Brazil Protests: Clubismo in the Heart of the Demonstrations

While all eyes are on the riots in the United States, Brazil, as well, is not quiet.

In recent days there have been massive protests against the corruption of politicians, police violence and the country's President Jair Bolsonaro, in what the locals call anti-fascist demonstrations.

Those at the heart of these demonstrations are football fans.

The torcida and ultras of some of the Doze Grandes, Brazil's twelve major football clubs. Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco de Gama and Botafogo from Rio de Janeiro, Corinthians, São Paulo, Palmeiras of São Paulo, Santos from the small town next to it, to Grêmio and Internacional of Porto Alegre, are the heart of the confrontations with the police, along with social and anti-fascits organizations. 

The photos are quite surreal. Grêmio and Internacional fans walk together, Flamengo and Fluminense, Corinthians and Palmeiras - all as one block for the same cause.

"Somos pela democracia" the signs of Gaviões da Fiel said in their march at the Avenida Paulista, "Red-Black Democracy" of the Flamengo Torcida in their protests in Rio.

This is not a total coincidence. All of these teams are massive clubs, with millions of fans who define their identities according to their favourite team. These clubs hold fierce rivalries year-round, so fierce they even end up in murder from time to time.

Brazil is a country with a rich history of demonstrations, coups, dictatorial military regimes, and of course slavery and very severe racial tension, and one of its unique phenomena is Clubismo - an identity based on the football team you are a fan of. By the clubimso, the club is everything, even more significant than the national team.

Now that the surface in the sub-continent is boiling, these fan groups, which are the beating heart of Brazilian football culture, put their rivalry aside and protest.

Photo: Twitter account of Alessandro Molon