Challenging the Rules of the Game: The Rehearsal of Boi Vencedor (Manaus, 1919)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the zone of tension between boi festivities and police control in Manaus in the early twentieth century. These experiences are underscored by the historical presence of one of the most renowned bois in the city: Boi Vencedor. In order to reconstruct this process, sources such as local press records, the Regulation of Public Entertainment, and a criminal case were examined. Amid a social context marked by invisibility or negative representations in the local press, a boi group rehearsal made the front page of a major newspaper in the city following a physical altercation in its yard, an episode that later unfolded into a legal case. Despite an apparent compliance with regulations, the participants developed forms of resistance, aware of constant surveillance, resorting to various strategies to circumvent police oversight and continue performing boi festivities in the city.