Gaviões da Fiel

Grêmio Recreativo Cultural e Escola de Samba Gaviões da Fiel Torcida (G.R.C.E.S. Gaviões da Fiel Torcida) is the largest torcida organizada of SC Corinthians Paulista. The organization is also a samba school in the city of São Paulo. It was founded in 1969 and is based in the neighborhood of Bom Retiro. It has over 140,000 associates. It was the first torcida organizada in Brazil to have an internal administrative structure that's regulated by statutory rules. In Gaviões, the Carnaval departments and the associates linked to football are part of the same entity.

The torcida had major growth by the 1990s; many of its members became involved in fights against members of other torcidas, which led to the Public Prosecutor's Office to request for the entity's dissolution in 1997. The organization was suspended at points by injunction for its activities as a torcida.

History The Gaviões was created in 1969, but meetings between fans of Corinthians had been occurring since at least 1965. They had the objective of creating an entity that would not just be a torcida organization, but also a vehicle for action in the political-administrative area for Corinthians. Its principal objective, at the time, was the removal of director Wadih Helu, who had been the president of the club since 1961.

First parades and change of base Flávio La Selva was member number one of Gaviões da Fiel. Since the beginning, members of the organization have participated actively in the parades of the samba school, initially as a wing of the samba school Vai-Vai, which also has the same colors as Corinthians. In the beginning, their headquarters was in a garage in the Zona Norte of São Paulo. Their base was later moved to Rua Santa Efigênia in 1974, becoming the first public base of the entity. In 1975, the torcida started to parade in the official line of blocos in the city of São Paulo. Gaviões would win 12 times in 13 years of competing. In 1978, they opened their current headquarters in the neighborhood of Bom Retiro.

The Gaviões began to officially compete as a samba school in 1989, coming in second place in group 1 (the current Grupo de Acesso). In 1990, it finished in ninth place among ten schools and was relegated. In 1991, however, it won the Grupo de Acesso, later finishing in eighth place in the Lugar no Grupo Especial in 1992.

In 1993, the school came in fifth place with the enredo A Chave do Tempo, and in 1994, they were the vice-champion, beaten only by Rosas de Ouro.

In 1995, Gaviões became champions for the first time with the famous enredo Coisa Boa é pra Sempre.

Due to its nature of the organization being both a samba school and a torcida organization, the Gaviões have gained visibility at Carnaval; This not just extends to the São Paulo Carnaval, but also the carnavals in other states, such as the Rio Carnaval, for example as well as gaining the support among the other Corinthians supporters, even those who support other samba schools.

In 1996, the school came in fourth place with the enredo "Quem Viver Verá o Vinte Virar", penned by carnaval organizer Raul Diniz. In 1997, the school came in fifth with "Mundo da Rua". This was followed by one of their many homages to Corinthians in 1998.

In 1999, the Gaviões da Fiel won that year's Carnaval with the enredo "O Príncipe Encoberto ou a busca de S. Sebastião na Ilha de São Luís do Maranhão", tying with Vai-Vai. Had there been in place the current rules dealing with ties, Gaviões would have been declared the victors.

In 2000, the school was the last to parade that night, presenting "Um Voo Para a Liberdade", a thematic piece on the 500th anniversary of the Portuguese first encountered what is now Brazil.

In 2001, the school betted on a large investment towards their carnaval blocs, building allegorical cars and costumes. They also became the samba school with the most expensive abre-alas at that time. "Mitos e Magias na Triunfante Odisseia da Criação" spoke on the origins of the creation of the world and was the school's bet with carnaval organizer Jorge Marcos Freitas. They came in fourth place that year, behind eventual winner Nenê de Vila Matilde.

In 2002, Gaviões competed with Xeque-Mate, which was a tribute to the game of chess while also making strong political and social criticisms. The enredo won that year's Carnaval and was used during that year's elections.

In 2003, Gaviões was again the runners-up at Carnaval with an enredo about the five regions of Brazil, "As Cinco Deusas Encantadas na Corte do Rei Gavião", again written by Jorge Freitas.

For 2004, almost ten years after their first title in the Grupo Especial and having already consolidated itself as one of the largest samba schools in São Paulo, Gaviões da Fiel was the favorite to win three times in a row when, in their carnaval bloc about the 450th anniversary of the city of São Paulo, one of the cars that talked about the "revolução corintiana" had problems with its axle with an allegory that represented a Corinthians player becoming stuck in the speaker and the clock of the Sambódromo, even collapsing in the latter. This made the school run out of time in 5 minutes, losing 8 points in total, along with receiving low notes in terms of its evolution. The school came in last place.

In 2005, Gaviões had problems once again with their carnaval bloc, but received help from LigaSP, which allowed Gaviões more time to start their carnaval bloc, leading it to win the Grupo de Acesso again.

