"FROM THE BOOK BY DARCY RIBEIRO" ""THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE"" "What has the spaceship that landed on the Moon said?" "That the Earth was blue." "Prince Henry was a crazy prince." "A very handsome prince, but he would walk around wearing Christ's robe." "That strange man... born in the Middle Ages... all of a sudden... gets convinced by a technician who was ahead of his time... and sets up, on a Portuguese beach... structures to put together ships that didn't exist yet." "Ships with a fixed rudder, invented by the Arab... never before used in Europe." "Ships with the Latin sail, perfect for sailing." "Ships he had seen being used by... the Chinese and the Arab... with a compass mounted to the side." "With such well-structured ships, they were able to brave the seas... to brave the Atlantic Ocean, and arrive here." "Those ships were much more important than the spaceships nowadays." "PORTUGUESE MATRIX" ""By the time of the discoveries, Portugal was avant-garde." "That country's features contrasted with everything in Europe... starting with the precocious way it had been born as a nation... the first in the world." "And they were bold, with great courage in themselves. "" "How can one explain the expansion of the Portuguese and Spanish people... which created the world's first civilization?" "You all know that Portugal has the oldest boundaries in Europe." "It's over 800 years of stable boundaries." "It was a narrow strip, with about 1 million and a half people... whose only outlet was the ocean." "Right beside them, there was Spain." "Therefore, going out to sea to discover was inevitable." "That caused Portugal to be a country of fishermen and navigators... a country where, consequently, naval technology was developed... in a way that other countries couldn't do... because for Portugal it was a matter of survival." "They had to be good fishermen and navigators... otherwise they wouldn't survive." "The result of that was the development of a technology... with the contribution of the Arab people... the contribution of the Jewish people... and, of course, the contribution... of the cultural and scientific pot... that existed in the peninsula." "Since the beginning of times... the territory where Portugal is today... had been the meeting point for Lusitanes, Gallegos and Celtics... coming from different places, searching for tin and copper." "They lived off the land and the cattle... they had cults and made offerings to their gods." "On the 8th century B.C., the Phoenicians invaded the peninsula... bringing the iron casting, the first forms of writing... and the concept of a city." "Later, came the Greeks and the Carthaginians... two peoples marked by navigation and trading habits." "In 218 B.C., the Romans invaded the peninsula." "Roman soldiers landed on the Iberian Peninsula... and they devoured the people that were there before them." "They didn't devour their flesh." "They devoured their souls." "They replaced their language with the Latin language... a dirty, vulgar, impure Latin... which later became the Spanish and the Portuguese languages." "With the barbarians, the Visigoths, the Alans and the Sueves... dominated the peninsula until the invasion of the Arab people." "The Europeans are very proud... to be the heirs of the Greek and the Latin cultures." "That's a lie!" "The Arabs taught them everything." "The Arabs knew everything." "They had texts from Aristotle and Plato." "They had numbers, the Arabic numerals that we use today." "And then Portugal taught Europe how to count." "Can you imagine having to make calculations with Roman numerals?" ""Stick 37 multiplied by stick 24." Anyone would get lost." "With the Arabic numerals, it's another story." "Under the Muslim domination, Portugal was a colorful mosaic... of merchants, crafters and old peasants of various ethnic roots." "All of them spoke the Arab language." ""The water mills, the cotton bushes, the silk culture... the orange trees, the sugarcane." "The tiles, the Moorish roof tiles, the "muxarabi", the porch... the fondness for sugar, the pastry shops... the fondness for cleanliness, for water and light, the tambourine." "The Moors came to Brazil through the memories of the settlers... and here they stayed." "We still feel their presence today. "" "I just came back from visiting Turkey... and I surprisingly discovered that the essence of the landscapes... of more than half of Portugal has a Moor origin." "Such fact completely changed my idea... of the history of Brazil and of the Brazilian people." "We are Arabs because we are Portuguese." "From the contact with the Moors... as well from the contact with the Jewish people