Ich Bin Ein Salvadorer

On Thursday, instead of our regular afternoon culture lecture, we went to Pelourinho for a special drumming presentation. They love African drumming in Bahia, if you haven’t noticed a theme in my posts. The guy’s talk was in Portuguese, so most of it was over my head but the music was very cool but we saw something even better when we came out of the studio. As we were sitting around eating ice cream on the cobblestone corner, a crowd started to gather around a large mural set up in the main square. When we went to check it out, it was a giant collage of different art commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

As the crowd grew, the artist began to pose like he was going to tear it down. After striking a pose for all the cameras, he took back his hammer and drove it right through the center of his art. I didn’t think he was really going to do it; it was a very cool mural. Other people standing by began to vehemently attack the large wall mural too. It was far from the artsy affair I expected. No one was taking precaution with the wall, it was a fit of all out demolition. I was hoping David Hasselhoff would make an appearance but nothing every transpired in the way of washed up eighties stars. Then, as people where ruthlessly kicking in his work, the artist handed over hammers to my friend Amanda and I and let us join in the destruction. It was really invigorating destroying a little piece of the memory communism (those bastards). More and more members of the crowd began to tear at the art while the surrounding crowd cheered everyone on. I really wish we were in the States because chanting “Brasil” doesn’t have the same ring as “U-S-A!”. When the bare structure was exposed, everyone began to rock it until everything collapsed. Once debris was all that remained, everyone let out an even louder cheer and began to dance onto of the ruins. Both Amanda and I managed to salvage some torn pieces of art from the debris that turned out pretty cool. More importantly, I can sleep easy knowing not even the Brazilian arts scene is being tempting by the evil perches of communism. USA! USA! Ahhh that’s better.