Intercultural Communication
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the year 1500, Amerindian people stayed in Brazil who spoke different languages. There were around six million Indians in Brazil who spoke 1,000 different languages. After arriving the Portuguese settlers encountered the Tupi people, who then controlled most of the Brazilian coast and used to speak a set of closely related languages. The Portuguese were called "Tapuias", by the Tupi people. In the first two centuries of colonization, a language known as ‘Línguageral’ was widely spoken by all, from Amerindians, Portuguese to the African and their descendants, and a vast area from Sao Paulo to Maranhao, as an informal language for domestic use. Portuguese language was used for public purposes. ‘Lingua Geral’ was spread by the Jesuit missionaries to the other areas of Brazil where the ‘Tupi’ language was not spoken. But in 1775, Marques de Pombal stopped the use of ‘Lingua Geral’ or any other native or local language in Brazil (Martins, n.d.).
Portuguese was the first language of the maximum Brazilians, but many other foreign words have expanded the national lexicon. The Portuguese language has undergone many changes, since 16th century, when it was first introduced into Brazil (Martins, n.d.). The countries have mostly standardized the spellings, vocabularies, pronunciations. The word meanings have deviated so extensively that it became easier for some Brazilians to understand other languages, like Spanish-language films from other Latin American countries than films from Portugal. Germans, Italians, Japanese, and Spanish-speaking immigrants have introduced many new words and expressions in Brazilian Portuguese, such as the universal expression ‘tchau’ or ‘farewell’, was adopted from the Italian language ‘ciao’ or hello (Martins, n.d.).
In the beginning of the 19th century, non-Portuguese speaking people started immigrating to Brazil from Asia and Europe. Brazil started receiving substantial immigrants, particularly from Italy. The Italians and the Spaniards, accepted the Portuguese language after a few generations. Other immigrants, particularly Japanese and the Germans, well-preserved and maintained their own languages and took more generations and more time to adopt the Portuguese language as their mother tongue (Martins, n.d.). In the year 1824, the German-speaking immigrants started arriving in Brazil. They not only emigrated from Germany, but also came from other countries like Russia, Switzerland, Poland, and Austria that had a substantial German-speaking population. It was estimated that around 3, 00,000 German speaking immigrants settled in Brazil, over a century of continuous emigration (Martins, n.d.).
In the year 1875, Italian immigration started. About 1.5 million Italian immigrated to Brazil, until the Second World War. The immigrants from Italy spoke several languages. Other than the Germans and the Italian people, immigrants from other countries also flocked to Brazil. Those sources of immigration included Spaniards, Ukrainians, Poles, Middle-eastern and the Japanese. The Germans were the exception who preserved their language for several generations; to some degrees the Italians and the Japanese also preserved their language, but Portuguese language was adopted by most of the immigrants in Brazil, as their mother tongue after a few generations. Portuguese language was dominant in Brazil. But since the 20th century there were no more records of speakers of other languages in the country (Martins, n.d.).
Brazilian literature:
Literature of any country reflects the evolution of the thought process of the countries writers and reflects the cultural aspects, social aspects, economic aspects, and ancestry of a region. A study of the literary works gives a vivid account of the cultural evolution. The Brazilian literature over the last couple of centuries is discussed in the section below.
In the year 1808, the Portuguese royal family introduced European Romantic Movement to Brazil. Writers from Brazil started focusing on social issues, individual freedom, and subjectivism. After the independence of Brazil from Portugal, the romantic literature promoted the uniqueness of Brazil, the Indian and the plight of slaves from Africa who stayed there, and the descriptions of the urban activities. The well-known literature personalities of this period included Castro Alves (1847-1871), Manuel Antônio de Almeida (1831-1861), introducer of picaresque literature in Brazil, Gonçalves Dias (1823-1864), novelist José de Alencar (1829-1877) (Echevarría & Pupo-Walker,1996).
The works of the two novelists - Joaquim Manuelde Macedo (1820-1882), author of A Moreninha, and Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay (1843-1899) of Inocência fame are popular among Brazilians even to the present day. The Parnassian school of poetry emerged as a response to the extremes of the Romantics (Echevarría & Pupo-Walker,1996).
During the 1800s, the widely acclaimed and much admired Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was regarded as the best writer in Brazil. He has been known for his uniqueness and his fictions, essays and novels were universal. Today he is known as one of the most influential and important writers of Brazil, because of his fictions. His works dealt with both romanticism and realism.
The writings of Euclides da Cunha (1866-1908) reflected social realities. As time passed, and at the turn of the next century, the Brazilian literature turned its focus towards symbolism that was represented by poets named Alphonsus de Guimarães (1870-1921) and Cruz e Souza (1861-1893) (Echevarría & Pupo-Walker, 1996). The Symbolists were more interested in mysticism and used symbols, metaphors and allegory to express their ideas.
In the beginning of 1900s, a change in thought process of the Brazilian poets drove them towards a literary revolution. The focus was on the rich national history, and folklore. Poets experimented in different types of writings. Mario de Andrade (1893-1945) who wrote essays on art, music and literature, poetry, and Brazilian folklore, was a significant driver of the movement. The renowned poet, Oswald de Andrade (1890-1953), reflected Brazilian culture, and socio-economic life of the Brazilians in his writings and was the pioneer in using a tone of humour in Brazilian literature.
