“The Homem da Meia Noite is Our Calunga”: the art of operating giant puppets from Carlos da Burra’s perspective

Abstract

This interview was made on 6 February 2026 at the headquarters of the Clube de Alegoria e Crítica Homem da Meia Noite, carnival club located in the Guadalupe neighborhood of Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil. Da Burra is a folk artist who over the last 30 years has become a local cultural icon in the art of operating giant puppets. During the interview he recounted his personal and professional journey with the local carnival culture, as well as sharing his experiences and memories from the time he has spent working as a giant puppets operator – particularly as the operator of the Homem da Meia Noite – touching on topics such as popular culture and street carnival. This interview inspires us to reflect, anthropologically, firstly on key themes in the study of cultural heritage and popular culture, and secondly on the fact that there is a diversity of knowledge that defies the Eurocentric logic of knowledge production, including the knowledge derived from the physical experience of the operator.