Last year I was reading an excellent biography of the first Brazilian empress, Leopoldina. A book full of details of the life of a woman that I so much admire - and I dare to say that, if Brazil today exists as a country, is due to her having convinced D. Pedro of the importance of declaring our independence, in 1822. But I had to stop at the part when she arrived in Rio de Janeiro.

Everything we are as Brazilians we owe to this woman, and it’s heartbreaking to learn how sad and lonely her life here was… I do want to get into more specific details about her life and about Brazil as a monarch later, but there is not enough space in today’s post.

And once more I’m going to talk about how I didn’t learn anything I’m about to tell you at school. Something that makes me wonder if our professors are not prepared to teach the youth about Brazil’s history, if they don’t want to.

Anne Rios

amodafala@gmail.com