"The People's Joy" Vanishes: Considerations on the Death of a Soccer Player

• Autores: Sergio Leite Lopes
• Localización: Journal of Latin American Anthropology, ISSN 1085-7052, Vol. 4, Nº. 2, 1999, págs. 78-105
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • "The people's joy" is the phrase that, from the early 1960s, was attached to the person of Garrincha, who, with Pele, was the most notable player in the best phase of Brazilian soccer history. Unlike Pele, Garrincha never managed to adapt to professional sport, and after his retirement he sank into alcoholism. His unpredictable, disconcerting, and effective style seems to be related to the mysteries of the little�known social group from which he originated. The spectacular but short�lived intrusion of his amateur�like style into toprank competition illustrates the subordinate creativity developed by workers who lived in the closed world of company towns. The death in 1983 of this ex�factory worker and soccer player seems to have been accompanied by the disappearance of the popular euphoria generated by the economic and social boom in the democratic context of the 1950s