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Portuguese Brazilians

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Portugal Portuguese Brazilian Brazil
Luso-brasileiro
File:Portuguese immigrants in Brazil.jpg
Portuguese immigrants in Brazil
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Portuguese
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Italian Brazilians, German Brazilians, Spanish Brazilians, Polish Brazilians and other European groups.

Portuguese-Brazilian (Template:Lang-pt) is a Portuguese born citizen with Brazilian citizenship or a Brazilian born citizen of Portuguese ancestry or citizenship.

Portuguese are the main European ethnic group in Brazil. They first appeared in the colonial period, in the 16th century, though most arrived in the early 20th century.

Immigration to Brazil

First Portuguese (1500-1700)

On 22 April 1500, the first Portuguese explorer, Pedro Álvares Cabral, disembarked in what nowadays is Porto Seguro, Brazil. Initially, the Portuguese believed they had discovered an island, but soon learned they had come across a vast new continent. Unbeknownst to them at the time, they were laying the foundations of what was to become the world's most populous Lusophone nation.

The first Portuguese settlers celebrating the first Mass in Brazil among the Indians.

Throughout the early 16th century, Portuguese emigration to Brazil remained very low. Only a small quantity of Portuguese, often living among the Amerindians, actually settled in Brazil. Some of the earliest colonists for whom we have written records are João Ramalho and Caramuru. At the time the Portuguese Crown was focused on securing its highly lucrative Portuguese Empire in Asia, and so did little to protect the newly discovered lands in the Americas from foreign interlopers. As a result, many pirates, mainly French, began dealing in pau brasil with the Amerindians. This situation worried Portugal, which in the 1530s started to colonize Brazil, principally for defensive reasons. The towns of Cananéia (1531), São Vicente (1532) and Iguape (1538) date from that period.

By the mid-16th century, Portuguese colonists were already settling in significant numbers, mainly along the coastal regions of Brazil. Numerous cities were established, including Salvador (1549), São Paulo (1554) and Rio de Janeiro (1565). While some Portuguese settlers came willingly, many were degredados. Nevertheless, these deported convicts were not thieves and murderers, as is often believed, but rather tended to be people guilty of committing "crimes" against religion or morality. Thus, they were primarily New Christians, individuals accused of witchcraft or sorcery, reprobate priests, blasphemers, homosexuals and adulturers. In other words, these exiles were condemned for "criminal" behavior that would not be considered illegal by modern standards.

During the 17th century, most Portuguese settlers in Brazil were relatively wealthy people who moved to the northeastern part of the country to establish the first sugar plantations. Some were Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Portugal by the Inquisition. The city of Recife, in particular, had a thriving Jewish community, which founded the first synagogue in the Americas, i.e. the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue. Some Portuguese-Gypsies also immigrated to Brazil during this period.

Most of these Portuguese were men. The number of Portuguese women in Brazil during the colonial period was low. For that reason, many Portuguese men had relationships with Amerindian women and, later, with female African slaves, which then resulted in racial miscegenation.

Growing Portuguese immigrants (1700-1850)

Ouro Preto, an 18th century colonial city and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the 18th century, immigration to Brazil from Portugal increased dramatically. Many gold and diamond mines were discovered in the region of Minas Gerais, which then led to the arrival of not only Portuguese, but also of native-born Brazilians. Regarding the former, most were peasants from the Minho region in Northern Portugal. In the beginning, Portugal stimulated the immigration of minhotos to Brazil. After some time, however, the number of departures was so great that the Portuguese Crown had to establish barriers to further immigration. Most of these Portuguese involved in the goldrush ended up settling in Minas Gerais and in the Center-West region of Brazil, where they founded dozens of cities such as Ouro Preto, Congonhas, Mariana, São João del Rei, Tiradentes, Goiás, etc.

Between 1748 and 1756, approximately 6,000 settlers from the Azores Islands arrived in the Southern Region of Brazil. The majority, composed of small farmers and fishermen, settled along the litoral of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states. Florianópolis and Porto Alegre were founded by Azoreans, who accounted for over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina's population in the late 18th century. Unlike previous trends, in the south entire Portuguese families came to seek a better life for themselves, not just men. In passing, a small settlement of Macanese people from Macau also occurred.

During this period, the number of Portuguese women in Brazil increased, which resulted in a larger white population. This was especially true in Southern Brazil.

