The Brazilian People - Chapter 10 - Invention of Brazil - 2000

BASED ON THE BOOK BY DARCY RIBEIRO "THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE" The theme of my book "Os Brasileiros" is what I've been talking about... the way Brazil was formed. It was an extraordinary process... which took shape by denying the lack of definability... of the Brazilian citizen. The Brazilian people... the Brazilian mass took shape that way... and it became a new type of tropical humanity. Human adventure is about conquering and seducing. Different peoples got mixed together through love or through force. That fact is still present in human adventure. Human adventure, whether it is private or collective... occurs through passion, through conflicts... and also through peace and tranquility. THE INVENTION OF BRAZIL When the Portuguese arrived here and they officially reported... that they had found men and women... of absolutely beautiful bodies... of pure and shameless faces... they got to the conclusion they had discovered an Earthly Paradise. That can be seen in many maps. Every Brazilian landscape, especially on the coast and on the islands... turned Brazil into... one of the most important myth sources in History. As the Indians say: "There's nothing certain about living... but one can't live if one can't dream". The beauty of Brazilian nature was such... that the Europeans arrived here as if Brazil was a lost paradise. There was this inherent utopia to our nature. In fact, while those myths may be analyzed... and studied as myths... on the other hand, they became power sources to people... and people adopted them so their identity was preserved. Portugal had a project for its overseas territory. But their project was radically subverted... by the reality of tropical nature... by the strength of the Amerindian culture and the African presence. Nothing that had been here before or that has been brought here... had its original purity preserved. We have created a mixed people, we have combined different gods... and we have determined a new linguistic reality. It is very characteristic of Brazil... the fact that it has miraculously become an unified nation. Since so many differences existed, there should be different nations. The confluence of people coming from Europe, from Africa... from the jungle has generated a homogeneous culture. There were some standards to those differences... and they orchestrated a beautiful concert... which gradually matured. We have been to Rosário To Vale-Quem-Tem-Quelru We have been to Pirapemas And to Itapicuru The land of siriemas, jacanas Ducks and nhambus Coffee and bread We want no crackers Coffee and bread We want no crackers But don't fool yourself thinking such process was a bed of roses. "Occasionally they say our main trace is cordiality... which makes us a nice and friendly people. Is that true? The awful truth is that all kinds of conflicts... have punctuated Brazil's history... based on race, social and economical problems, religion. It is very obvious that they were not conflicts of pure nature. They were all tainted by each other. The process of formation of the Brazilian people... was touched by shades of Indian, Black and White groups. One can even state that we live in a status of latent war... a war that very often becomes gruesome and bloody. " Why were there so many fights? There were different people... destined to remain different. But our central power sent armed generals to Brazil. The War of Cabanos... which very often seemed more like genocide, is a good example. In that war, an old people from the Amazon... who aspired to lead an autonomous life... fought the small dominant class of the Brazilian-Portuguese... who tried to carry on with their occupation project. 100,000 Caboclos were slaughtered so that Brazil's unity was maintained... so that the Amazon was linked to Brazil... so that the unnatural act of converting... a group of such a different nature... such a different group took place, and they became our own. "The Cabanos won many battles, took over the power in the area... and occupied Belém, Manaus and other cities. But they had to face the un-privilege... of not having the right to lose a single battle. Eventually, they did lose, and they were all slaughtered. " Palmares is the perfect example of interracial conflict. That's where slaves who had fled from the sugar mills... organized themselves. They formed Palmares, and in Palmares they stayed... enjoying the happiness of being their own people. Since they had forgotten about Africa, they could not recreate it. So they created something Brazilian. They were the first Socialists, with their common society. Everything belonged to everybody. But they were so primitive, so disorganized... so disarticulated that their doom was certain. Same thing happened in the Amazon. They didn't lose or win any battles. "Their destruction was a survival requirement... for the enslaving society... as a tool for getting back slaves who had fled... for avoiding further escapes... and also as a prevention against what could become a threat... even worse than foreign invasions: The rioting of Black slaves. " Mutiny, conspiracy, riots and wars... have outlined our shaping-up as a people and as a country. Fights with Luso-lndians, Black slaves rebellions... and later, fights for our independence from Portugal. After our Independence, there were other combats... caused by the insurrection