The attachment to the Portuguese language among Brazilians is
more related to the fact that it
makes them stand out from
their Spanish-speaking neighbors. Despite the obvious connections,
one can
say that the average Brazilian cares little for Portugal.
by:
A recent Brazzil article featured an extremely interesting article by Ray Vogensen on the differences between the
Portuguese spoken in Brazil and in Portugal itself. I would like to complement this by adding a few brief personal comments
on the rather ambiguous relationship between Brazil and its so-called mother country.
On September 7, 1822, Dom Pedro I made his famous declaration of independence: "Independência ou morte"
(Independence or death) during a visit to São Paulo. On December 1, he was officially crowned Emperor of Brazil and three years
later, after much bloodshed, Portugal was forced to recognize Brazil’s independence. Not only did the Portuguese lose the
jewel in the crown of their empire but they also lost most of their economic influence in Brazil, to the British.
Since then, the Portuguese influence has remained, principally in terms of language, religion and architecture. In
some places you still find beautiful colonial-style buildings and churches and since names like da Silva, dos Santos,
Nascimento, Mello etc. are common, this influence will remain for as long as Brazil remains.
A special relationship undeniably still exists, formally and informally. For example, Portuguese citizens enjoy
privileges under the Constitution denied to other foreigners. Relations at government level are good and there is a constant
coming and going of political leaders. If you have ever had the misfortune to attend a ceremony between representatives of
either country at which speeches were made, then you will have been exposed to the gushy, sentimental myth of eternal
Luso-Brazilian togetherness.
There is a large Portuguese community here and a large Brazilian community in Portugal. Portuguese have been
coming here for 500 years so there are still many family links although not nearly as close as at periods of mass immigration.
Many Brazilians making their first visit to Europe stop off in Lisbon where they have, at least, the reassurance of a (more or
less) common language.
The language forms a strong bond with other Portuguese-speaking countries. A few months ago, I attended a
concert in São Paulo at which the guest of honor was the recently-elected president of East Timor. The warmth of the reception
he was given by the audience, most of which had probably never heard of East Timor until recently, was quite astonishing.
One of the reasons for this admiration may have been the decision by the East Timor government to make Portuguese the
official language. This was an odd decision, since most Timorese do not speak it and the country’s nearest democratic neighbor
is English-speaking Australia, which will probably be its big brother for a long, long time.
However, I believe this attachment to the Portuguese language among Brazilians is more related to the fact that it
makes them stand out from their Spanish-speaking neighbors rather than any innate love for Portugal. In fact, had history
developed differently, Portuguese may not have been the language spoken by Brazilians at all.
In the early 19th century, Portuguese was only spoken in the Northeast, with a variant of the Tupi Indian language
spoken elsewhere. The gold rush, which brought in more Europeans and African slaves and led to the opening of the interior
changed this1. While the Portuguese language eventually linked all of Brazil, unfortunately it led to the suppression of native
languages, like Guarani, which thrive in places like Paraguay.
Overall, Portugal’s links with Brazil are much weaker than those which Britain still has with, say, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa and other former colonies, including the U.S.. In political terms, for example, there is no
Portuguese equivalent of the Commonwealth, which still links virtually every former British territory. Nowadays the Commonwealth
even includes Mozambique, an ex-Portuguese colony.
Just Talk
One often reads reports that a Portuguese-speaking political group will be formed but nothing ever comes of it. Even
if such a body were formed it would have little political or economic weight. Apart from Brazil and Portugal, the others are
among the world’s poorest states with only begging bowls to offer. In the
20th century, all the British territories voluntarily sent
troops to fight alongside British forces in two world wars. It would be difficult to imagine Brazil sending forces to assist
Portuguese forces in any armed conflict.
Portugal fought the wars in its African colonies alone, even though the military was in charge of Brazil at that time.
Brazil has actually helped clear up the mess left by Portugal’s incompetent imperialism in Africa and Asia. Brazilian troops are
currently in East Timor and have also acted as peace monitors in places like Angola and Mozambique, which collapsed into
anarchy and barbarism after the Portuguese simply walked out in the mid-70s.
So despite the obvious connections, I think one can fairly say that the average Brazilian cares little for Portugal. Let
us start with one or two small examples. In his book
The Brazilians, Joseph Page makes an interesting point when he says:
"Brazilian municipalities named after Portuguese cities and towns are exceedingly rare." Most places in Brazil seem to be
indigenous Indian names (Ipiranga, where Dom Pedro declared independence or death), have religious origins (São Paulo) or were
named after geographical features by practically-minded sailors or travelers (Rio de Janeiro, Porto Seguro etc.) or heroes
(Benjamin Constant).
There is, indeed, a remarkable shortage of New Lisbons and New Portos. I noticed recently that a square in São
Paulo called Praça Portugal had been recently defaced and someone had scrawled "This is Brazil" on the signpost. Another
example of this resentment is that even today many Brazilians still express annoyance that the Portuguese sent criminals to Brazil
as though the country was a dustbin for Portuguese rubbish.
Brazilians also believe that the Portuguese looted Brazil of its gold, which was sent to Lisbon but ended up in
London since Portugal was indebted to the English. Less seriously, the Portuguese are the butts of a million jokes and, in an
untypically cruel jest for the easy-going Brazilian, a Portuguese woman is always said to have a moustache.
I think the reason for this lack of respect and, at times, hostility to Portugal lies in the fact that Portugal, like Spain,
exploited rather than developed its overseas territories. Of course, all imperialist powers have exploited the lands and peoples
they conquered but the Iberians seem to have been particularly ruthless and, as a result, left little good will in their former
colonies. The Portuguese seem to have been particularly inept. The east Timorese are just the latest example of a people being
abandoned by their so-called protectors even though technically they were Portuguese citizens living in what were supposed
to be parts of Portugal overseas.
