You were born in Canada and so were your parents, but I came from somewhere else.
When I was your age I spoke a different language,
one as ancient and glorious as the one that you speak today.
My ancestors (and therefore yours) were Portuguese.
am very proud of our heritage, as you should be!
So, I want to tell you who the Portuguese People are
Were did they came from, why, and what for.
A VERY QUICK HISTORY OF PORTUGAL:
From the very beginning, of Man's time on earth the Iberian Peninsula was the end of the trail for many migrations of many different races from just about everywhere!
There is a problem with living in a paradise: everyone else wants to go and live there!
As far as we can tell, the story starts a very long time ago.
Judging from archaeological evidence, Pithecanthropus Erectus societies must have lived and thrived in the Peninsula during the 2nd and 3rd glaciations and certainly the last one, (Wurm) that took place more than one hundred and twenty thousand years ago.
Remnants of many primitive cultures are found there:
- From since about seventy thousand years ago, Neandertal's, Cro-Magnon, Chapelle and Grimaldi Men.
- Eventually Chancelade Men, physically similar to the Iberians of today.
Over there can now be seen numerous Stone Age structures and lots of artifacts left from the Ancient Cultures, many from the Neolithic period, (spanning a time from about twenty thousand to three thousand years ago):
Antas, Castros, Megalithic Monuments, tombs and even many large necropolis of the Tholoi and other types.
Stone axes, knives and arrow heads, bone instruments, pottery and written shards are found everywhere.
There is even questionable evidence of very early use of a written alphabet that maybe preceded the Phoenician.
Most of these ancient habitats were used for many thousands of years, often by different groups.
Bronze III Era has seen the arrival of Ligures or Pre-Celts, both copper miners.
(There is iron, copper, gold, oil, mercury, quartz, etc. in the land.)
Later again, in the Ferro (Iron) II Era, the Celts arrived and mingling with the local Iberos formed a powerful group -the Celtiberos. To cement this union, legends speak of the one day mass marriages of ten thousand couples mixed from those two races.
This tradition is still maintained today in Lisboa as the St. Anthony's day weddings.
Celtiberos traded with maritime peoples, the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Visigoths that also formed numerous local colonies.
Eventually Cartagineses and Romans clashed in a struggle for supremacy until Carthage was destroyed.
In the year II AC a Roman historian wrote that to the North of the Douro river lived the Gallic People, constituted by two tribes:
In the further North the Lucence and to the south of Minho the Bracarii from which the city of Braga obtained its name.
Below the River Douro lived the Lusitani, Celtic descendants.
From the many ethnic groups, at the time present in the area, only these last two later participated in the famous 'Pax Romana' (the Roman Peace).
The Roman conquest was a very difficult affair for all those involved. At first the local tribes, Lusitanos, welcomed the more 'civilized' Romans that arrived about 150 years Before Christ Era, but then, a peace party offered by the Roman General Galba turned into a treasonous massacre of the Lusitani chiefs.
The Legendary Lusitani Viriathus escaped and maintained tremendous resistance against the Romans, for more than thirty years.
Three complete Roman Legions of over thirty thousand men, were totally destroyed before the 'pacification' (as they then called it) was concluded.
Viriathu's murder was eventually arranged by the Romans. When the three assassins went to the roman camp to receive the promised payment for the crime, were in turned executed for 'murdering the Greatest Enemy Hero!'.
Viriathus was replaced by Certorius, an ex-roman officer that, sent to spy, turned native and a local leader. He maintained successful obstruction for a very long time until he too was murdered by a famous Roman courtesan sent to him as a peace gift.
An interesting legend says that she presented herself in his camp completely naked to show that was carrying no weapons, but during the night used a long hair pin hidden in her elaborate hairdo to 'operate' on his heart.
After many battles, what could not be accomplished by the might of the Roman Legions was then finally done by treason.
In 61 BC Julius Caesar, moved in, and took over, the administration of the peninsula with the title of Proprietor.
Iberia was divided in two: Hispanea Proxima (Near Spain or today's Spain) and Hispanea Longinqua (Further Spain, today Portugal).
Later, (284 BC) the Emperor Ducleciano, by edict fixed the frontiers, as they approximately remain today.
That happened more than one thousand seven-hundred years ago, making Portugal the oldest country in Europe with virtually unchanging frontiers.
Thousands of stone plaques with roman writing have been cataloged in the Iberian Peninsula, and many temples, bridges, amphitheaters and roads are still visible.
Recently the largest coliseum built outside of Rome was found in Lisboa during subway construction.
Well, the 'unwanted tourism' continued! Since the Fall of the Roman Empire, this small country was invaded many times yet again.
Very significant emigrations were:
Suevi, that arriving in the Year 406 created a Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula that lasted well past the Year 600. Many Medieval Churches remain in the north from that great kingdom.
From the year 419 onwards, came the Alanos, Vandalos Silingos, Bizantines, etc. Those were mainly barbarians and destroyers.
Visigoths arriving in 469 also established a great Kingdom of long duration.
Moors, coming from North Africa, in 711, invited by a dethroned Visigoth ruler, stayed for 500 years leaving beautiful palaces, castles, words and costumes.
These were truly the 'Dark Ages! Very chaotic period, many different groups constantly fighting each other in detriment of the local population!
Until... In 1147 Portugal become a Nation, led by the first King, Afonso Henriques, and that in itself is a very fascinating part of history about which many volumes were written.
