Dona Neuma

Neuma Gonçalves da Silva (8 May 1922 – 17 July 2000) was a Brazilian samba dancer. She began dancing samba in a small group at age seven and was president of the Mangueira samba school for multiple terms, establishing the institution's children's and female's wings. Neuma housed several temporarily homeless people, and took some students to her home to learn to read and write through a literacy programme featuring local swear words invented by her. She was a member of the Superior Council of the Samba Schools throughout the 1960s and performed on four albums. A 2001 song about Neuma was written by the composer Arlindo Cruz and an overpass and school were named after her.

Early life On 8 May 1922, Neuma was born in a favelas suburb of Madureira, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. She was the oldest daughter in a poor family, and grew up in Madureira. Neuma's father Saturnino Gonçalves co-founded the traditional samba school Bloco dos Arengueiros in 1928, which later became the Estação Primeira de Mangueira. She became interested in music as a child, In 1938, Neuma and other girls formed multiple groups raising flags for contributions when Mangueira's participation in an annual carnival parade was put at risk by a needleperson who refused to give over a new flag she embroidered for the parade from having a lack of money for payment. Neuma took part in the Superior Council of the Samba Schools during the 1960s, discussing the organisation of Rio de Janeiro schools. Neuma housed many temporarily homeless people and did not turn a single person away, Throughout her life, the pre-Lenten dance and song celebrations evolved from "simply presented, purely community-based celebrations of Afro-Brazilian culture to the fiercely competitive, flashy, televised spectacles of today's Carnival."

Death and funeral Neuma was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Hospital Municipal Salgado Filho in Méier, northern Rio de Janeiro, with a hemorrhagic stroke caused by dizziness and fainting at home on 6 July 2000. She died eleven days later, The Escola Tia Neuma 2 school on the Vila Olímpica da Mangueira for children aged between 6 and 14 opened in 2008 was named for her.