Brought to Fortaleza, Ceará in 1936, "maracatu cearense" has since been cultivated as the city's most distinctive Carnival performance tradition, owing in part to its use of blackface makeup to enact Afro-Brazilian characters and male-to-female transvestitism of the important female personages, particularly the queen. Its rhythms are described locally as "cadenciado", "cadenced," which amounts to a less syncopated, steadier 2/4 timeline and a slower tempo than is found in the "Maracatu Nação" of Pernambuco, sometimes as slow as 45 beats per minute. In recent decades groups have tended to divide into those that retain the slow tempo (to express the misery of slavery) and those that speed up their tempos (to express the exuberance of Carnival), and there is some dispute over which style most authentically expresses the tradition in Ceará. Standard instrumentation is also distinctive. Instead of "alfaia" drums, the "cearense" tradition uses "surdo" or "bombo" drums; like Pernambuco, it uses the "tarol", or snare drum. Instead of the "gonguê", large single-head bell, "maracatu cearense" uses the "ferro," a heavy iron-slab triangle, to keep its steady duple rhythm. Individual groups often add to or slightly modify this setup to create their own distinct sound. Every year, different "maracatu cearense" nations parade in Fortaleza's traditional municipal Carnival competition, normally taking place at Domingos Olímpio Avenue. The oldest nation, "Az de Ouro" (Golden Ace), founded in 1936, is still in operation. Other nations include "Vozes d'África" (Voices of Africa), "Nação Fortaleza," "Rei de Paus" (winner of the 2009 Carnival parade), "Nação Iracema", and "Maracatu Solar". The use of blackface in "maracatu cearense" reportedly stems from Fortaleza's mostly white and "caboclo" demographic, and its small black population (4.4%) (IGBE 2008), which effects a situation where mostly white and brown bodies end up performing a traditionally black expression of Brazilian Carnival. Blackface in this context is intended to pay homage to the African slaves' contribution to Brazilian civilization and is not viewed as a racist expression (compared, for instance, to the blackface minstrelsy of the United States, which parodied black speech and character).