resulted... unmistakable features on the Portuguese settlers of Brazil... in terms of their economic, social and political life... and their character." ""One can blame the Israeli influence... for the commercialism present in the Portuguese people." "The very own ring finger, with a ruby or an emerald." "Can't it be considered another Israeli reminiscence?"" ""The Antiquity is something new." "We are a Contemporaneousness of the millennia."" "From Porto Cale, which was the Porto Calean county... a new reality started to evolve, a new language started to form." "The concern of that people was... creating a nation which was formed from two major actions." "The first action was the expelling of the Moors... and the second one was the fight against the Castellan." "That is the Portuguese nation." ""The Portuguese language is more the voice the Portuguese use... than the language they speak." "If we listen to it carefully... we will hear the rumors of the distant Sanskrit source... those closest to Greece... and those keen to Rome." "Add some bits of the Arab language... and we will have what we call "Lácio's treasure"." "Prince Henry, the one I talked about... had a very charismatic aspect... and also very heretic." "He believed that there once was the time of the Father... who is mentioned in the Old Testament:" "The old and bearded God." "And then we had... the time of the Son, which is the middle time... mentioned in the New Testament." "The prince would say: "Now it's the time for the Holy Spirit... when men will build Heaven on Earth"." "In 1400, before Brazil was discovered... the prince and other people from Church had the utopia... of building the world as a design... of building the Lost Paradise here on Earth... so that men could enjoy it." "In Abrantes, they had the first Holy Spirit Celebration." "The first thing to point out about that celebration... is that it is not, unlike many others, the celebration of a date... the celebration of an event from the past." "It is a Portuguese party celebrating the future." "In reality, what the Portuguese do is telling how it is going to be... when Earth lives the time of the Holy Spirit." "When the celebration was approaching... they would choose a boy, and they would take him to church." "In the church, he was crowned emperor of the world... for on the time of the Holy Spirit, a boy would run the world." "Afterwards, they would have a feast and everybody who was there... could take food home or eat whatever they felt like, for free." "Then, the boy and his entourage would go to the city jail... the boy would open the cells and free every prisoner." "So there were three acts:" "The crowning of a boy... the announcement of free food for everybody... and finally, the announcement that everybody should be free." "All that was done, but immediately after that... the Church started criticizing the worship of the Holy Spirit." "We are sure that the ritual ceases to happen in the peninsula... especially in Portugal, on the first quarter of the 16th century." "They took the ritual to the territories they discovered... and because there was no local opposition to it... the rituals resumed in the Azores, and later in Brazil." "That is a very beautiful heretic ritual... which hovers above the Brazilian History... and gives us the task of creating a happy world." "A happy world for men... a world filled with riches and joy, filled with children and laughter." "The year is 1288." "Portuguese is now the country's official language." "The first university is founded." "Lisbon becomes an international metropolis." "The court is a center for cosmopolitan culture... for techniques and commercialism." "The focus that once was on what is sacred... is now on what is economic." ""Add to that the fact that those Lusiades... had great passion for adventure... a strong desire to get rich... a scientific curiosity and a unique experimental taste." "For instance, they would go against the knowledge of their time... and say that one could only trust something that had been experienced." "Their boldest remark was that... although the idea that the world was round was very rational... it was actually round."" "In Sagres, Henry gathers wise men and technicians from everywhere." "He coordinates what they've learned... stimulates experimentation and innovation." "At that school of thinking... he provides theoretical and practical lessons... about the art and the science of navigation." ""God wants it, men dream about it... the work is done." "God wanted the Earth to be one and whole." "He wanted the ocean to unite rather than divide." "You created Sagres and unveiled the ocean lather." "And the white coast went from island