Brazil: The heart of Emperor Pedro I, who declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, returned on Monday for politically charged celebrations of the South American nation's 200th birthday, nearly two centuries after it was dismembered from his corpse and treated with formaldehyde.
Dom Pedro, a revered figure in both Brazilian and Portuguese history, was divided between the two nations in death, his heart resting in a church in Porto, Portugal, and the remainder of his body buried in So Paulo to commemorate Brazil's independence. was placed in a memorial to honor him.
However, on 7 September, the heart arrived in Brazil for the 200th anniversary of the country's independence celebrations, after Porto city officials agreed to return the loaned organ.
The heart with a glass jar, the golden urn arrived with the pomp and ceremony of the state visit.
According to Alan Coelho, head of formal protocol at Brazil's foreign ministry, "It would be assumed that Dom Pedro I was alive and with us ... as if it were a state visit by a foreign leader."
When Napoleon's army invaded Portugal in 1807, nine-year-old Dom Pedro and his family fled to Brazil.
When his father, King Joo VI, left for the increasingly uneasy mother country in 1821, he remained to serve as regent and rule the then colony.
Pedro I, who was under pressure to curtail the colony's political autonomy, instead declared it an independent nation on September 7, 1822, and became its first emperor.
However, as soon as he overthrew the Portuguese and established Brazil as an absolute constitutional monarchy, unrest in the Atlantic forced him to return to Portugal, where his younger brother had usurped the throne and established the country as a full constitutional monarchy. Trying to change from monarchy. absolute monarchy.
In 1831, Pedro I, also known as Pedro IV in Portugal, abdicated and went home. He then led an army in Porto in support of the ultimately successful fight for the Constitutionalists.
He was hailed as a supporter of liberal causes and representative government in Brazil and Portugal after passing away from tuberculosis in both countries in 1834.
He asked for his heart to be taken out and placed in Porto as a token of appreciation for helping the city's residents.
At a ceremony to welcome the organ at an airbase in Brasilia, Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira said, "Today the heart of this national hero, the first Emperor of Brazil, returned home to our soil.
"This important artwork embodies the courage, passion and most importantly, the immeasurable power of our first emperor."
The heart is touring with the entire program.
For this, a formal ceremony with military honors will be organized by President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday. The 9 kg (20 lb) kalash will then be displayed at Itamarti Palace, the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for 17 days.
Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election in October, has been accused of inciting nationalism by celebrating with a heart. On Independence Day, the far-right leader has large supporter gatherings and a military parade is planned.
Critics argued that the display of the heart was similar to that of the remainder of Pedro I's body brought back from Portugal in 1972 by Brazil's 1964–1985 military dictatorship, which Bolsonaro openly admires.
According to Pedro I and historian Lilia Schwarcz, who wrote books on Brazilian independence, Bolsonaro is going to make fun of this heart by treating it like a dignitary who is to come.
"We must consider what kind of perspective it is giving us on history: a history that is dead and frozen like the stale limb of a dead emperor.
Others laughed at the situation.
Fellow historian Luiz Antonio Simas joked, "I suggest that they also brought in Bonaparte's gender since the independence process began with Napoleon's invasion."
The heart will be kept under quintuple lock and key at the Church of Our Lady of Lapa in Porto and will be monitored by a police officer sent by the Portuguese city until it is returned on 8 September.
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