Look around: here, right where the lively Prata Preta group dances during Carnival, is the site of a true popular revolt, the Vaccine Revolt.
In 1904, Harmonia Square was stage to one of the most violent popular revolts of the 20th century. Residents of this area of the city mounted barricades to expel the army around their homes – all because the federal government passed a law that made the smallpox vaccine mandatory. Without explaining what they were doing to people, health care agents invaded homes and forcibly vaccinated people, inciting the revolt.
So, from November 10-16, the masses went to the streets, and Rio de Janeiro became a battlefield. The newspaper Gazeta de Notícias described the scene: “Gunshots, fights, traffic jams, closed businesses, public transportation attacked and set on fire, street lamps smashed with stones, facades of public and private buildings destroyed, trees torn down: the people of Rio de Janeiro revolt against the mandatory vaccination program proposed by physician Oswaldo Cruz.”
Horácio José da Silva, known as Prata Preta, was a Capoeira expert and a laborer on the docks who fought on the side of the people. He helped build a barricade on the Arthur Port that created a miniature city protected from the army.
The revolt was only contained on November 16 after the government backed down on their policy decision: the vaccine would no longer be mandatory.
The rebellion left 20 dead and 110 injured.
After the revolt was over, the government established a State of Emergency in Rio, and many of the leaders were imprisoned and sent to Acre as punishment. Prata Preta was one of them.
On the 100th anniversary of the Vaccine Revolt in 2004, the carnival group Cordão do Prata Preta was founded in tribute to the dockworker Prata Preta. Every Carnival, the block party starts here in Harmonia Square, parading through the streets and hillsides of the Saúde neighborhood.