1.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
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Recife
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The population of the city proper was 1,625,583 in 2016. The city is located at the confluence of the Beberibe and Capibaribe rivers before they flow into the Atlantic Ocean and it is a major port on the Atlantic Ocean. Its name is an allusion to the reefs that are present by the citys shores. The many rivers, small islands and over 50 bridges found in Recife city centre characterise its geography, as of 2010, it is the capital city with the highest HDI in Northeast Brazil and second highest HDI in the entire North and Northeast Brazil. The Metropolitan Region of Recife is the industrial zone of the State of Pernambuco, major products are those derived from cane, ships, oil platforms, electronics, software. With fiscal incentives by the government, many companies were started in the 1970s and 1980s. Recife stands out as a major tourist attraction of the Northeast, the beach of Porto de Galinhas,60 kilometers south of the city, has been repeatedly awarded the title of best beach in Brazil and has drawn many tourists. The Historic Centre of Olinda,7 kilometers north of the city, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982, the city is an education hub, and home to the Federal University of Pernambuco, the largest university in Pernambuco. Several Brazilian historical figures, such as the poet and abolitionist Castro Alves, Recife and Natal are the only Brazilian cities with direct flights to the islands of Fernando de Noronha, a World Heritage Site. The city was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, additionally, Recife hosted the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 1950 FIFA World Cup. It was a settlement of fishermen and way station for Portuguese sailors. Olinda had been settled in 1536 by captain General Duarte Coelho, the city is named for the long reef recife running parallel to the shoreline which encloses its harbour. The reef is not as sometimes stated, a coral reef, at that time the banks of the Capibaribe River were covered by sugarcane. Recife was capital of the 17th century Dutch Brazil and was called Mauritsstad, the Mascate War of 1710-1711 pitted merchants of Recife against those of nearby Olinda. Due to the proximity to the equator, Recife weather is generally warm. Recife has a number of islands, rivers, waterways and bridges that crisscross the city, Recife is located amidst tropical forests which are distinguished by high rainfall levels resulting in poor soil quality as the rainfall washes away the nutrients. There is an absence of extreme temperatures and a cool breeze due to the winds from the Atlantic Ocean. Recife has a climate, with warm to hot temperatures
3.
Castro Alves
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Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves was a Brazilian poet and playwright, famous for his abolitionist and republican poems. One of the most famous poets of the Condorism, he won the epithet of O Poeta dos Escravos and he is the patron of the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 1853, he was sent to study in the Colégio Sebrão, run by Abílio César Borges, there, he would meet and befriend Ruy Barbosa. In 1862, he moved to Recife in order to study at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife and he only was able to join the college in 1864, there meeting Tobias Barreto and José Bonifácio the Younger. They would heavily influence Alves writing style, and in turn and his father would die in 1866, and short after, he met Portuguese actress Eugênia Câmara, and would start dating her afterwards. In the following year, he and Câmara would go to São Paulo, in there, he also befriended Pedro Luís Pereira de Sousa, and wrote a poem named Deusa incruenta, based on Sousas work Terribilis Dea. His play Gonzaga would be performed on the end of 1868, being received by critics and public alike. During a hunting trip in the year, Alves received an accidental shotgun shot in his left foot. However, a prosthesis was made for him, and thus he was able to walk again and he would spend the year of 1870 in his home-state of Bahia, trying to recover from the tuberculosis he got while in São Paulo. Also in 1870, Alves published the poetry book Espumas Flutuantes – the only work he would publish during his lifetime, all his other works would receive a posthumous publication. Alves attempts to mitigate the tuberculosis were in vain, he would die on 6 July 1871, in the city of Salvador and they can be found on Espumas Flutuantes. Castro Alves biography at the site of the Brazilian Academy of Letters Works by or about Castro Alves at Internet Archive Works by Castro Alves at LibriVox
4.
Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay, Viscount of Taunay
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Alfredo Maria Adriano dEscragnolle Taunay, Viscount of Taunay, was a French Brazilian writer, musician, professor, military engineer, historian, politician, sociologist and nobleman. He is famous for the Regionalist novel Inocência, considered a forerunner of Naturalism in Brazil, and for A Retirada da Laguna. The Brazilianist Leslie Bethell has described it as the one undoubted literary masterpiece produced by the Paraguayan War and he founded and occupied the 13th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1899. Taunay was born in Rio de Janeiro, in 1843, growing up in a cultured environment, Taunay studied Literature and Humanities at the Colégio Pedro II, graduating in 1858. He would study Physics and Mathematics in what is now the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras. From his experiences at the war, he wrote the memoir Cenas de Viagem in 1868, Taunay wrote and published his first romance, Mocidade de Trajano, in 1871, under the pen name Sílvio Dinarte. In 1885, he would ask for his demission of the Major post, Taunay married Cristina Teixeira Leite, daughter of Francisco José Teixeira Leite, granddaughter of Francisco José Teixeira and grandniece of Custódio Ferreira Leite. They would have one son, future historian Afonso dEscragnolle Taunay, Taunay was a member of the Conservative Party, but when the party fell, in 1878, he travelled to Europe, returning only in 1880. From 1881 to 1884, he was the deputy of Santa Catarina and he candidated himself to the post of deputy of Rio de Janeiro, but was defeated in the elections. From 1885 to 1886, he was the governor of Paraná, one of Taunays most famous deeds as governor of Paraná was the inauguration of the famous Passeio Público in the capital Curitiba, in 1886. In 1889, Emperor Pedro II gave him the title of Viscount of Taunay, however, when Brazil became a Republic, the nobility ranks were all abolished. Taunay, disgusted, abandoned his career, since he was a monarchist. He died in 1899, due to diabetes
5.