Afonso was the son of Queen Therasa, herself a daughter of the powerful king Afonso VI of Leão and Castile.
He ordered her to be married to his cousin, Count D.Henrique of Burgundy, and gave them the job of managing the "Condado of Portucale" from the city of Guimaraes.
Afonso was born a very fragile and sick child, judged at the time incapable of surviving infancy.
But survive he did, becoming a gigantic man that lived past 90 years of age.
Very brave in battle and clever in politics, he created an empire that, so far, as lasted eight hundred and fifty years.
After the death of his father, the Count, Afonso, then only 18 years old, rebelled against his mother and her lover.
He masterfully managed to unite all the local families and tribes, while holding at bay several invasions by his Spanish cousins, ejecting the Moor invaders out of the Portuguese side of the peninsula all the way south back to Africa, and becoming the first King of Portugal.
He was helped in this adventure by the Crusaders. D. Afonso I either used, or founded, important religious orders that had maintained the spark of civilization during the Dark Ages.
Unfortunately the "tribunal of faith", the Inquisition, ruled by a group of fundamentalist fanatics, terrorized the people for six hundred years leading savage persecutions of religious minorities.
From thereon countless attempted invasions had to be, and were repelled.
-For many hundreds of years Spain did not accept the small Portuguese Nation's independence sending numerous armies to vainly try to end it.
-Constant attacks by Vikings, African pirates, British, and Dutch corsairs, were also very common.
From all these turbulent mediaeval times thousands of spectacular castles were left.
Starting on the early fourteen hundred's, the Portuguese embarked in the period of the Discoveries.
All oceans were explored, Canada and Brazil were discovered, and colonized, according to the accepted moral attitudes of the time, by our Navigators.
Sea routes to India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China were found
The first trip around the world by sea was made.
Japan, until then isolated, received the visit of the Portuguese that were the very first Europeans ever seen there and one "great black ship" was allowed to trade.
Today, still, many Portuguese words are part of the Japanese language.
Sea trade routes were established in Asia, India, Africa and the Americas.
Whatever was wanted by someone, somewhere, was obtained wherever else it could be found, and transported by the largest fleet that the world had ever seen.
The Portuguese had a tremendous scientific impact at that time, inventing the Astrolabe, Astronomic Navigation Tables (still in use today), the Latin Sail (that allowed ships to sail almost dead set against the wind), and many other navigational aids now taken for granted.
That was a glorious and costly effort of epic proportions for the Portuguese People.
By the thirteen century there was a population of more than three million in that small country, but, by the middle 1700's after de expansion years, there were only about half a million people left.
In the Year 2000 the population surpasses the 12 million in the peninsula and more than 100 million people speak Portuguese around the world.
There were, many reasons for the decline of local population suffered during the years of the Discoveries:
-Plagues (bubonic and Black Plagues alone each killed three in ten persons).
-Frequent earthquakes, (the worst being in 1755 that destroyed Lisbon and Algarve almost totally). -The Spanish take over, that started in 1580, lasted 60 years, and was politically engineered by a royal marriage, forced the participation of the Portuguese in the Great Armada which resulted in great loss of lives and the collapse of the Navy.
-Wars. For example, There were three invasions by Napoleonic armies, in the early 1800's that caused tremendous destruction. Napoleon was beaten back with the help of a 'friendly' British army that tried to make Portugal into a colony of England.
-Both French and 'allied' armies, pillaged all that they could, raped, killed and destroyed all that was not protected by the national troops, in the process reducing Portugal from the magnificence attained during the period of Navigations and Expansion, to a very poor country indeed.
In 1910 King Carlos I and his son Luis, were murdered in Lisboa and that ended the Monarchies there.
A Republic was established then, but many revolutions and coups happened until a Military Dictatorship took a hold that would last for more than forty Years.
All Forgotten, In 1914 to 1918, the Portuguese Army fought valiantly against the Kaiser of Germany in the first World War, and remained neutral on the second, providing food and supplies to both adversaries and sanctuary to Jewish and Gypsy Refugees.
Hitler had planed an invasion in order to obtain passage to North Africa, but fortunately gave up the idea.
Communism did take over in 1975 but was ejected a couple of years later in a bloodless coup. Portugal was the first nation ever to be able to do that.
In 1986 Portugal joined the European Community as one of the most beautiful, peaceful and friendly of the Democratic European Countries.
Today there are millions of welcome tourists every year and the only disturbance of the peace, allowed, is the loud modern music of the many nightclubs.
Who are we, the Portuguese?
Genetically, we descend from most of the races above mentioned and many others that were forgotten in time.
Why was all that done?
In order for YOU TO BE who YOU ARE today!
Think! An almost infinite string of ancestors fought against all odds, to survive, and progress since Man first appeared on Earth.
Do not waist your life . . . Continue the chain . . . You must give continuity to the Future.
Everyone's greatest responsibility is to contribute to the survival and progress of an increasingly Ethical and Noble Human Race.
Avoid excesses. Control vices.
Do all that You can for the world to be better, when You leave, then it was when You arrived.
Make sure that You have fun doing it.
With Much Love . . .
Vôvô Ivo
(Ivo Lourenco de Azevedo, Ajax April 14, 2001)
To send Email to us, please remove the first a : aivo_azevedo@primus.ca