2006 was the first year in which two schools linked to torcidas were in the Grupo Especial at the same time: Gaviões (the first to parade on Friday) and Mancha Verde (which supports Palmeiras; they were the second to last to perform starting that Saturday morning and into Sunday). The Gaviões, however, won in court the right to normally participate in the Grupo Especial. Mancha Verde, meanwhile, would dispute alone for two years among sports schools.

That year however, there were fears among some of the sambistas that fights between the torcidas could affect the event. Due to this, regulations were passed to require that the torcida schools must parade on separate days (in this case, from Sunday morning to Monday), disputing in that way at the Grupo Especial. However, with less than a week before the start of Carnaval, Gaviões da Fiel gained an injunction that guaranteed that they could dispute the Grupo Especial, opening the parade on Friday.

This should have restarted their parade, but the school ended up losing their regulated time, causing a loss of points. In the calculation of points, they were penalized further due to showing the shield of Corinthians on one of its cars (despite having won the right in the courts to show them), and for supposed advertising on one of the other cars (as there was a generators business' logo on a car during the parade, which should have been hidden), losing four points in total. To this, adding to fact that the jurors gave very low marks to the school, for example their bateria, resulted in them being demoted again. The school's management affirmed that they would abandon their samba school parades with LigaSP.

In 2007, the Gaviões da Fiel paraded in the Grupo de Acesso with 4 cars and 3,000 components divided into 22 wings. The enredo was dedicaded to Father José de Anchieta and contributed to them being named once again the new champion of the Categoria de Acesso.

For 2008, there were two possibilities: the Gaviões would participate in the Grupo Especial das Escolas Esportivas together with Mancha Verde, or there could be the possibility of the school competing in the traditional Grupo Especial, reinforced by the same injunction that guaranteed it this right in 2006. Meanwhile, in July 2007, after a new meeting of LigaSP, it was decided that they viewed the division as extinct, and thus returning to the schools that would dispute the Grupo Especial.

For carnaval that year, the Gaviões had as their them the city of Santana do Parnaíba, situated in Greater São Paulo. As the champion of the Grupo de Acesso, they were the first school to parade. The school impressed with their allegories and costumes. However, they were considered to have presented at a level below in relation to other organizations and even to their previous performances. Once again, their members had to run the final part of the parade to not go over the maximum timelimit of 65 minutes, which resulted in the loss of points due to perceptions of evolution of harmony. They came in eleventh place.

For Carnaval 2009, the Gaviões brought carnaval organizer Zilkson Reis, who came from Mocidade Alegre, and carnaval director Igor Carneiro. This year, the enredo "O sonho comanda a vida, quando o homem sonha, o mundo avança", the school spoke of the invention of the wheel and paid tribute to their most well-known supporter: Ayrton Senna, who is today hommaged by the club. The club came in fourth place, returning to the parade of champions after five years.

In 2010, the school paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of Corinthians with the enredo "Corinthians... Minha vida, minha história, meu amor!". Along with this, the madrinha of the bateria was replaced, with Lívia Andrade being replaced by Sabrina Sato. During the tallying of the vote, supporters, outraged by the score given to the school, began to through bottles onto the ground of the Sambadrome after the directors of the school were angered by the result. The school came in fifth place.

In 2011, they based their enredo after the city of Dubai. Despite not being a fan favorite of the torcida, the school had a more technical approach that rendered them a fifth place. In 2012, they would give homage to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. At the time, Lula was recovering from a tumor in his larynx, and based on medical advice, did not participate in the parade. He instead watched the enredo on television at his residence. He recorded a video, meanwhile, giving thanks to the school's homage. The video was projected onto a screen in the last car, where his wife, Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva, paraded. The bateria paraded with a costumes of Lula. Despite the large amount of money spent on the enredo, there were problems with its evolution and obtained a score of 8.9, with them only receiving the maximum score in their bateria and their enredo.

Before the classic match against Palmeiras on 25 March 2012, supporters of both Corinthians and Palmeiras began fighting on Avenida Inajar de Souza. Two Palmeiras fans were killed. The Federação Paulista de Futebol prohibited both Gaviões da Fiel and Mancha Alviverde from entering stadiums in the city with any material that mentioned the names of the fans that died until the case surrounding the fight was finished. The president of Gaviões, Donizete, was jailed for 18 days after being accused of omissions.

In 2013, the school took on the history of Brazilian advertising and publicity in the enredo: "Ser Fiel é a alma do negócio", developed by carnaval organizer Max Lopes. Different than other years, they had brightly colored costumes. They tied in points with Nenê de Vila Matilde and X-9 Paulistana. They all earned ninth place.

In February 2013, supporters of Corinthians and members of the Gaviões were arrested in Bolivia after the tragedy at Oruro Stadium in Oruro, where a Bolivian teenager was killed by a flare fired by a member of the Gaviões. In April 2013, Gaviões elected a new president.

For Carnaval 2014, they paid tribute to a legend in world soccer, Ronaldo, recounting his life story and his childhood living in poverty in Bento Ribeiro. The enredo, "R9 - O voo real do Fenômeno", had 4,000 components divided into 24 wings.