Coelho Neto
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Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto was a Brazilian writer and politician. He founded and occupied the chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was also the president of the aforementioned Academy in 1926, Coelho Neto was born in the city of Caxias, Maranhão, on February 21,1864. His father was Portuguese, but his mother was an indigenous woman, at six years of age, his parents moved to Rio de Janeiro. He began his education at the Externato of the Colegio Pedro II and he attempted medical school but soon gave up. In 1883 he enrolled at the University of São Paulo School of Law, living in the house where also lived Raul Pompeia. He soon found himself involved in a student movement against a professor, in anticipation of reprisals, he moved to the Law Faculty of Recife, where he completed the first year of law, having been a student of the jurist and poet Tobias Barreto. Returning to São Paulo, he devoted himself passionately to the abolitionist and Republican campaign, in 1885 he finally abandoned his legal studies and moved to Rio de Janeiro. He became part of a group of bohemians that included such as Olavo Bilac, Luís Murat, Guimarães Passos. He joined the newspaper Gazeta da Tarde, later moving to the sheet Cidade do Rio, from this period date his first published volumes. In 1890, he married Maria Gabriela Brandão, daughter of educator Alberto Olympio Brandão, one of those was the famous football player João Coelho Neto. He was appointed to the post of secretary of the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in 1892 he was appointed professor of art history at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes and, later, professor of literature at the Colégio Pedro II. He was elected congressman for Maranhão in 1909 and was reelected in 1917 and he was also secretary-general of the League of National Defense and a member of the Advisory Board of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro. In addition to holding office, Coelho Neto maintained and intensified his activities in magazines and newspapers of all sizes, in Rio. In 1923, he converted to Spiritualism, delivering a speech about his adoption of the doctrine in the Salão da Velha Guarda in Rio de Janeiro. He was active in all literary genres and was for many years the most widely read writer in Brazil. He wrote what could have been the first Brazilian serial movie, however, only the first episode was ever completed. He was probably the most widely read Brazilian writer in the first decades of the twentieth century, however, he and his work were attacked by the Modernists during the Modern Art Week in 1922 and this probably contributed to his later neglect by publishers and the Brazilian public
6.
Euclides da Cunha
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Euclides da Cunha was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is Os Sertões, an account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos. This book was a favorite of Robert Lowell, who ranked it above Tolstoy, jorge Luis Borges also commented on it in his short story Three Versions of Judas. The book was translated into English by Samuel Putnam and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1944, Euclides da Cunha was heavily influenced by Naturalism and its Darwinian proponents. Os Sertões characterised the coast of Brazil as a chain of civilisations while the interior was more primitively influenced, Euclides da Cunha was the basis for the character of The Journalist in Mario Vargas Llosas The War of the End of the World. Euclides da Cunha occupied the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1903 until his death in 1909, Euclides da Cunha was born January 20,1866 in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived until he was three years old. He attended Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha, a school in Rio. He was readmitted to the Escola Militar in 1889 and he was admitted to the Brazilian War School in 1891. He was discharged from the Army in 1896 in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering, in 1897 he Accompanied the Army in the Campanha de Canudos, against a rebellious group of peasants under the leadership of Antonio Conselheiro. Between 7 August and 1 October, he was in the Sertão, on August 15,1909 he tried to kill a young Army lieutenant who was the lover of his wife, but his brother shot back in self-defense and Euclides da Cunha was killed. 1902 Os Sertões -- also Penguin Classics in a new translation, ISBN 978-0-14-310607-41907 Contrastes e confrontos, new York, Alfred A. Knoff, pp. 210–221
7.
Alberto de Oliveira
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Antônio Mariano de Oliveira was a Brazilian poet, pharmacist and professor. He is better known by his pen name Alberto de Oliveira, alongside Olavo Bilac and Raimundo Correia, he comprised the Brazilian Parnassian Triad. He founded and occupied the 8th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1937, jornal de Poesia bio Brazilian Embassy in Ottawa Fundamentos Modernos das Poesias de Alberto de Oliveira