The changeover to spontaneity approach in literature was brought about by Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) who used tone of irony and Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968), who used popular expressions in his writings. The transition to modern Brazilian literature as contributed by José Américo de Almeida (l887-l969), Jorge Amado (1902-), José Lins do Rêgo(1901-1957), Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953), and Rachel de Queiroz (1910-) followed José Américo de Almeida (Brazil – Literature, n.d.). These writers were noted for the power of their writing and images highlighting the problems and hard ships of the people in the northeast. Jorge Amado's first novels were heavily influenced by the sufferings of workers on the cocoa plantations, and the humble fishermen at seaside villages, were translated into 33 languages (Brazil – Literature, n.d.). Semantic Revolution was brought about by Guimarães Rosa. His use of new words, combinations of words and words influenced by other languages brought about a dramatic change in the written form of the language. His language usage was so different from the existing way of writing literate, that it seemed to be a completely new language (Brazil – Literature, n.d.).
The other noteworthy Brazilian writers were Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), wrote Casa Grande and Senzala that made a detailed account of the Brazilian society. Brazilian poet João Cabral MeloNeto who used sober words with accuracy, and a special name among the poets was of ViníciusdeMoraes (1913-1980), whose poetry became an integral part of the bossanova musical movement that was instrumental in creating new style of rhythm, known as samba, in the Brazilian literary works. Orfeu da Conceição, the famous play by Vinícius, was later made into a film called Black Orpheus (Brazil – Literature, n.d.).
National and public holidays in Brazil
Brazil’s public holiday is, 'feriadopúblico'. These holidays are authorized by the federal, state and local municipality levels. Brazil towns, cities, states may or may not have their own 'public holiday' that is independent of the nation as a whole. The Brazilian workers are legally entitled to 22 days of paid vacation by law of the government. The general election days in Brazil are considered to be the public holidays as stated in the Brazil Constitution, the first and second round general elections are held on the first and last Sunday in October (Public Holidays In Brazil, n.d.).
The below is the "official holiday" list:
Source: http://www.brazil.org.za/brazil-public-hoildays.html#.VGhQUTSUdVY
NewYear’s Day: The first day of the year, that is 1st of January is celebrated as the New Year's Day, as on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as in the Julian calendar that was used in the Roman Empire since 45 BC. The Romans originally dedicated the New Year's Day to Janus, known as the god of gates, doors, and beginnings; the first month of the year (January) is named after Janus. Most of the countries, in the present day use the Gregorian calendar as their de facto calendar. New Year's Day is perhaps the world's most celebrated public holiday that is often observed with the fireworks at the stroke of the midnight hour as the New Year starts in each time zone.
Tiradentes' Day: Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes (November 12, 1746 – April 21, 1792) was a leading and important member of Inconfidência Mineira, the Brazilian revolutionary movement, whose aim was to achieve full independence from the Portuguese colonial power and to create a Brazilian republic. When the plan was exposed, Tiradentes was arrested, strained and publicly hanged. Since the 19th century he was considered the national hero of Brazil and the supporter of the Military Police (Public Holidays In Brazil, n.d.).
Labour Day: Labour Day is an annual holiday, which is celebrated to remember the achievements of the workers, which has its origin in the labour union movement, that focuses on the eight hour day movement, includes eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation and eight hours for relaxation. In many countries the Labour Day is linked with the International workers’ day, which is celebrated in the 1st of May. But, in some other countries, it is celebrated on a different date, which depends on the labour movement of that country, For example in the United States and Canada, this day is celebrated on the first Monday of the September month, which is also the end of the summer holiday, and it is time for the students to return to their respective schools and universities.
Independence Day: The Independence Day of Brazil commonly called Sete de Setembro (September 7), is a national holiday observed in Brazil on the 7th day of September every year. This date Brazil celebrates Independence Day, as it was declared Independent from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves on September 7, in the year 1822 (Public Holidays In Brazil, n.d.).
Our Lady of Aparecida: Our Lady of Aparecida, is celebrated on the 18th-century clay statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the traditional form related with the Immaculate Conception. The image is considered widely as the principal patroness of Brazil and is respected by Brazilian Catholics, a historical belief that the statue was originally found by three fishermen who miraculously caught many fish after praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The statue is presently kept in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecidain Aparecida, São Paulo, Brazil, 12th of October is celebrated as the Roman Rite feast day of Our Lady of Aparecida, since 1980 is also a public holiday in Brazil. The building in which it is venerated was named as minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and is the largest Marian shrine in the world, which has the ability to hold up to 45,000 worshippers.
All Souls' Day: All Souls' Day is a day of prayer for the dead. But it is not exclusively for one’s relatives. The date 2nd November is an annual celebration in the western Christianity, which is associated with All Saints' Day (1 November) and Halloween (31 October). This date is also called Commemoration of All Faithful Departed.
Republic Day: Republic Day is the name of a holiday in different countries to remember the day when they became republics. Brazil celebrates this day on 15th of November every year.
Christmas Day: Christmas Day is celebrated on 25th of December in every part of the world, as the birthday of Jesus Christ, widely observed as the cultural holiday.
Reference
Martins, L. (n.d.). Brazil. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78101/Brazil/25084/Language
Brazil – Literature. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.un.int/brazil/brasil/brazil-literature.htm
Echevarría, R.G. & Pupo-Walker, E. (1996). The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, Volume 1: Discovery to Modernism. Cambridge University Press
Public Holidays In Brazil (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brazil.org.za/brazil-public- hoildays.html#.VGhQUTSUdVY
