🦋 Brazil
I have never given any thought to why Brazil is historically a Portuguese colony, when (almost) all the other states of South America are historically Spanish colonies. But perhaps it is because of the Treaty of Tordesilla, which specifies that lands west of the meridian halfway between the (Portuguese) Cape Verde islands and the West Indies shall be the territory of Spain, and lands east of this meridian shall be Portuguese. Brazil is the easternmost country of South America and much of it lies east of this meridian. (In The Stone Raft, the Iberian "peninsula" comes to rest "on the line that in those glorious days had divided the world into two parts, one for me, one for you, one for me." -- That's how I came to be finding out about it.) Also here, we have a couple more direct textual references, to "Padre António Vieira's History of the Future and The Prophesies of Bandarra, as well as Pessoa's Mensagem, but that goes without saying." ...And, Roque Lozano has rejoined the story! Can Maria Dolores be far off? Your questions are false if you already know the answer.
posted evening of Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
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We have Portugese colonies all over India. Infact, my husband, a doctor was born in Mangalore in India which was a former Portugese colony.
Here we have surnames ranging from DeSouza, D'Costa, Nazaret etc. Even a place named Valencia. And the churches here are all in Portugese style.
I too belong to a former Portugese colony, full of forts and churches. This is God's Own Country in India.
posted afternoon of May 29th, 2009 by Chandini Santosh
Interesting -- and have you been reading The Stone Raft?
posted afternoon of May 29th, 2009 by Jeremy
I read THE STONE RAFT and liked it immensely, though my favorite remains SEEING. At present I am reading ALL THE NAMES and it is interesting - infact it is arresting!
Do look up my blog for reviews of Saramago as well as other mainstream works.
posted afternoon of September 17th, 2009 by CHANDINI SANTOSH
Great -- I'm glad to hear you like Seeing, I found it a masterpiece but talking to a lot of other people, they do not seem to think it's on the level of his other work. All the Names is on my bookshelf waiting for me to start reading it...
I'll be sure to check out your blog, thanks for the link!
posted afternoon of September 17th, 2009 by Jeremy
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