By GAIL FINEBERG
José Mindlin, former cultural secretary of São Paulo, Brazil, and director of the Guita and José Mindlin Library, helped the Library's Hispanic Division and the Brazilian Embassy celebrate "500 Years of Brazil's Discovery" on April 26 in the Pickford Theater.
Welcoming Mr. Mindlin to the Library, Dr. Billington spoke of his guest's wide-ranging interests, reflected in his personal library of more than 25,000 titles, of which some 10,000 are rare books. Mr. Mindlin's public career began as a reporter for one of the leading newspapers of São Paulo; he is now the chairman of its editorial board. A lawyer, entrepreneur and a man of letters with interests in Brazil's culture, economy, politics, science and business, Mr. Mindlin is "one of the Renaissance men of our times," Dr. Billington said.
Mr. Mindlin has been a generous and faithful supporter of the Library of Congress, not only through his donation of publications, but also through his involvement in the funding of at least four long-term internships at the Library.
He focused on four centuries of Brazil's history -- its colonial period (1500 to 1822) and the shaping of its national life during the remainder of the 19th century, which, he said, "must be separated from what came after."
He noted that Brazil's human history predates European contact. "It is easy to speak about the importance of celebrating 500 years of Brazil, but to begin, is this figure correct or real? Our territory was already inhabited before 1500 A.D., by a large population, estimated in the 1500s at 3 million Indians, with their own communal organization and traditions. So when one talks ... of discovery, it must be qualified: there was an encounter, a definition that seems more adequate, and actually is being increasingly preferred," he said.
The encounter occurred on April 22, 1500, when Pedro Alvares Cabral, commander of a Portuguese armada, sighted the South American mainland and staked a claim for Portugal. Cabral "thought this country was not a very large island," Mr. Mindlin said, adding that Brazil would be revealed as a vast, mysterious territory with dangers that challenged Jesuit missionaries and settlers dispatched by the Portuguese crown.
Even now, he said, Brazil has not been fully discovered. "The media have represented this beautiful country as a haven for football, violence, corruption, samba and the freedom of carnival. This image is not totally correct," he said, adding that the past 500 years of history, though important, are only "preparatory to a comprehensive description of what we are today, and to what we expect to be in the future."
The Portuguese found Brazil attractive, as did the French, Dutch and Spanish. With this competitive interest in Brazil's resources -- red dye-wood, which was the original source of trade, gold and silver, precious stones and sugar -- there came a need for colonial Brazilians to fight other Europeans' territorial ambitions. The first agreement between Spain and Portugal on frontiers was not reached until 1750.
The Jesuits were enterprising, and their missionary efforts spread throughout the country between 1625 and 1759. They protected the Indians from enslavement by Portuguese and Spanish agricultural landowners as well as adventurers, Mr. Mindlin said, and they taught the Indians music, painting and the manufacture of many artifacts, including musical instruments. Trained to become good artisans and copyists, the Indians were not encouraged to think independently.
The religious influence was responsible for an extraordinarily beautiful Brazilian baroque architecture. "Magnificent churches were built in the main cities, and not only religious architecture, but also painting and sculpture flourished throughout Brazil," he said.
Thoughts of independence began to take root in the late 18th century. "This was the beginning of the patriots, intellectuals and enlightened citizens," Mr. Mindlin said. Students returning home from studies abroad were thinking about revolution, and there was news of the war for independence in the United States.
Revolutionary events in Europe had a profound effect on Brazil. Napoleon's invasion of Portugal prompted the Portuguese prince regent, Dom João, to move the Portuguese court to Brazil in 1808. "I would like to stress at this moment our great debt to Napoleon; if the French had not invaded Portugal, nothing would have changed so swiftly."
Brazil matured quickly as the seat of the Portuguese empire. The prince opened Brazilian ports to trade with friendly nations, including Great Britain, and also government offices in Rio de Janeiro, a supreme court, a bank, the royal treasury, mint, printing office, a national library with holdings from the Portuguese National Library and other academic institutions.
With the death of Portugal's queen, Maria I, in 1816, the regent became King João VI. He returned to Portugal in 1821 to contain a revolution there and appointed his son, Dom Pedro, as regent in Brazil. Dom Pedro refused orders a few months later to return to Lisbon, established a legislative assembly in São Paulo and proclaimed Brazil's independence from Portugal on Sept. 7, 1822.
Dom Pedro I was crowned emperor in 1822, but after a troubled reign marked by conflict with the assembly, he abdicated in favor of 5-year- old Dom Pedro de Alcântara in 1831. For the next nine years, Brazil seethed with civil unrest until both houses of parliament declared the young regent had reached majority in 1840. The Brazilian Empire lasted to 1889.
Dom Pedro II proved to be an enlightened leader. Brazil grew and prospered under his reign, and the country enjoyed a great deal of stability. (The country's population grew from 4 million to 14 million; railroads built 5,000 miles of track; and public revenues and products multiplied.) However, support for a republic grew, and the empire finally collapsed in 1889, when the royal family went to exile in Europe.
The country's 19th century economy relied on slave-based agriculture. Slave trade with Africa did not cease until 1853. "What I think clouded our self-respect was the permanence of slavery, only abolished completely in 1888," Mr. Mindlin said. The prospect of abolishing slavery led the southern farmers to promote the immigration of European workers, "which was something the northern landowners neglected to do. This was one of the reasons why the north and northeast of Brazil lost their predominance in favor of the south," he said.
Mr. Mindlin closed his lecture by pointing out that the 20th century brought Brazil increasingly into world interrelations, as exemplified by Brazilian soldiers fighting alongside Americans in Italy during World War II. At the dawn of the 21st century, Brazil, with an economy that is the eighth largest in the world, is a contributor of music, painting, literature and other arts to the world's culture.
Said Mr. Mindlin: "Brazil, a country of many contrasts and many hues, Portuguese speaking in a hemisphere of Spanish-speaking neighbors, is not easy to explain, much less to summarize, but is a country that is easy to appreciate, even love."
Ms. Fineberg is editor of The Gazette, the Library's staff newspaper; Natalie J. Evans, a temporary assistant in the Public Affairs Office, contributed to this report.