The same happened to the inhabitants of Goa when India annexed it in the 60s although fortunately the Indians
treated the locals more humanely than the Indonesians did the Timorese. With the return of Macao to China in 1999, fortunately
the age of Portuguese colonialism has ended and no other people, except the Portuguese themselves, will suffer their
incompetent rule.
Ingratitude and Arrogance
Portugal has also proved to be a poor role model, especially for Brazil. While Brazil was large, Portugal was small.
While Brazil was rich, Portugal was poor. While Brazilians were developing the samba the Portuguese were listening to the
gloomy fado. Portugal benefited not only in material terms from Brazil but also politically. In fact, it was the colony which came
to the rescue of the mother country when the Portuguese court fled to Brazil to escape Napoleon’s troops.
The fact that most of the court eventually went back to Lisbon is seen by the Brazilians as a sign of ingratitude and
arrogance. By refusing orders to return to Portugal, Dom Pedro I won the hearts of the Brazilians. His declaration of independence
was, in fact, done in the spontaneous, cavalier manner of the true Brazilian as opposed to the mote cautious Portuguese.
As E. Bradford Burns puts it: "Pedro unsheathed his sword right there on the bank of the Ipiranga River and gave
the cry "Independence or Death". One man, then, without the backing of a congress or junta declared the independence of
Latin America’s largest nation. He left no formal, written document of his accomplishment. His declaration was solely verbal.
In that solitary act, the personable prince accurately reflected public sentiment."2
In more modern times, Portugal was one of the most backward countries in Europe and offered little to inspire
Brazilians. Not only was it poor but, in places, primitive. I recall visiting northern Portugal as recently as 12 years ago and seeing
wagons pulled by oxen. A trip from Porto to Bragança became a nightmare after a sudden storm flooded the poorly constructed
main road and required a massive detour. Lisbon, at that time, with its faded beauty, and cramped Alfama district around the
São Jorge castle, its crippled black beggars, reminders of the defeats in Africa, had an almost medieval feel.
It may sound like a cliché but on my first visit to Lisbon I felt I was in an African rather than a European city. Even
when Brazilians visited other parts of Europe, such as France or Germany, any Portuguese they met were probably immigrants
working as low-paid waiters or construction workers. The drab, bad-tempered concierge in Paris was typically a Portuguese woman.3
Portugal’s small size could not cope with a place as immense as Brazil. There were never enough soldiers or
colonizers to penetrate it in depth. The Portuguese were always in a minority, outnumbered by native Indians or imported black
slaves. In 1822, for example, the population of Brazil amounted to around three million, of whom one-third were slaves, a quarter
Indians and most of the rest of mixed race4.
Since enslaved Indians and Africans were named after their owners this gives a false impression of the Portuguese
influence, since most had no Portuguese blood. At the same time, intermixing with Africans and Indians resulted in a huge
mixed-race population, which, once again, had Portuguese names. Until the mass immigration of the late
19th century and early 20th century the population of Brazil was overwhelmingly of mixed race. Even the most recent census showed that around 45
percent of the people said they were of mixed race. The result of this is that a Brazilian bearing the most traditional Portuguese
name can easily have no idea about Portugal or affinity with it. 5
As well as being outnumbered physically by the Indians and blacks, the Portuguese culture absorbed native and
African elements. Since the population was mainly of mixed race it adopted the languages and traditions of the three main
groups. In terms of coping with the environment the Indian element was obviously the most reliable. It is interesting to note that
the Brazilian national dish, feijoada, combines inferior cuts of meat destined for slaves with
farinha, a coarse floury accompaniment made from
mandioca (manioc), a staple food of the Indians.
African Legacy
Whereas the Portuguese have tended to be rather self-effacing and introverted, the Brazilian became the opposite,
thanks to the African influence. The slaves may have lost their names and languages, but they kept many of their cultural and
religious traditions. Their dancing and singing helped create the culture, which the whole world recognizes as uniquely Brazilian.
In religious terms as well, the Africans combined their traditional beliefs with Catholicism to such an extent that
many white Brazilians adopted them. I have twice welcomed in the New Year by walking into the sea and throwing flowers on
the waves accompanied by hundreds of others, of all races, everyone dressed in white, all of us enacting a ritual the slaves
brought from their African homeland.
Finally, I would like to stress that the point of this article is not to downplay the Portuguese contribution to the
development of Brazil in any way but one cannot stop wondering how this continental-sized country would have developed had
other powers been the colonizers.
1 História do Brasil, Jorge Caldeira
2 A History of Brazil, E. Bradford Burns
3 Having said that, in recent years Portugal has grown richer, thanks to the return of democracy and its membership
of the European Union, and Portuguese businesses have started investing once again in Brazil.
4 História do Brasil, Jorge Caldeira
5 (I cannot let this point go without recalling an incident in Bruce Chatwin’s book
In Patagonia where he meets a red-haired Argentinean gaucho called Robbie Ross who announces that he is Scottish but has absolutely no idea about his
Scottish roots. As Chatwin puts its rather plaintively: "He peered at me with milky blue eyes, feeling out affinities of race and
background with a mixture of curiosity and pain.")
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He
writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic
Comunicações www.celt.com.br
, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at
jf@celt.com.br
© John Fitzpatrick 2003
You can also read John Fitzpatrick’s articles in
Infobrazil, at
www.infobrazil.com