#Bolsonaro #facts #heart #Emperor #Pedro
Dressed in full regalia, military honors and a skywriting team, President Jair Bolsonaro presided over a lavish gala on Tuesday for the embalmed heart of Emperor Pedro I, who declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal 200 years ago.
A day after the gilded urn with the heart arrived in Brazil on loan from Portugal – where Pedro I died in 1834 – Bolsonaro greeted the organ with the pomp and circumstance normally reserved for a head of state.
Brazil and Portugal “are two countries united by history and bound by heart,” the far-right president told a crowd outside the presidential palace in Brasilia after Air Force skywriters drew a heart-shaped cloud in the sky.
“We are celebrating 200 years of independence and an eternity of freedom to come. God, Nation and Family. Long live Portugal and long live Brazil.”
Accompanied by the police chief of Porto, Portugal, where Pedro I died of tuberculosis, the formaldehyde-soaked heart was carried up the ramp leading to the ultra-modern Planalto Palace, guarded by soldiers in period clothing.
The gala began with two weeks of ceremonies leading up to the bicentennial of Brazilian independence on September 7, a politically charged occasion when Bolsonaro is running for re-election in October.
Cadets invited to the occasion from the Dom Pedro military school greeted Bolsonaro with cheers of “Mythos! Myth!”. — the nickname given to the far-right incumbent by supporters.
But not all Brazilians have fluttered beyond their hearts.
Bolsonaro, who is also planning a large Independence Day rally and military parades, has been accused of fanning the flames of nationalism with the celebrations.
Critics said the parading of the heart is reminiscent of when Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship – which Bolsonaro openly admires – brought back the rest of Pedro I’s body from Portugal in 1972.
– matters of the heart –
Dom Pedro, a popular figure in both Brazilian and Portuguese history, was divided between the two countries at death – his heart in a church in Porto, Portugal and the rest of his remains in an Independence Monument in Sao Paulo, Brazil .
But Porto city officials agreed to return the heart on loan until September 8.
As a nine-year-old boy, Dom Pedro fled to Brazil with his family when Napoleon’s army invaded Portugal in 1807.
He stayed behind to rule what was then the colony as regent when his father, King Joao VI, returned home to the increasingly troubled metropolis in 1821.
Faced with pressure to limit the colony’s political autonomy, Pedro I instead declared it an independent country on September 7, 1822, and became its first emperor.
But no sooner had he thrown off Portuguese rule and established Brazil as a constitutional empire than turbulence across the Atlantic forced him to return to Portugal.
His younger brother had usurped the Portuguese throne and was trying to bring the country back from constitutional government to absolute monarchy.
Pedro I, known in Portugal as Pedro IV, abdicated in 1831 and sailed back to Portugal to lead an army to Porto to support the Constitutional struggle, which was ultimately successful.
After his death, he was celebrated in both Brazil and Portugal as a champion of liberal causes and representative rule.
At his request, his heart was removed and preserved in Porto, in gratitude to the residents for their support.
The nine-kilogram urn it contains is normally kept five-locked in the Church of Our Lady of Lapa in Porto.
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