Portuguese roots & other stories

Portuguese Roots & other stories

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

Preface In Portugal there is a mystic aura palpable almost everywhere, from landscapes, to monuments, and even in its gastronomic traditions.

With different examples I would like to illustrate less obvious charms of Portugal that, in my opinion, make this country in fact unique, reaching far beyond sunnyweather-and-white sand-beaches clichés.

Open your senses and l will guide you through a diversity of interesting details, colors and flavors that will disclose far more than any common touristic sightseeing guide ever would!

This book offers my (insider) views to those who intend to visit Portugal and would like to discover the “Genius Loci” ,Latin for “Spirit of the Place”, behind the mere touristic façade of the country.

As Goethe once wrote “I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better than book or orator”.

Probably for that reason, some call life experience 'Book of Life’.

Exciting reading to all!

Ana da Silva

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CONTENTS 1 Ethnic roots 2 Viriato 3 The Lusitanian horse 4 UNITED COLOURS of Portugal 5 Portuguese Mentality 6 FADO - song from our souls 7 Gastronomic diversity 8 We are what we eat

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Garden Eden by the Sea

10 Celestial Pleasures 11 Religious Traditions & Beliefs 12 Mystic Forest 13 Origins of the Portuguese language 14 Transformation of Latin in ordinary dialect 15 The emancipation of the Portuguese language 16 Cock of Barcelos – The legend 17 Epilogue

Portuguese Roots & other stories

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

1 Ethnic roots The Portuguese are the result of a mixture of folks and ethnic groups who migrated to the Iberian Peninsula along the centuries.

Little is known about the people who have inhabited the peninsular soil before the arrival of the Romans (III century BC). Among these, reference is made to the Iberians, the Celts, the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians.

The Hispanic peninsula was inhabited in very ancient times by the Iberians, a rural and peaceful people. By the sixth century BC, the territory was invaded by the Celts, a turbulent, warlike folk. The long-lasting cohabitation originated the fusion between these two groups, giving rise to the Celtiberians. Amongst these were the Lusitanian, considered the ancestors of the Portuguese and Extremadura Spaniards (Spanish Estremadura). The actual Spanish Extremadura is till the present days culturally related to Portugal.

The Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians established trading colonies in various parts of the Peninsula. In the third century BC the Romans invaded Iberia, bearing in mind to stop the expansion of the Carthaginians that constituted a serious threat to the dominance of the Mediterranean world desired by Rome.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

2 VIRIATO - The Lusitanian Asterix "The year is 50 BC. Entire Gaul was occupied by the

Romans ... Entire Gaul? No! A small village of indomitable Gaul’s still resists the attacker. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries in their fortified camps ...“ This is the prologue in all editions of the comic book adventures of Asterix the Gaul, one of my favorite youth readings. Not sure what might have served as inspiration to their creators. To me, however, Asterix must have been just like our brave Lusitanian warrior whose name was Viriato: a real hero!

At the time of the Roman incursions onto the Iberian Peninsula, Viriato, described as a shepherd and hunter, was elected as chief of the Lusitanian tribe.

After having victoriously defended their mountainous territory, Viriato started an offensive war against the Roman invaders, being considered an absolute brilliant guerrilla warrior.

In 147 BC, he will not accept the Lusitanian surrender to Caius Vetilius, who had siege the Betis valley in Turdetania. Thereupon he managed to defeat the Romans at the gorge of Ronda, which separates the plain of the Guadalquivir maritime coast from the province of Andalusia, and would kill Vetílius himself. A new victory followed, now against the Roman forces 8

Portuguese Roots & other stories both under the leadership of Gaius Plautius, taking Segobriga, and the forces of Claudius Unimanus, who was the governor of Hispania Citerior in 146 BC. In the following year the Lusitanian troops under the leadership of Viriato managed once more to defeat the Romans, this time led by Gaius Nigidius.

Later that year, Fabius Maximus, brother of Scipius the African, was appointed as consul of Hispania Citerior and charged with the military campaign against Viriato, being given two legions in order to achieve that purpose. After a few defeats, Viriato manages to prevail over the Romans in 143 BC, pushing them back to Cordova. At the same time, Celtiberian tribes also rebelled against the Romans starting a fight that ended around 133 BC with the fall of Numancia.

