Celebrating Brazilian Independence day

Today we celebrate the 201st anniversary of our independence, which happened in September 7th 1822. The image I chose to illustrate this article is from a famous painting by Pedro Américo, painted in 1888. The original is found in the entrance hall of the Museu Paulista, which is one of the academic units of the USP - Universidade de S?o Paulo . The painting represent the supposed moment in which the then prince regent Pedro declared the ties that united Brazil with the Kingdom of Portugal severed. Brazil had been since 1815 one of the members of the united kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves and Rio de Janeiro had been until the previous year (1821) the seat of the Portuguese court, so literally the capital of the Empire. The painting supposedly represent the moment in which the future Emperor Pedro I shouts "Independência ou morte" (Independence or death). Whether this really happened, this way or somewhat differently, is debatable. The painting is also criticized mostly because it was made fifty years after the occurrence and the painter was not even born when it happened. I had the privilege to visit the Museu Paulista in company of Prof. Jorge Pimentel Cintra, who told me that Pedro Americo researched a lot to produce this painting and interviewed eye witnesses. The painting was made in a time in which realism was the leading influence in Art, but the author placed elements to represent ideas, there are images of common people "watching" the scene and these were obviously not there, so the painting is more properly classified in the pre-modernism style, and Prof Cintra confirmed my hypothesis, and the author was ahead of his time. So the image is not to taken as an accurate representation of the event.

The first line of Brazil's National Anthem reads:

Ouviram do Ipiranga as margens plácidas, de um povo heróico o brado retumbante

(Tr. "Heard Ipiranga's placid shores, from a heroic people's roaring cry")

If you think the English phrase is out of order, imagine the one in Portuguese. The clumsy way Portuguese is used in this anthem and the ancient words employed has often been criticized as making it difficult to the common people to understand the lines. I think this is nonsense, this is poetry, and poetry often takes liberties with the language.

The text refers to the Ipiranga river, this word is taken from Tupi - Guarani and means water, or brook ("y"), beautiful ("piranga", also graphed "poranga"), hence beautiful brook. The original river is channeled underground today, so the "placid shores" can no longer be seen anymore. And it is a good thing it is channeled, since it is hopelessly polluted. The place however forms today the "Parque da Independência", a set of gardens in front of the Museu Paulista, which contains also the monument to the independence. It is a nice place to visit.

The second part refers to the supposed cry Pedro gave, that, as I told, most probably is apocryphal. One curious detail about the historic fact is that Pedro stopped there because he had diarrhea. There he received a set of letters sent from people in Rio de Janeiro, including José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, one of his most close advisers, and his wife, Maria Leopoldina from Austria. These letters reported on orders coming from the constitutional court in Lisbon which, in brief, were decreasing the status of Brazil, and hence of the prince, in the union.

What happened then is unknown for sure, but it is clear that Pedro, who had a very polemic personality, something like a "democratic absolutist", severed the ties to Portugal, changing stripes with the colors of the courts to stripes in green and yellow, representing the noble houses of Bourbon (Pedro) and Habsburg (Leopoldina) ruling the new country. This is the origin of Green - Yellow national colors which dominate our flag.