Racism and xenophobia are also said in Portuguese, the Prime Minister told Brazilians residing in Portugal on Saturday, stressing that it is not always easy to live where one was not born, but that “Portugal is really the home” of those who want to live here.
António Costa also thanked the way in which the Brazilians have enriched the Portuguese language and facilitated its learning.
At a party to celebrate the bicentennial of Brazil’s independence, which is taking place this afternoon at the Palácio de São Bento, in Lisbon, the official residence of the Prime Minister, António Costa addressed the Brazilian community residing in Portugal who were participating in the event in the palace gardens, stating that among the “many ways” to celebrate the 200 years of independence, with “solemn and official acts and symbolic acts”, the celebration with this community was the “way that could not be missed”.
António Costa, who attended one of the concerts planned for this afternoon together with the Brazilian ambassador in Lisbon, Raimundo Carreiro Silva, and the president of Casa do Brasil, Ana Paula Costa, considered that “many more times than the heart of D. Pedro, the hearts of all of us have traveled.
The head of government alluded to the trip to Brazil of the heart of D. Pedro (IV for Portugal, I for Brazilians).
The President of the Government underlined the relationship of “exile and refuge” that Portugal and Brazil often maintained, especially during their respective dictatorships, which, once finished, paved the way for other trips with other baggage.
“After the dictatorships ended, from one place to another, fortunately, they have been transporting suitcases of dreams from one place to another. Not all dreams always come true. They are often sad, they are frustrating, they are difficult. It is true. Racism, xenophobia, is also said in our language, which is Portuguese. It is said here, as the Portuguese often complained of being the subject of anecdotes, like the bakers and the ‘Manéis’ in Brazil. That’s right, it’s not always easy to live in a land where you weren’t born and where you didn’t grow up,” he said.
In this regard, he recalled the experience of his own father, who, having been born in Goa, felt strange in Portugal, despite the common language.
“And that is a challenge that we have permanently, but that is also the great wealth that we have, which is the ability to get to know each other, to use a language and a language that reinvents itself. Portugal owes a huge debt to the Brazilians, who thus enriched our language. They enriched it with new words, but above all with a beautiful musicality that we immensely envy not having and for having made Portuguese much clearer for those who want to learn Portuguese”, he said.
This enrichment of the language is “an enormous debt” that the Portuguese owe to the Brazilians, defended António Costa, who also said that the challenge, now that 200 years have passed since Brazil’s independence, is to “imagine what together” they can do. “do during the next 200 years and the 200 that will follow these 200 years”.
“And so I thought that there were few more obvious, more evident and more symbolic ways to say that Portugal is really the home of all Brazilians who want to live, work and study here, than to open this official residence for people to occupy today. . ., live, celebrate what needs to be celebrated: the independence of Brazil, the freedom of Brazil, the democracy of Brazil and the future of Brazil”, concluded the prime minister.
António Costa also walked through the gardens and after several requests for photographs and exchanges of words, he ended up participating in a forró class that took place at one end of the garden.
After an initial rejection of the event teacher’s invitation to join the class, António Costa ended up approaching the class and, after rehearsing a few first steps guided by the teacher, ended up getting on the platform with his wife, Fernanda Tadeu, for “a little dancing foot”.
“It was fun,” the prime minister told reporters of the moment, before leaving the event.
AMI // LCA
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Source: Observadora
