No Dengue Mosquito Campaign


A few days ago, I was walking, literally, across a neighborhood in Foz do Iguaçu when, just short of a magnificent and typical downpour, I past by a small house that called my attention because of a huge iron dengue fever mosquito on the roof top. I took the picture and posted it.

In it you see a mosquito made out of recycled beer can, different metals and different nets. On one side you see a home-painted, hand-made sign where we can read sonething like "no dengue fever mosquito here". Days later I came back to the house. My purpose was to learn about the story behind this sculpture and to find out who was behind the idea. Now I can tell you what I found out:

First, the house is not just a little house. It is also the seat of the Gremio Desportivo e Cultural Mocidade Independente do São Francisco (The São Francisco Area Independent Youth Sport and Cultural Center - also known by the name of the São Francisco Samba School). San Francisco here has nothing to do with the San Francisco (Bay) Area of its more affluent namesake in California. San Francisco here refers to one of the 10 regions in which Foz do Iguaçu has been divided in order to make administration easier - of sorts.

It includes a nunber of "bairros" mostly sharing the same humble beginnings back in the 1970s when the Itaipu Binational then under construction began to give signs that many people would laid off some day. In the house I met Sergio Pereira, a Rio de Janeiro-born, "carnavalesco" (carnaval author, song composer, writer designer).

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