BRAZIL: Visit to the Motherland

• Share

Sirens wailed, fireworks burst in dazzling profusion, and coastal batteries boomed a 21-gun salute as a trim Brazilian cruiser steamed into Lisbon harbor. Aboard was Brazil's Joao Cafe Filho, President of a onetime Portuguese colony that became a nation 100 times as big and seven times as populous as the motherland. Met at dockside by figurehead President Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes and Strongman Oliveira Salazar, Café Filho began his state visit by riding through downtown Lisbon in an open car, along flag-decorated streets jammed with smiling, cheering people. Torrents of confetti in the Brazilian national colors cascaded downward, green from one side of the street, yellow from the other. The pace of the welcome never let up. Before boarding a plane for home last week, Café Filho whirled through a hectic round of receptions, state dinners and sightseeing.

The warmth and lavishness of Café Filho's reception sprang from the abiding affection the Portuguese feel for their huge ex-colony. The affection is mutual. Though Brazilians and Portuguese love to poke fun at each others' accents, customs and national traits, the ties of sentiment between the two countries are notably stronger than those between Spain and the former Spanish colonies in the New World —partly because Brazil won her independence from Portugal (in 1822) without gunfire and bloodshed. When Portugal got into a quarrel with India last year over the tiny colony of Goa, Brazil sent India a note backing Portugal's stand, and the Portuguese are still aglow with gratitude.