One of the most traditional samba schools of Rio de Janeiro, the Mangueira won the annual Carnival contest 16 times. Its history is entwined with the very history of the Carioca carnival.

The Mangueira samba school had as its precursor the Bloco dos Arengueiros, which is believed to have had its first performance in the Carnival of 1927. On August 12, 1928, the first samba school was created, the Deixa Falar. It was a heavy influence on the other Carnival blocos of the city; wanting to be more than a bloco (which merely gathers the merrymakers during the Carnival), every bloco would like to teach the samba, to rehearse throughout the year to compete with each other for the best spectacle -- to be a samba school. Cartola had special importance in this transition, having written a samba, Chega de Demanda, urging the sambistas of Mangueira to create a bloco that was a samba school. Founded (according to Cartola) on April 28, 1928 (and according to researchers, April 28, 1929), by Saturnino Gonçalves (Satur), Marcelino José Claudino (Maçu), Abelardo da Bolinha, Euclides Roberto dos Santos, Pedro Caim, Zé Espinguela, and the very Cartola, the samba school was named by Cartola Estação Primeira ("First Station," alluding perhaps to an alleged leadership in samba over the other railroad stations that served the suburban working-class neighborhoods of Rio); and had its colors also chosen by him, green and red.

In the first Carnival after the foundation, the school arrived at the praça Onze ("Eleven Square," where by then the blocos used to play the Carnival) gathering 60 people. According to Cartola, the purpose of the Estação Primeira was to promote the unification of the diverse blocos that performed individually until then at the Mangueira hill.

The Estação Primeira started its life with a fine selection of talented composers like Cartola, Carlos Cachaça, Zé Com Fome (José Gonçalves, aka Zé da Zilda), Artur Farias, and Gradim (Lauro dos Santos).

The first contest between samba schools was promoted by Zé Espinelli (or Zé Espinguela), another key figure of Mangueira. Sponsored by an Arab merchant, Espinguela got three trophies that were exhibited in a display window; during the Carnival, he climbed up a stand and had the samba schools parading for him. By the end of the show, he decided that the Estação Primeira had won, followed by Estácio and, in third place, Favela. When the people from Estácio went to get the prize, they broke the trophy on Espinguela's head, which caused a fight between the members of the two samba schools.

In 1932, Mário Rodrigues Filho (Nelson Rodrigues' father and owner of the newspaper Mundo Esportivo) promoted the first official Carnival contest. 19 samba schools paraded, and the Estação Primeira won with A Floresta (Cartola/Carlos Cachaça). The samba school also introduced some innovations in that parade: adapting for the samba school format the figures of the mestre-sala and porta-estandarte of the ranchos; presenting two couples of mestre-sala and porta-bandeira; and introduced the surdo (a kind of drum), an instrument until then only used in the samba done at the Estácio de Sá borough.

In 1933, the samba championship was already a major event, with the attendance of 40,000 people. the Mangueira was again the winner, with the plot Uma Segunda-Feira No Bonfim da Bahia. Cartola sang during the parade (each samba school had the right to present two or three sambas, instead of only one as it is today) his Fita Meus Olhos, recorded by Arnaldo Amaral soon after the Carnival, and by the very Cartola in 1977.

In 1934, the contest was moved to January the 20th, with a minor version happening on February the 4th. the Mangueira won the contest again, with República da Orgia, competing against 16 samba schools, and refused to participate in another contest that year.

In 1936, the Mangueira was used by President Getúlio Vargas as an instrument to approximate Hitler's Germany. On January 30, the official daily radio progam A Hora do Brasil was broadcast directly from the terreiro (square) of the Estação Primeira directly to Germany. The broadcast was done in Portuguese by Zoláquio Diniz and in German by Rudolph Kleinoscheq. The sambas presented (all of them bearing curious titles if seen today in retrospect, considering history) were Liberdade ("Freedom," by Cartola/Arlindo dos Santos), Pérolas Para o Teu Colar ("Pearls for Your Necklace," Cartola), Me Deixa Chorar ("Let Me Cry," by Gradim), and O Destino Não Quis ("Destiny Didn't Want," by Cartola/Carlos Cachaça).

In 1937, the Mangueira and another 15 samba schools of the 32 enrolled in the contest couldn't parade, as the police decided to interrupt the party. In the next year, the Estação Primeira innovated again, creating the first ala de compositores (composers' wing) within a samba school, formed by Cartola, Carlos Cachaça, Sebastião de Oliveira, Édson de Souza, Isaltino Dias, Francisco Modesto, Aluízio Dias, Orlando Batista, Valdemiro Rocha, Manuel Matos, and others. In that year there weren't winners as it rained too much and a couple of members of the jury missed the contest.

On New Year's Eve of 1939, the Mangueira became the first samba school to perform in one of the elegant casinos of the city (the Cassino Atlântico, by suggestion of Sílvio Caldas). Introduced as Escola de Samba do Morro de Mangueira, the group was Cartola (as crooner), Aluísio Dias and the noted samba composer Geraldo Pereira on the guitars, Ataliba do Pinduca Saia (cavaquinho), Chica (surdo), the president Angenor de Castro (percussion), and a choir of "pastoras" (Neuma, Cesséia, Ornélia, Nesília, Neguinha, Nadir, and Guiomar). The show was so successful that the group continued to perform there regularly until the next Carnival.

