Events

To the cry of “Carrega Mouraria!” a whole neighbourhood stands up. On the eve of Saint Anthony’s day, the Patron Saint of Lisbon, twenty-four couples of men and women, eight musicians and a crowd of supporters march proudly along Lisbon’s main boulevard representing Mouraria in the highly competitive Marchas Populares. The parade at the Avenida da Liberdade is the culmination of several months of planning, preparation and daily rehearsals in which Mouraria mobilizes its own people and resources to produce a performance that aims at reflecting community values and traditions in their own terms.

“Carrega Mouraria!” is a visual diary of the day-to-day preparation of the marcha of Mouraria of 2016. Thanks to the generosity of organizers and participants, the ethnographer’s gaze has been allowed to witness a private side of the marchas populares that often remains hidden to the public eye. Against the backdrop of an aged neighbourhood in contested transformation, this diary shows a dynamic collective of young people committed to maintain a sense of bond and community pride in one of Lisbon’s most emblematic neighbourhoods.