GAÚCHO É SINÔNIMO DE BRAVURA!

** Minha flatmate, a Ane, herdou da mãe um amor incondicional pelo Rio Grande do Sul e escreveu um artigo falando um pouco dos gaúchos, suas conquistas e seu patriotismo (como ela diz: gaúcho é sinônimo de bravura!). Segue o texto (em inglês, pois ela levou para a escola) e, para quem precisar: www.google.com.br

Notes on a great little spot

If we talk about Brazil the first thing that will probably comes to mind is football, carnival, beautiful beaches, 40 degrees summer and anything related to a tropical country. If I told you that beyond all of this we still have loads of tales, myths, fascinating stories about brave men and women, battles dividing countries and families, a great source for any Hollywood blockbuster script or an ordinary Wikipedia article for insomniac nights. The place I’m talking about actually may not be in Brazil, if you ask to a passionate resident, but if you google it you would see it as Rio Grande do Sul, a state in the very bottom of Brazil.

Our story (or history) began more than five hundred years ago, when a caravel left a harbor in Portugal going towards India, but maybe the wind blew it in a slightly different direction and it reached what is now known as the Brazilian shore. Some unofficial historical sources say that the Portuguese and also the Spanish Crown were well informed about the route of the “lost” caravel; the brand new continent discovered was full of many kinds of treasures that made the Portuguese Empire richer. Brazil from the first moment was divided in two parts from north to south, and Rio Grande do Sul was in the Spanish side. This treaty, called Tordesillas, was the start of our mixed history with the European white men.

The years went by and Brazil was still a Portuguese colony, Rio Grande do Sul was part of it, but the influence was more from Spain, and in those days we were a distinct people, half  native Indians and half European. Because of our climate, we had many immigrants from Germany and Italy that began to build a very single identity in southern Brazil. In 1822 Brazil was no longer a Portuguese colony, it was a free state and all was supposed to be a sort of “happily ever after”. Brazil is incredibly huge, so it has many cultures and as a “baby” country the Brazilian Empire wasn’t prepared to deal with all of these cultures.

“Gaúcho” is the name for southern Brazilians, actually we also find ‘gaúchos’ among Argentina and Uruguay, but they are mostly famous inside Brazil’s borders. ‘Gaúcho’ is a word that came from the native Indians in that region, it means ‘the man that sings the blues’ but nowadays the word ‘gaúcho’ stands for all people born in Rio Grande do Sul, and is also  synonymous with braveness. 

Rio Grande do Sul was always a special state; our economy wasn’t the same as the rest of the country, our culture, weather, sense of humor and everything else was different, so we decided to be a free state! The Republic of Rio Grande was born on September 20^th in 1835. The new South American republic had everything to be a great nation, many people came from Italy to join us in this crusade for freedom, and we were so big during that time that we inspired other Brazilian states to try and achieve freedom, but none of them were successful. This war was called The Tatter Revolution (Guerra dos Farrapos or Revolução Farroupilha); the name is a direct allusion to our warriors’ uniforms, because we had far less soldiers than the Brazilian Empire army, it was a David and Goliath battle. David was so close to defeating Goliath, but after ten years fighting David wasn’t that strong anymore, his kingdom was tired of being fed with just dreams and promises of a better future of freedom, corruption in our leadership helped us to sink in our own desire of liberty.

The Tatter Revolution wasn’t a complete failure, it consolidated the spirit of greatness, the ‘gaúcho’ people are respected, and our achievements inspired generations until contemporary ages. We still have, in the 21^st century, a Separatist Party, many ‘gaúchos’ wear the Republic of Rio Grande flag on their lapels and some ‘non-gaúchos’ Brazilians want to be naturalized as ‘gaúchos’; in our soul we truly believe that we are a Republic, and Brazil our friendly neighbor. Just like the Basque in Spain, we probably inherited the belief of an autonomous identity, until now our attempts haven’t been successful, but we are a peaceful ‘organization’, maybe in the future we shall call up a Gaúcho Republic Army.

Nowadays for economically issues the Republic dream is no longer available in reality, but the idea of it still being our fuel to push ourselves more and more. We are the state with the highest quality of life, education and health system. Almost every single ‘gaúcho’ knows our anthem by heart, and this “skill” is exclusively from Rio Grande do Sul, in the others twenty five states you wouldn’t find it, the national anthem would probably be the only one known. We are close to have our own grammar, the dialect used in south is so strong and solid that many of its words are already accepted in the standard Brazilian-Portuguese grammar even if those words are mainly used by ‘gaúchos’.

You have to admit, dear anonymous reader, you are just waiting for this article to be finished and you will straightly go buying a flight ticket to Rio Grande do Sul. In the “Tatter Week” that is the whole week around 20^th of September; if you dare to call a ‘gaúcho’ a Brazilian is highly likely that you will be slapped in the face, keep it as an advice. In the rest of the year just relax and enjoy the southern community that sings the blues. See you there! ‘Gaúcho’ greetings!   (Anelise Witt)