In 1940, during the Carnival, Heitor Villa-Lobos decided to promote the return of the cordões carnavalescos (Carnival groups of the old times of the Empire). Villa-Lobos called the initiative "Sodade do Cordão" (Longing for the Cordão), taking as his advisor Zé Espinguela, who recruited the old-timers. The performance was held at the Feira de Amostra fair.

Under the impact of World War II, the Estação Primeira won the contest of 1940 with Prantos, Pretos e Poetas. But as the Portela won the championship in 1941, it started a series of successive victories until 1947, representing one of the worst phases of the history of the Estação Primeira. But at the same time, the Mangueira hill and its samba tradition were of such dominance over the imagination of the people "of the city" that sambas about the Estação Primeria were quite frequent in the '30s (four recordings) and '40s: Despedida de Mangueira (Benedito Lacerda/Aldo Cabral, 1940); Mangueira Querida (Constantino Silva, 1941); Mangueira, Não (Herivelto Martins/Grande Otelo, 1942); Lá em Mangueira (Heitor dos Prazeres/Herivelto Martins, 1943); Não Há (Heitor dos Prazeres, 1944); Onde Estão os Tamborins (Pedro Caetano, 1946); Mangueira (Nonô, 1948); Mangueira em Férias (Alcir Pires Vermelho/Pedro Caetano, 1949).

The Estação Primeira won the contest again in 1949 and 1950, but those years were troubled by issues of politics, and the victories were not recognized by the city's mayoralty. In 1954, with the contest unified again, the Mangueira won with the plot Rio de Ontem e Hoje. In the next year, the school earned second place but had the best samba-enredo of its history, acknowledged in an internal contest in 1970, As Quatro Estações do Ano (aka Primavera, by Alfredo Português/Nélson Sargento/Jamelão). In 1956, it presented another memorable samba-enredo, O Grande Presidente (Padeirinho), a tribute to Getúlio Vargas. In 1960, the samba school was considered the winner, but tied to Portela, Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, Império Serrano, and Unidos da Capela, due to a new rule of the contest regarding the time spent during the parade. In that period Cartola withdrew from the Carnival contests, alleging that the rhythm of the sambas-enredo were becoming too frenetic, and that he was failing to see the need for his romantic feel. Cartola would only parade with the Estação Primeira in the 1977 and 1978 Carnivals, as a member of the comissão de frente (opening comitee), beside the representatives of the school's velha guarda (old guard).

In 1961, the Mangueira won the contest again with one of the school's most beautiful performances, the samba-enredo Recordações do Rio Antigo (Hélio Turco/Cícero/Pelado). Also in 1967, the school was the winner with O Mundo Encantado de Monteiro Lobato (Darci da Mangueira/Luís/Batista), one of the earliest sambas-enredo to be recorded commercially (by Eliana Pittman and Elza Soares, becoming one of the biggest hits of that year). The Mangueira won also in the next year, with Samba, Festa de Um Povo, then waiting five years until the next victory, in 1973, with the plot Lendas do Abaeté.

The following years were marked by the taking over of the samba schools by the powerful owners of the illegal numbers game (jogo do bicho). The Mangueira was one of the schools that resisted that kind of financial support (and loss of traditional values). During that period, the Mangueira stuck to its past glory and continued to focus its performances on the quality of the music, the inventiveness of the plots, and the "samba no pé," the dance elements of its members; while the rival schools would win the championships with fairy-like parades financed by astronomical amounts of money. The artists involved in the Carnival no longer were impelled by an ideal, changing from one school to another depending on the pay, and the samba schools began to be corrupted by people who didn't know a thing about Carnival but wanted to parade as merrymakers.

Due to this situation, the Mangueira would only win another contest in 1984 with the plot Yes, Nós Temos Braguinha, a moving tribute to the composer João de Barro. Two years later, another tribute (this time to Dorival Caymmi), another victory, with Caymmi Mostra ao Mundo o Que a Bahia e a Mangueira Têm (Ivo/Paulinho/Lula), which had the memorable refrain,

"Tem xinxin e acarajé/Tamborim e samba no pé."

The tribute formula proved to be successful, the Estação Primeira won the competition once again in the next year with the plot O Reino das Palavras, Carlos Drummond de Andrade. But the competition fueled by large amounts of money took the traditional samba school off of the podium for another 12 years. The political power of the owners of the jogo do bicho was confirmed with the creation of the Liga Independente das Escolas de Samba (Independent League of the Samba Schools) called Liesa. Founded in July 1984, the Liesa had as its members the samba schools Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, Beija-Flor, Caprichosos de Pilares, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, Portela, União da Ilha do Governador, Unidos de Vila Isabel, and the Estação Primeira (included not because of its connections with the corruption, but solely due to its historical importance). The Liesa, presided by jogo do bicho owners, had as one of its earliest actions the creation of a phonographic label and a music publishing company to take care of the commercialization of the records with the samba-enredos of the schools.

But the Mangueira continued to keep the corruption at distance, struggling with financial difficulties and losing all contests until 1998, when, by suggestion of Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque de Hollanda was paid tribute in the school's samba-enredo of that year, leading the Estação Primeira to another victory. ~ Alvaro Neder, Rovi