The President of the Republic said on Saturday night that “there are no pure Portuguese, just as there are no pure Brazilians”, after listening to an orchestra made up of immigrant and refugee musicians in São Paulo.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa falava at the official opening of the 26th São Paulo International Book Biennial, in which there was a performance by Orquestra Mundana Refugi, with musicians from Syria, Palestine, Congo, Guiné, Tunisia and Cuba , among others.
This orchestra performed, among others, the songs “Como caravanas”, by Chico Buarque, and “Canción de las tres races”, which became famous with the voice of Clara Nunes.
In the speech that closed this ceremony, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that the Orquestra Mundana Refugi “is a portrait of what Brazil is, which Portugal also likes to be, which is welcoming refugees and migrants.”
“There are no pure Portuguese, just as there are no pure Brazilians. We are all crosses of all. And we are honored to be the cross of all. And this is a lesson of educated, advanced, progressive societies”, he said, later receiving applause.
In his speech, the President of the Republic said he felt very honored that Portugal is the honored country in this edition of the São Paulo Book Biennial.
According to the Head of State, this means that “Portugal is no longer only or above all the Portugal of the past, it is the Portugal of the future, it is the Portugal of freedom, it is the Portugal of democracy, in which it is possible to have a right-wing president with a left-wing government”.
“It is the Portugal of youth, it is the Portugal of the new literature and the new culture,” he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa defended, however, that “if the Portuguese language is important in the world, it is because there are many other brother countries that have more speakers, many more speakers, more readers and greater projection in this world” than Portugal.
And he pointed to Brazil as “a cultural power” for “a long, long, long time” and “an unstoppable cultural power.”
“Long live the 26th São Paulo Biennial, long live the book, long live freedom, long live Portugal and Brazil”, he exclaimed at the end of the speech.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning to participate in a ceremony to commemorate the air crossing of the South Atlantic carried out one hundred years ago by Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, and then went to São Paulo, where he has busy schedule today.
Source: Observadora
