Wines of Portugal in Rio de Janeiro celebrates independence by reinterpreting an imperial banquet | Special Wines Summer 2022
Emperor Pedro II of Brazil had the habit of collecting menus from the meals that were served to him. The collection, donated to the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, is a preferred gateway to the gastronomic world, naturally very influenced by France, of the Brazilian court in the 19th century, and it is this collection that will inspire two cooksthe Portuguese Pedro Pena Bastos, from Cura, the Brazilian Rafa Costa e Silva, from Lasai, preparing the menu that will be served on June 2 at the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, paired with Portuguese wines.
The Wines of Portugal in Rio (part of the Wines of Portugal in Brazil event, which also passes through São Paulo) joins the celebrations of the Bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil with this reinterpretation of the imperial banquets, in the Paço that was the famous Fico de D. Pedro I (IV of Portugal, who decided not to comply with the Court’s orders to return to the country, staying in Brazil), served a group of 60 Brazilian personalities, most of them from the cultural area. This will be one of the many initiatives planned for a very particular celebration, which former settler and former colonized together the 200 years of independence.
“It was the Government itself that celebrated the celebrations on the Portuguese side to those of the Brazilian associate Francisco Telles, chosen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate. “This is a Brazilian party, but, for all the reasons, Portugal cannot be left out. We don’t want to tiptoe, but we’re excited to participate. We started the Brazilians to see each of the organizing countries together and that they would organize separately.” As “independence [declarada pelo próprio monarca D. Pedro I] it was a singular, exceptional act”, the same goes for the commemorations. “I don’t remember two countries in the world that celebrate”, comment together a separation Ribeiro Telles.
And if Brazil takes advantage of the data to look not only at the past, but to think about the present and the future, Portugal “is also in this register”, assures the ambassador, who was diplomatic representative in Brasília between 2012 and 2016. to 2 past relationships and June 24, but past, with a conference on Portugal/Brazil relations that in Perspectives of the Future, which is not so much revisiting our perspective as our perspectives for the future.” There, experts from different joint areas linked to strategy, economics, meeting, innovation and science.
Some celebrations are planned in Porto, with emphasis on a concert, on October 12, at the Church of Lapa, whose organ is being rehabilitated, and with scores by D. Pedro, who, as a composer, was the author of Hino da Independência . The University of Minhoto is between the present times and also celebrations, with the project a “study of the migratory flow Portugal and Brazil along the Portuguese flows to the present day”, to be carried out by researchers researchers.
A “very in-depth project” that Francisco Ribeiro Telles is excited about is the one being developed with a Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra so that it can be an Orquestra dos Mares, “with young Brazilian and Portuguese musicians who will be associated with musicians from African countries. , Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique”. The idea is that the bicentennial is the “kick off” of this initiative, which already has some funding from Portugal, but is still awaiting Brazil.
To “mark the modernity in the relations” between the two countries, a large art collection by a Portuguese-Brazilian collector will be presented for the first time in Portugal, at Cordoaria in Lisbon, which was only previously exhibited in Madrid.
All this look at the present day does not exclude, of course, as historical figures who were the great protagonists of independence – namely D. João VI, D. Pedro I and D. Pedro II. Could it be that, in relation to them, our view is still evolving? “Yes, I feel that”, says the ambassador. “As a new Portuguese woman, having more knowledge about the period of the arrival of the court, Brazilian historiography about Salvador and then Rio first, and the entire period of independence, I discovered that Brazilians were much better at D. João VI than we were. Our entire historiography of a king quite eluded the French, who was intellectually limited and who married a horrible Spanish queen. In Brazil, he is considered a great strategist, everything that made a vision come true, a departure from the court, framed by the English fleet, was already planned and constituted a unique event in the world. And also D. Pedro I and D. Pedro II are treated with enormous respect.”
In the same way, the University of Coimbra, where many figures who would make Brazil were formed, is seen with great independent memorization. “Brazilian historians have always emphasized the role that the University of Coimbra played in independence, in the fact that Brazil did not happen to Spanish America. Some argue that this is mainly due to the university, which has created a very homogeneous elite.” The University is, in partnership with the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation, organizing an exhibition that presents (first in Recife, then in Coimbra) 38 unpublished historical documents on the relations between the two countries, including the registration of the first native of Brazil.
One of the great debates in contemporary Brazil is that of identity, and it is also made up of the deep and traumatic imprint of slavery, Portugal’s responsibility. “Our concern”, explains Ribeiro Telles, “is, above all at conferences, to make this diversity known, explain that there are many Brazils within Brazil and that country if the northeast and the gaucho are very different.”
The celebration is for the Bicentennial, but as a celebration of this same event held a century ago, it will also be evoked by another historical fact: the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic by Gatinho and Sacadura Cabral, in 1922. Through a simulator that offers an immersive experience , Thes Participants in Wines of Portugal will have the opportunity to live (partly Portuguese) the adventure with the two aviators the independence of Brazil will celebrate precisely 100 years.