In 140 BC Viriato inflicted a decisive defeat to Fabius Maximus Servillianus, the new consul, and about 3000 Roman soldiers were killed in combat. Viriato spared Servillianus life, who, in exchange, offered him guarantees regarding the autonomy of Lusitania. Back in Rome, the announcement of this humiliating defeat inflicted to the powerful Romans caused a massive shockwave among the Senate members. This affront was considered demeaning for the Roman Empire. The Senate of Rom, disregarding the pre-set peace agreement, decided to declare war against Lusitania.

Hereafter, Rome sent out a new man to fight against the Lusitanian, general Scipius Servilius, who was also supported by the troops of Popilius Lenas. Thus 9

Portuguese Roots & other stories restarted the fight against Viriato, but the Lusitanian hold military superiority and forced the Roman general to demand for a new peace treaty. Viriato sent out three representatives of his confidence to sign the peace treaty with the Roman: Audas, Ditalcus and Minurus. Instead of signing a peace treaty, Scipius plan of bribing Viriato’s companions was successful: they decided to kill their leader, for money, while he was asleep.

This was an ignoble and tragic end for Viriato and the Lusitanian. This shameful action powered by Rome, (“superpower� of the time and self-proclaimed harbinger of civilization), ended up when the three men returned in order to collect the promised reward.

They received as an answer "Rome does not pay traitors", and were promptly executed.

After Viriato, Tantalus became the new leader of the Lusitanian army, but he was soon captured by the enemy.

Without the strong resistance of Viriato, Decius Junius Brutus managed to march into the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. He crossed the river Douro and also defeated Galicia. Julius Caesar thus managed to rule over the whole territory (re-named Galicia) for some time.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories 3 The LUSITANIAN HORSE Both history and origins of the Portuguese people have much in common with those of their world-famous Lusitanian horse.

Mounted already since 5000 years, and thus the oldest saddle horse in the world, the Lusitanian horse continues, in the XXI century, showing the same splendor as two thousand years ago. It was considered

by Greeks and Romans the best saddle horse of the whole Antiquity!

A "hot blood" horse such as the English thoroughbred and Arabian thoroughbred horse, the Lusitanian is the product of a selection of thousands of years, which guarantees an empathy with the rider far higher than any other horse race.

Selected as a racing and (bull-) fighting horse over the centuries, it is a very versatile equid, whose docility, agility and courage, make it possible to compete in nearly all forms of modern equestrian sports. The Lusitanian horse is one of the best among the best.

Nowadays the Lusitanian, are very requested for riding sports, leisure and as breeders, due to their rare qualities of character and genetic antiquity.

At present the Lusitanian breed is expanding, especially in Europe and Brazil, where there is an extraordinary progress in quantity and quality. The country's overall quality breeding has increased a lot, 12

Portuguese Roots & other stories and everything suggests that it may establish new lines within the breed, contributing to its development and ensuring its vitality.

In the XXI century, the Lusitanian horse is suitable par excellence for all equestrian art forms, including bullfighting. Further, besides being the horse breed that gives the greater pleasure to ride, it has an amazing, natural aptitude for obstacles, dressage and carriage drawing competition.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories 4 UNITED COLOURS OF PORTUGAL Are the Portuguese people white? Before answering this question with yes or no, I would like to exemplify how relative the definition of “white race" can be. To be “white” is in fact rather a social concept, and 'race' an eminently social definition.

Father Antonio Vieira, (a Portuguese Jesuit philosopher and writer, the "prince" of Catholic pulpit-orators of his time, born 1608 in Lisbon, died 1697 in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil), referred to us, Portuguese in Europe and Brazil, as physically so distinct from the black, as we were from our ‘whiter’ Dutch opponents during the wars of the seventeenth century. The mercenary troops of the Dutch were constituted by an elite army of northern men from Holland, Germany, Scandinavia, etc. (a sort of seventeenth century’s Waffen-SS), and were defeated by our local Portuguese forces. Their complexion was in fact much paler than the one of the Portuguese-Brazilians, this did however, not favor them at all on the battlefield. For the first time in military history a "white" army was defeated overseas by a mongrel army!

In some parts of Western Africa the natives referred to us with a different name than the one they used to designate Northern Europeans, what shows that they were aware of the existing differences.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories One of the best-paid international top-models, the Brazilian Gisele Bundchen was once on vacation with her former boyfriend, the actor diCaprio, in Xingu, central Brazil. The local female natives, the so-called Indias, should have commented she would hardly find herself a husband around there, because she was much too thin! One of the native women simply was horrified by her boyfriend’s pallor, a stigma locally associated with disease and death (in Brazilian culture, tanned persons are in general seen as – even more beautiful). This episode exemplifies quite well how any social group basically is ethnocentric.