of the Malê slaves... by Republican riots like the Sabinada and the Farroupilha... and by the Canudos War. Canudos, with its bloodshed, its terrible slaughter... and thousands of other riots... started by the Northeastern dry land men... have their roots in the Portuguese heritage. One of the most important legacies from Portugal is the Sebastianism. Since the body of the king was never found after the battle... the myth of a young and beautiful Sebastião was created. That's the most beautiful heritage we have, the one of D. Sebastião. The king returns, with his armies, to kill all land lords... all those ***, so that the people could eat what they plant. Many beliefs surround the person of Conselheiro. He was a religious man, who walked around in his robes... carrying a walking stick... and he gathered around himself a mass of dry land men in Canudos. The farm owners got scared, not of Conselheiro's cult... but they got scared because... those who followed Conselheiro ate whatever they could plant. Therefore, the farm owners would no longer have crop workers... cattle people, farm workers... because every man would claim a piece of land to himself. So the government decided those dry land men were anarchists... and they sent the military to kill them. Canons started roaring. When it was all over, there were only four skinny women... and some children left. The men... had all been killed. All of them. With all our ups and downs, we invented a nation and a country. During the process, a Portuguese language system was spread... and subverted by the reality of tropical ecology and society. As Brazil started to grow, the Portuguese language faded... and got reinvented into the Brazilian Portuguese. Because our history will only end if we stop existing... the invention of Brazil goes on: Genetic invention, technical invention, symbolic invention. Maybe if we talked less We could understand more The theater, the clubs, the movies No pleasure is satisfying Figure of speech Voice, amount On the earth, I try to rest All we have Represents nothing It's obvious the young man Has his own automobile All we have Does not represent all that exists Being considerate Is the purest Some think that Brazil did not work out, that it was a huge mistake. That's the vision of who compares Brazil to the USA, for example. Many things worked out, many others didn't... and many things might still work. I think whatever didn't work out has to do with the Brazilian people... being on the same page when it comes to society, economy and politics. We still suffer from dramatic flaws on education, on the health system. Our political institutions have been very unstable all along. Therefore, we have issues when it comes to... creating impersonal rules... to allow people to interact in a more organized... more prosperous and more stable way under a institutional point of view. Brazil has to be wise to understand its unmatched subjectivity. We have a lorubá vitality, filtered by a Lusitanian tenderness... with the magical element of the Indian mentality. That's expressed in the arts, in culture... in our love life and our personal relationships... which are very rich and intense for the Brazilian people. During the day She does my laundry At night She kisses my lips That's how we go on living In love I believe that, in History, facts are not that important... the myths are. Maybe because of its ability to create myths... Brazil will be very important in the future. Not only for that, but also for its... Luso-Brazilian ability... to adapt, to smile, and to overcome any oppression... any erosion caused by poverty or oppression. So, in my opinion, the facts and the myths... are both big hopes and big legacies Brazil... will provide to human kind. I believe that the best Brazil we can dream about... is one that conquers civilization in terms of social rules... preserving, at the same time... aspects from our past, from pre-Modern times... related to our emotional vitality, to our joy for life... which still remain despite all our misfortunes. Brazil's utopia, Brazil's dream is to improve our way of living... without losing our passion heat. What does everybody want? To create an inhabitable country... where everybody can be happy, loving... and caring, where everybody can have daily meals. It's just ridiculous that such a big and productive country... still starves its people and neglects its children. Our ethical, human and utopian bone has been broken. As we know that the galaxies in the universe... stay away from each other... and gain more speed the further they get... Their speed is increased by distance. That makes one think... if the fast way things have been happening all over the world... cannot be compared to the galaxies. As human history walks towards a future... we cannot even imagine yet... maybe our approach to the future gradually gains more speed. When many people think, when faced with recent events... of solutions that could only be applied to outdated issues... it's a shame they are not aware of the Portuguese thinking... that they have to be bolder... and see every little hindering thing they face... in the course of their lives... as a tool to gain more speed... and reach the ideal the Portuguese wished to reach: An ideal for life, an ideal for children... an ideal for the little things in life. The most important thing the Brazilians need to do... is to invent the Brazil they want.