Flamengo and brazilian popular culture: encounters between characters and tales

Abstract

This essay proposes an encounter between characters and tales from Brazilian popular culture and football players who are part of the history of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo. This juxtaposition is made with the educational purpose of preserving the memory of popular tales and characters as intangible cultural heritage, while connecting them with one of Brazil's greatest passions: football (soccer). This text is carried out with the intention of questioning and challenging the appreciation of cultural diversity, celebrating differences, and preserving the identity culture of local ethnic communities. This essay is the result of an extension project titled "Urubu de Letra," which aims to connect football/Flamengo with themes from the social and human sciences. This essay connects the tales of Saci-Pererê, the Pink Dolphin, and the Indigenous figure Coaraci with the life stories of athletes who wore the jersey of the Carioca club Flamengo—Carpegiani, Lico, and Geraldo. Through the presentation of three chronicles that relate football to legendary characters from Brazilian popular culture, we infer that this type of content can introduce different forms of language into the classroom, facilitating dialogue between various fields of knowledge, as guided by the common national curriculum base (BNCC), and enriching students' cultural horizons. In a globalized world that imposes mass culture with the aim of cultural colonization, it is essential to remember that knowledge is plural. We are shaped and influenced by various manifestations of popular culture, and they should not be overlooked or erased.