The Timbiras, a native tribe from Brazil, owns an interesting mythological theory to explain the different appearance of what they consider to be the three existing races.

When the Supreme Being, or God, first created mankind, he left them for quite a long time in the holy fire, and as result he got the black Africans. He gave it a second try, and this time he took his creation out of the holy fire still looking white - in a somehow raw state, so to say ...

Only at the third attempt the creator accomplished what the Timbiras classified as the perfect creation, something between the black and the white creatures, i.e. the Timbiras themselves!

Although many Portuguese may have dark eyes and dark hair similar to great part of the population in other southern European countries, they present variations that may go from Nordic blond to North 17

Portuguese Roots & other stories African dark looking physical types, often in the same family!

Such physical heterogeneity is undoubtedly related to the genetic inheritance from the time of the Suevi and Maghrebian invasions: our ‘cosmopolitan’ genes!

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Portuguese Roots & other stories 5 Portuguese Mentality Let us take a look at two Portuguese celebrities from different centuries to illustrate our mentality in the present and in the past.

José Mourinho, my contemporary example, (born 1963 in Setubal, southern Tagus bank), voted one of the sexiest men in the world by a UK Women’s magazine, today regarded as one of the best and highest paid futebol coaches (Portuguese for soccer) in Europe, and Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquês de Pombal, Portuguese for Marquis of Pombal, a Portuguese statesman who lived from 13 May 1699 till 15 May 1782, and was Prime Minister to Joseph I of Portugal from 1750 to 1777.

Pombal is notable for his competent leadership in the period after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

Besides being both Portuguese and famous, (and having both José as first name), the main feature they may have in common seems to me, their competent but controversial style of leadership.

At present, despite high unemployment rates, an acute funding crisis due to corruption and inappropriate politics, creativity and enthusiasm still pulsates through the veins of many Tugas (Portuguese slang word for Portuguese native people). In spite of daily survival struggles, they keep moving forward, full of nonchalance and faith, and always seem to manage to do things their own way, facing up to the challenges of life.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories To make you understand this phlegmatic (almost surreal) Portuguese way, take one authentic scene that took place during the bloodless cloves revolution of 1974: The military revolutionaries were so laid-back as they were making their final advance into the capital, that they even had the nerve to stop their tanks when the traffic light showed red!

Now you can imagine changes may come slow but be radical around here...

Another typical example: Sebastian de Melo (our 'past times' celebrity introduced above) survived the Lisbon earthquake and tsunami 1755 by a stroke of luck and then immediately decided to rebuild the city being his (most) famous quote “You ask me what now? Now we must bury the dead

and feed the living!”

Lisbon’s most important square and busiest underground station is named Marquês de Pombal after the marquis, with his statue placed right in the middle of the square.

Despite the calamity, Lisbon suffered no epidemics, and within less than one year was already being rebuilt. The new downtown of Lisbon was designed to resist subsequent earthquakes. Architectural models were built for tests, and the effects of an earthquake were simulated by marching troops around the models. The buildings and big squares of the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon (so-called in honor of Sebastian José de Melo, Marquis of Pombal) still remain as one of Lisbon's tourist attractions and they represent the world's first quake-proof buildings.

In reward for his swift resolve, Joseph I made his loyal minister Count of Oeiras (Lisbon Coast) in 1759. He 21

Portuguese Roots & other stories died peacefully in 1782. Nowadays, guided visits of the Palace do Marquis de Pombal in Oeiras are available for tourists (appointment required).

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

6 FADO – Song from our souls The word "Fado" comes from the Latin word fatum, which means destiny, fate.

Its origins are uncertain. It may have been born out of medieval troubadour songs, or the yearning of old sailors, or of the “Fado de Quissamã”, the similar named dance in Brazil, with origins in the time when black slaves used to work in the local sugar production.

A popular explanation for the origin of fado in Lisbon refers to the songs of the Moors who remained in the Moorish quarter inside the city walls, after the Christian reconquest of the city in 1840. The sadness and melancholy, so common in Fado, would have been inherited from those Moorish lament sounds. Such explanation is, however, not consistent from an ethnomusicological perspective.

In fact here are no records of Fado till the early nineteenth century, nor was it known in the Algarve, the last stronghold of the Arabs in Portugal, nor in the Spanish Andalusia where the Arabs remained until the end of the fifteenth century.

