By: KENNETH MAXWELL

Folha de São Paulo - Op-ed section - page A2     

Counterfactual History Two powerful Brazilian historical symbols were on display this week, or should have been. In short hand "Tiradentes" on one side and "1808" on the other.

These are both invented mythologies to some degree: The 19th century myth cultivated by the Old Republic that surrounds the alferes Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, versus the new mythology that is emerging with the rehabilitation of the reputation of the prince regent Dom João in this bicentennial year of his arrival in Rio de Janeiro in order to establish a transoceanic European court on Brazilian soil.

The current Mineiros do all they can each Tiradentes Day, as they did again this past Monday, to transform a solemn remembrance of the tragically aborted aspirations for independence, for a forward looking constitutional republic, and for national sovereignty, that Tiradentes and his co-conspirators espoused in 1789, into a grubby and parochial political circus. The Cariocas, meanwhile, have made the commemoration of 1808 into an excuse to "re-Portugalize" the historiography of the period, and celebrate all the things Tiradentes had sought to reject and repudiate: monarchy, deference, and subjection to European preoccupations and entanglements.

Oddly we do not know what Tiradentes looked like: The documentary fragments that survive from the 18th century indicate, however, that he was charismatic, persuasive, argumentative, a challenger of convention, and courageous. For "1808" on the other hand we do have a very clearly defined face in multiple portraits: The prince regent, Dom João, was decidedly uncharismatic, chronically indecisive, very self-satisfied, and exceedingly fat and ugly.

Yet one of these men, Tiradentes, failed, whereas the other, Dom João, for all his indecision, acted when he had needed to act, and took the extraordinary step of moving the Portuguese court to Brazil where he could be safe from Napoleon's threats and his army, as well as more independent of the British and their powerful navy. Tiradentes attempted to change history, Dom Joao did so.

The consequences of this failure, and of this success, undoubtedly helped make Brazil what it is. Dom João's legacy was one of continuity, authority, centralism, bureaucracy, and territorial unity. The route of rebellion, democracy, federalism, and of participatory citizenship that Tiradentes espoused did not happen. Would Brazil have been better off had Tiradentes succeeded? Who can tell. It would certainly have been different.

KENNETH MAXWELL is a weekly op-ed columnist (every Thursday) for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading newspaper