‘I burst into tears and prayed’

While Maria Mariá was getting ready in the crowd waiting for Imperatriz Leopoldinense to enter the Avenida, her mother, Lucilene Fernandes, kept opening and closing a fanny pack. From there came illuminating spray, lipstick, needle, thread, tape. She was Maria’s only support, who debuted as the school’s drum queen.

At 48, Lucilene was barely breathing. After all, it was when she was raising her daughter in Complexo do Alemão, in the North Zone of Rio, that she saw a dream come true.

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“My husband and I were never samba dancers. But she was a junior dancer, then she joined the adult wing. When Latia Drummond (president of the school) told me: ‘you’re the mother of the school’s queen of drums’, I broke down”, remember.

On the Avenue, it almost collapses again. Minutes before seeing her daughter in the position that once belonged to Luiza Brunet and Iza, she did not hide her emotion: “I burst into tears and prayed to Our Lady of Aparecida, a saint of devotion and protector of Mary. to see my daughter at the Taekwondo championships. But, like today, never”.

Lucilene stayed by her daughter’s side the entire show and was apprehensive because Maria had problems with her costume.