A significant immigration of very rich Portuguese to Brazil occurred in 1808, when Queen Maria I of Portugal and her son and regent, the future João VI of Portugal, fleeing from Napoleon, relocated to Brazil with 15,000 members of the royal family, nobles and government and established themselves in Rio de Janeiro. They returned to Portugal in 1821, and in 1822 Brazil became independent. Thousands of ordinary Portuguese settlers left Brazil after independence.

Waves of Portuguese immigrants (1850-1960)

Portuguese teenagers waiting for a ship to immigrate to Brazil: early 20th century.

After independence in 1822, immigration to Brazil from Portugal continued and, instead of a decrease, the Portuguese population actually increased significantly. In 1850, the traffic of African slaves to Brazil was forbidden, and the Brazilian Government worked towards attracting European immigration to Brazil in order to obtain workers for the coffee plantations that were spreading enormously in the region. Consequently, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Portuguese immigrated to Brazil. Most of them were peasants from the rural areas of Portugal and tended to immigrate as entire families. The majority settled in urban centers, mainly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, working mainly as small traders. They and their descendants were quick to organize themselves and establish mutual aid societies (such as the Casas de Portugal), hospitals (e.g. Beneficência Portuguesa, libraries (e.g. Real Gabinete Português de Leitura), newspapers, magazines and even soccer teams, including the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro and the Associação Portuguesa de Desportos in São Paulo.

Low Portuguese immigration (1960-present)

In the 1930s, the Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas created a law that established difficulties to the settlement of immigrants in Brazil. This law made Portuguese immigration decline. However, between 1940 and 1960 (when António de Oliveira Salazar ruled as dictator), thousands of Portuguese, even from their African possessions and Macau, still immigrated to Brazil. After that, with the growth of the Portuguese economy, very few Portuguese immigrants settled in Brazil, and in the present day, the movement is mostly in the reverse direction. See Brazilian diaspora.

Portuguese immigration in numbers

Portuguese immigration to Brazil from the beginning of colonization, in 1500, until present day in 1990
Source: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
 
Decade
Nationality 1500-1700 1701-1760 1808-1817 1827-1829 1837-1841 1856-1857 1881-1900 1901-1930 1931-1950 1951-1960 1961-1967 1981-1991
Portuguese 100,000 600,000 24,000 2,004 629 16,108 316,204 754,147 148,699 235,635 54,767 4,605

Portuguese-Brazilian identity

Portuguese Brazilians in Salvador celebrating Saint Gonçalo, in 1718.

Brazil was colonized by Portugal, and both countries share many cultural aspects: the language, the main religion and many traditions. After independence, the elite of Brazil, even though they were of Portuguese descent, tried to diminish the Portuguese culture in the new country, and establish a Brazilian culture, different from that of Portugal. Portuguese immigration to Brazil has occurred since the 15th century. Since then, the Portuguese mixed a lot with other ethnic groups of Brazil, first with the Amerindians later with Africans.

From the 19th century, their Portuguese-Brazilian descendants mixed with other European immigrants in Brazil, such as Italians and Germans. For all these reasons, many Portuguese-Brazilians of old ancestry do not know or are not interested about their Portuguese ancestry and do not have much affinity with Portugal, different from other more recent immigrant groups in Brazil, such as Japanese Brazilians, who are for the most part, still connected with Japan.

The more recent immigrant groups of Portuguese in Brazil keep a close relation with Portugal and the Portuguese culture mainly through the Casa de Portugal.[1] Several events also take place to keep a cultural interchange between Portuguese and Brazilian students,[2] and between the Portuguese community in Brazil and Portugal. There are many Portuguese associations "Associações Portuguesas" in Brazil. Other institutions preserve the cultural heritage of the Portuguese community like the "Real Gabinete"[3] and the Liceu Literário.[4]

Today, news online like "Mundo Lusíada"[5] keeps the Portuguese immigrants informed about the many cultural events of the Portuguese community in Brazil. A recent analysis suggests that the more recent Portuguese immigrants (from 1900 onwards) had "low rates of intermarriage with native Brazilians and other immigrants".[6]

Identity Merge

Many Portuguese who had a significant importance in the Brazilian culture are known in Brazil as being Brazilians. This way, much of the Portuguese people influence and contribution has been systematically erased from the Brazilian culture. Tomás Antônio Gonzaga, Padre António Vieira, Carmen Miranda are some of the Portuguese who are presented as Brazilians. The Brazilian culture is in large part derived from the Portuguese culture and for the similarities between both cultures and the relatively easy integration of immigrants in Brazil, makes it nearly impossible for some to keep a separate Portuguese identity. Starting from the second generation, Portuguese descendants start seeing themselves as purely Brazilians.

