mamulengo (String Puppet)

The puppet represents a character from a form of popular puppet theatre, found in northeastern Brazil, called mamulengo. This type of theatre is prevalent in disenfranchised communities with ancestral ties to colonized Indigenous peoples and uprooted, enslaved Africans. Mamulengo performances are entertaining events that can last all night long, with puppeteers (mamulengueiros) using 70 to 100 puppets in one staging. The stages are pop-up stands (empanadas), made of brightly coloured, floral-printed cloth. The shows consist of short sequences (passagens), or skits from popular stories that expose the inequalities and dramas of everyday life, profiling stock characters such as rich landowners and peasant labourers. The whole is spun together with humour, satire, lively music, and audience commentary.

Mamulengo string (or marionette) puppet of a 'Diabo' (devil) character. He has red skin with short black hair. He has long pointed brown horns, a pointed chin with goatee, hooked nose, painted black lines, and large red eyes. He wears matching shiny red long-sleeved shirt and pants, and a long black cape. His boots are painted black. He is attached by many black strings to a wooden T-shaped control bar with one cross-bar.