Did you know that Brazil also has a birth certificate?
Well then, our country has a historical document called “Letter from Pero Vaz de Caminha”. This document is not only the first document of Brazilian History, it is also considered the first literary text in Brazil. The letter was written by the clerk Pero Vaz de Caminha in the form of diary, with the purpose of telling King D. Manuel the first impressions of the newly arrived Portuguese about the discovered land and its inhabitants.
The Letter from Caminha can only be considered a text with literary value because Pero Vaz de Caminha was not a simple Registrar: Caminha was a “scribe-writer”, as he was not limited to just recording and recording the facts of the travel. There are passages in which we can notice the use of literary form, characterized by a language permeated by metaphors that deconstruct the real meaning of words. Analyzing some parts of the Letter, we can prove that it goes beyond a simple bureaucratic record of facts:
“(...) This land, Lord, it seems to me that, from the end that we have seen more against the south, to the other end that against the north come, from which we have seen from this port, it will be such that there will be twenty or twenty-five leagues of coast in it. It brings along the sea in some parts great barriers, some red and others white; and the land above all flat and full of large trees. From end to end it's the whole beach... very plain and very beautiful. From the backlands it seemed to us, seen from the sea, very large; because stretching out our eyes, we could see only land and groves -- land that seemed very extensive to us.
Hitherto we have not been able to know whether there is gold or silver in it, or anything else of metal, or iron; we didn't even see it. However, the land itself has very good fresh and temperate air, like the ones in Entre-Douro-e-Minho, because at that time we thought they were like the ones there. Waters are many; endless. In such a way it is graceful that, wanting to take advantage of it, everything will be given in it; because of the waters it has!
However, the best fruit that can be taken from it seems to me to be saving these people. And this must be the main seed that Your Highness must sow in it. And that there was nothing more than having Your Highness here in this inn for this navigation of Calicut was enough. How much more, willingness to comply with it and do what Your Highness so desires, namely, to increase our faith! (...)”.
(Fragment of Pero Vaz de Caminha's Letter)
The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, scribe of the King of Portugal, is considered the birth certificate of Brazil
The Letter, which is also part of Portuguese Literature, has considerable literary value, because Caminha, throughout his text he abandoned formalities such as treatment pronouns and also direct reference to the king. We can observe that he also addressed the more general reader, taking care to describe in detail the new land and its natives. In addition to the simple description objectively, it is possible to notice moments of subjectivity, probably a result of the emotion of those who see something new for the first time. The Letter from Caminha is considered the most reliable account of the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. It is a diary different from the usual travel diaries, as it presents elements of a chronic and stylistic characteristics of Travel Literature of the 16th century, the name given to the literary manifestations that took place in Brazil during the 16th century.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
