with serious sequelae, he transferred to the Unidos da Viradouro school, with which he still won the Rio carnival title in 1997.