The heart of an emperor
Brazil will celebrate its 200th anniversary of independence from Portugal on September 7, 2022. In a bizarre turn of events, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro asked the Portuguese government to send the heart of the last emperor to rule Brazil, Dom Pedro I, to commemorate the occasion. The heart, preserved in formaldehyde and stored in a golden urn, arrived on Brazilian soil with great pomp and circumstance on August 22, met by President Bolsonaro at the airport with state honors, including a fighter jet flyover. The urn will be on display to the public over the two weekends in advance of Independence Day at Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the ministry of foreign affairs. The heart will return to Portugal on September 9.
Dom Pedro I was just a child when his father, Dom João VI, fled from Lisbon with his family and courtiers, due to the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon. The Portuguese crown established itself in Rio de Janeiro and created many public works, including universities and theatres. With the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, Dom João VI returned to power. As leader of Brazil, Dom Pedro I advocated for liberalism and constitutional monarchy, in opposition to his father’s belief in absolute rule.
In 1821, Portuguese troops in Rio de Janeiro mutinied, and Dom Pedro I made no move to put down the insurrection. And, on September 7, 1822, Dom Pedro I declared the independence of Brazil on the banks of the Ipiranga River in São Paulo, as commemorated in the national anthem:
‘Twas heard from the placid banks of the Ipiranga
The resounding cry of a heroic people,
And the sun of Liberty, in blazing rays,
Shone in the sky of the Fatherland
Dom Pedro died of tuberculosis in 1834, although by historical accounts he was often unwell throughout his life. He asked that his heart be preserved and held in Porto in northern Portugal, in recognition of the help he had received from the people there in his final days. However, his body was interred in São Paulo, Brazil, in the Ipiranga Museum. His heart has been secured in Porto at the Church of Nossa Senhora da Lapa, preserved in formaldehyde, and locked behind a commemorative plaque requiring five keys to open. Although sounding quite odd to modern sensibilities, it seems “heart burial” was practiced by many royals of the time. Pedro’s heart is unusual as it is huge, weighing 20 pounds, likely a result of disseminated tuberculosis, which can cause enlargement of vital organs.
Dom Pedro I is not hailed by everyone as a liberator of Brazil, and the history traditionally taught in schools is seen by many as overly romanticized and disrespectful of indigenous and enslaved people and their role in the establishment of Brazil. In fact, many historians view Dom Pedro I as a dictatorial figure. This brings the morbid celebration of the embalmed heart of a monarch into sharper focus.
President Jair Bolsonaro, up for re-election October 2, is a retired army captain and far-right populist who waxes nostalgic about the military-civilian dictatorship of 1964 to 1985, which was infamous for its extrajudicial abuses including tortures and disappearances. Bolsonaro served in the national Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2018, when he was elected president. He had an undistinguished career as a member of the legislative branch of government, sponsoring 171 bills that resulted in the enactment of only two laws in 27 years. He is known for courting the evangelical vote, denigrating women, and opposing same-sex marriage.
Historian Cláudia Castelo of the University of Lisbon is quoted in reporting by Atlas Obscura: “Bolsonaro is an open supporter of the dictatorships ruling Brazil between 1964 and 1985,” she says. “He is using the same kind of ideological rhetoric, centralizing the whole dynamic of independence around one heroic figure.” Treating the heart of a former emperor as a visiting head of state also serves as a distraction for the population in the face of an impending presidential election, which Bolsonaro is widely predicted to lose.
Photo by Camilo Jimenez on Unsplash