It started with popular rhythms and verses in Oporto and Lisbon, and grew stronger, becoming more complex and absorbing the changing times. Today it is part of the so-called world music; fado was recently 23

Portuguese Roots & other stories classified as immaterial world heritage by the UNESCO. Fado is a very emotional genre. When the fado singer has a powerful voice and is blessed with performing talent, even if you don’t understand the words, you will get a feeling of goose bumps!

Famous singers of fado include its most famous diva ever, “Lady” Amalia Rodrigues and “Sir” Carlos do Carmo (who has just received a Grammy award for his lifetime achievement), both belonging to the older generation.

More recent talents include for instance Mariza and Camane, just to mention a few, among many great fado voices.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

7 Gastronomic diversity A moderate and healthy climate and smooth, protected valleys made Portugal, among other, very rich in quality olive oils and wines.

Further, the neighboring Atlantic Coast naturally leads to a fresh sea products oriented gastronomy.

Nonetheless, let me introduce to you the absolute top star on Portuguese tables: it’s called "bacalhau", or, in other words, dried codfish. Traditionally, it is said that there are as many different ways to cook it (more or less sophisticated) as there are days in the year.

Early in the 15th century, the Portuguese built their first caravel and sailed away to discover Madeira, the Azores Islands and Brazil. In 1498, Vasco da Gama discovered the maritime route leading to the valuable spices up to then curry, saffron, cinnamon and paprika in Europe. Thanks to the expansion of their overseas empire, they will also be the first European to dock in the Moluccas, in China, in Japan and in Ethiopia. They will bring back with them many other exotic products up to then unknown to Europe, such as rice and tea from the Orient, coffee and peanuts from Africa, and, of course, pineapples, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes from America, the so-called ‘New World’.

As a curiosity: the Portuguese introduced pão de ló (a light sponge cake) to Japan, when they were the first Europeans to reach that country, and today a 26

Portuguese Roots & other stories traditional Japanese dessert, called Pan is a direct descendant of this Portuguese pastry. Another example of Portuguese gastronomic influence in Asia can be found in Thailand (ancient Siam): Queques de passas (Portuguese muffins with dried raisins), now called Ka Noom Poy Vai by Thai people. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to settle in Thailand. They settled in Ayutthaya, the former capital, in 1511.

The Portuguese will also introduce coriander, pepper, and ginger in Europe.

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Portuguese Roots & other stories

8 We are what we eat Some typical Recipes 1. Mystic Main dish: Bacalhau Espiritual (Portuguese for spiritual codfish) Ingredients 1/2 lb. (= about 250 grams) Bacalhau* (dry weight) 1/2 lb. Onions 1/2 lb. Carrots 1 TB (TB, tbl, tbsp, tblsp = tablespoon) Olive oil 5 TB Butter 1 TB Fresh lard, minced 3 oz. = 84 grams (1 oz. =28 grams) Fresh bread, crumbled 2 pt. (= 2 cups) Milk 8 Egg yolks Salt and pepper Grated cheese (any cheese that gratinates well) Bread crumbs 29

Portuguese Roots & other stories Milk Butter *)Before you start cooking dried codfish, must put it for about 48 hours in clean water, in order to get the too strong salt flavor out of it; that water should be renewed after 24 H.! Should you buy a package with demolhado (=pre-watered) on it, will such procedure not be necessary.

Preparation Mince the soaked, boneless, skinless, cod fish, the peeled onions and the cleaned carrots. Place the vegetables in a skillet with the olive oil, tablespoon butter and the minced lard. Wait until the onion is soft but not brown, quickly add the minced cod fish, mix with the contents of the skillet and remove from the range. Add the fresh bread crumbs soaked in milk but squeezed. Mix everything and set aside.

Prepare a bĂŠchamel sauce with 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter, season with salt and pepper and add 4 of the yolks.

Mix the above very well with the cod mixture; place everything in a tray that can be taken to the oven.

Prepare another bĂŠchamel-style sauce as above with the remaining ingredients, except for the grated cheese and dry bread crumbs. Cover the contents of the tray with this sauce, sprinkle with equal parts of grated cheese and dry bread crumbs, and distribute some butter nuggets.

Dessert 30

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Portuguese Roots & other stories About the author

Independent author, illustrator and photographer (autodidact).

Born in Portugal, Ana da Silva studied foreign languages in Lisbon, her hometown.

She lived and worked 2 decades abroad More infos and titles: http://www.amazon.com/Ana-da-Silva/e/B00LU2DPPE

Note: For the interior of this book an inksaving ECOFONT was used (up to 50% saving on printer ink and/or toner).

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