The Portuguese in contemporary Brazil

Portuguese people are the largest immigrant community in Brazil. In the 2000 census, there were 213,203 Portuguese immigrants in Brazil, most of them immigrated in the mid-20th century, and the community is in full decline, because the majority of them are old people.[7]

In recent years, some Portuguese pensioners have been moving to Brazil, mainly to the northeast, attracted by the tropical weather and the beaches.[8]

The Brazilians in contemporary Portugal

The biggest immigrant community in Portugal, after the Ukrainian, is the Brazilian one with more than 67 thousand Brazilians resident in 2004 and an estimated 80 thousand in 2007. More than 40 thousand also living in Portugal are waiting to be legalized. (Casa do Brasil 2007)

How many Brazilians have Portuguese ancestry?

File:Portuguese in Brazil.jpg
Portuguese immigrants in Brazil.

Most Brazilians have some degree of Portuguese ancestry: some may trace their ancestry to 16th century settlers, while others have recent Portuguese origin, dating back to the mid-20th century. Due to the intensive race mixing, Brazilians of different races may have Portuguese ancestry: Whites, Blacks, Amerindians and mixed-race people.[9]

There are no official figures about how many Brazilians have Portuguese roots. This is mainly because the immigration to Brazil from Portugal is very old, making it almost impossible to find correct numbers. Even with Portuguese heritage, many Portuguese-Brazilians identify themselves as being simply Brazilians, since Portuguese culture was a dominant cultural influence in the formation of Brazil (like many Americans which though of British ancestry will never describe themselves as of British extraction, but only as "Americans").

In 1872, there were 3.7 million Whites in Brazil (the vast majority of them of Portuguese ancestry), 4.1 million mixed-race people (mostly of Portuguese-Amerindian-African ancestry) and 1.9 million Blacks. These numbers give the percentage of 80% of people with total or partial Portuguese ancestry in Brazil in the 1870s.[10] At that time, Portuguese were the only Europeans to settle Brazil in large numbers, since other groups only started arriving in large numbers after 1875 (mainly Italians).

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a new large wave of immigrants from Portugal arrived. From 1881 to 1991, over 1.5 million Portuguese immigrated to Brazil. In 1906, for example, there were 133,393 Portuguese-born people living in Rio de Janeiro, comprising 16% of the city's population. Rio is, still today, considered the largest "Portuguese city" outside of Portugal itself.[11][12]

Genetic studies also confirm the strong Portuguese racial influence in Brazilians. According to a study, at least half of the Brazilian population's Y Chromosome comes from Portugal. Black Brazilians have an average of 48% non-African genes, most of them may come from Portuguese ancestors.[13][14]

Some Notable Portuguese-Brazilians

Most notable Brazilians are at least partially of Portuguese descent. However, for the sake of brevity, the following list only mentions a few well-known individuals who were either born in Portugal or who have close Portuguese ancestry, i.e. 1st or 2nd generation.

Historic Colonial Portuguese Figures of Brazil

The following Portuguese people were either born in Brazil when it belonged to the Portuguese empire, thus Portuguese, or in Kingdom of Portugal. At this time to be a Brazilian was to be a Portuguese born in Brazil.

Historic Brazilian figures

Although still born under the Portuguese empire,with the independence of Brazil they acquired the Brazilian nationality:

Business

Literature

Music

Sciences

Entertainment

Fine Arts

Government and politics

References

  1. ^ Casa de Portugal
  2. ^ Universia Brasil
  3. ^ Real Gabinete
  4. ^ Liceu Literário
  5. ^ "Mundo Lusíada"
  6. ^ The social and economic integration of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. Klein HS.PubMed
  7. ^ http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=311
  8. ^ Câmara Portuguesa de Comércio no Brasil
  9. ^ http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=140919#id2601616
  10. ^ Evolução da população brasileira segundo a cor
  11. ^ Brasil 500 anos
  12. ^ Observatorio da Imprensa - Materias - 02/04/2003
  13. ^ Os Genes de Cabral
  14. ^ Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians

See also

References

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