Text & Photos: Julie Schwietert Collazo
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Since returning home from celebrating Carnaval in three of Brazil’s cities, I’ve written about Carnaval Beyond Rio and the darker side of this national celebration.

One of my favorite Carnaval memories, though, is of the kids of Pelourinho.

In Pelourinho, the Carnaval celebrations are by the people and for the people, and kids are an important part of the party.

It seems like they get started early!

I could have spent the whole afternoon watching and photographing these precious, precocious toddlers.

Parents may not be wearing costumes, but, like Halloween in the U.S., they take the time to dress their little ones in special outfits.

Some of the costumes I saw were Indians, clowns, queens, princesses, pirates, witches.

So many of the kids seemed naturally photogenic, not yet touched by self-consciousness that creeps into all of us at some point, no matter where we were born. When I aimed the camera at the little boy above, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a handful of confetti…extending his hand towards me.

The kids would dance with each other or alone, with music or without. Later, I’d notice many of them asleep on the shoulders of their parents, exhausted from the day’s fun.