to continent." "It illuminated its way to the edge of the world... and we suddenly saw the Earth appear... all round in deep blue."" "Sponsored by the State, by the Order of Christ... and by the powerful commercial bourgeoisie..." "Prince Henry develops a progressive and systematic program... to get to know the unknown." "He sends 15 expeditions to the African West Coast... in an attempt to go beyond Cape Bojador... which was the furthest any European had gone." ""On his throne Among the sparkle of the spheres" "With his robe Made of night and solitude" "At his feet, the new sea And the dead ivy" "The only emperor Who indeed possesses" "The globe in his hand"" "That group of men... which was mostly formed by former fishermen and peasants... was summoned to go to sea and conquer." "That would not have been possible before... because the powerful group of the Church... would threaten anyone who was against its teachings." "With the arrival of the Renaissance... and the teachings of Aristotle and others... the fear of the Church was gone... and the appeal of the ocean was irresistible." "Prince Henry died in 1460... but the venturing search for land and people to be conquered... does not stop." "Sierra Leone, Príncipe, St. Thomas..." "S. Jorge da Mina, Rio Zaire, São Brás Bay... and, in 1488, the Cape of Good Hope." "That's when they arrive at the Indian Sea:" "Sofala, Mombasa, Meríndio." "The Portuguese establish watching posts, they make slaves... and they found manufacturing of tropical produce." ""Cease from the Greeks and the Trojans the big ships they've made." "Steal from Alexander and Trajan the victories they conquered... because I say out loud, with all my Portuguese pride... that Neptune and Mars were tamed by us!"" "People wanted to die and be immortalized... renowned by their great feats." "Just like the boys nowadays enjoy winning at sports... those days, they sought to be respected... because of their courage and boldness." "Finally, in 1498, Vasco da Gama reaches Calicute, India." "Other worlds are revealed." "The horizon of life is infinitely renewed and widened." "The ships brought back the world to Portugal... not only from the point of view of human Geography... but also from the point of view of Biology, Botany... and Zoology." "Animals they had never seen landed on Portugal... along with strange people and languages." "All of that was added to the human and cultural pot... which was already part of the peninsula's physiognomy." "So, when Portugal boarded their ships, it's with mixed people." ""Sunday, March 8th, 1500." "Ermida Chapel was bubbling with noble people, captains and sailors." "On the altar, the flag with the cross of the Order of Christ." "Afterwards, there was a procession with crosses that saw Cabral off." "The flags and the pennants filled the Tejo river with color... and from a sea it became a flower field." "On the canoes, the drums and the trumpets roared." "The next morning, Cabral's 13 ships set sail... and straightened their bows. "" ""In a Brazil of Indians and black people... the work of Portugal was extreme." "Brazil's true product was not the stolen gold... or the manufactured and exported merchandise... or all the riches it helped to build up in the Old World." "Brazil's true product was its people."" "Well, why is it important to bring back all that memory?" "We have to acknowledge that there is some prejudice in Brazil... towards the fact that Brazil was formed by the Portuguese culture." "What we are saying here is that Brazil is the product... of an extremely sophisticated... imagination and creating force." "We should be contempt to go on crowning little boys?" "Of course not." "We have to go further... and stop those little boys from being abused, abandoned... and victimized by diseases as they are now... so that they can be true emperors of the world when the time comes." "We'll go on using the feast as a symbol?" "No, sir!" "We have to make sure everybody in the world is able to eat." "Having an open feast once a year is not enough." "Everybody has to be healthy and to have access to education." "Oh, Lord" "Night has come The soul is evil" "The storms were as strong As our will" "All we have left Is silence and drought" "The universal sea And the heartsickness" "But the spark" "Life has created in us" "If there's still life There's still spark" "The dead and the cold Have hidden it among the ashes" "The hand of the wind" "May still be able to lift it" "Give us the breath" "The breeze The disgrace, the longing" "FOR AGOSTINHO DA SILVA With which the flame" "Of the effort gets renewed" "And once more May we conquer the Distance" "Of the sea or another" "But let it be ours!"