Literary and political awards

Camoes Prize for Portuguese Language Literature

Recently, on the occasion of Mr. Lula da Silva's official visit to Portugal, the President of Brazil and the President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa presented this award to the awardee. This award has been given annually since 1989, but the award to writer and singer Chico Buarque has received special attention because writer Buarque was decided to be awarded the most prestigious literary award for the Portuguese language but only now, that is, 4 years later, has received it. The incident has progressed to this point because of internal political reasons in Brazil. Politics delayed the award to writer Buarque and it was also politics that helped the award to finally be given to the awardee.

The Camoes Prize is the largest and most prestigious prize for literary work in the Portuguese language. In 1988, the Brazilian and Portuguese governments agreed to establish this prize, which is awarded annually and for the writer's entire literary work, not for a single work. The prize is worth 100,000 Euros today, with Brazil and Portugal each contributing half. The prize was first awarded in 1989. To date, it has been awarded to 14 Portuguese writers and poets, 14 Brazilians, 3 Mozambique, 2 Angolans and 2 Cape Verdeans. The prize is named after Portugal's most famous poet, Luis de Camoes (born 1524 or 1525, died 1580).

Luis de Camoes circa 1577

Writer and singer Chico Buarque was awarded the Camoes Literary Prize in 2019. At that time, the Brazilian president was Mr. Jair Bolsonaro, Mr. Lula da Silva's predecessor. The decision to award the prize was made independently by the National Library and Book Archives Institute of Portugal and the National Library Foundation of Brazil. The governments of the two countries have no right to interfere. In 2019, these two agencies decided to award the prestigious literary prize to writer and singer Buarque, but could not organize the award ceremony because Mr. Bolsonaro firmly refused to sign the certificate confirming the award for writer Buarque. For political reasons.

Writer and singer Buarque is famous in Brazil for his literary and musical works that condemn the military dictatorship, and openly criticize Mr. Bolsonaro's cultural policy when he dissolved the Ministry of Culture of Brazil and turned it into a unit of the Ministry of Tourism in Brazil. Mr. Buarque is also a very enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Lula da Silva, who is a political opponent that Mr. Bolsonaro has a fierce rivalry with.

In the presidential election in October last year in Brazil, Mr. Lula da Silva defeated Mr. Bolsonaro and returned to power, who had served two terms as President of Brazil. Among the many decisions Mr. Lula da Silva made to reverse the decisions of his predecessor (Mr. Bolsonaro) was to endorse the Camoes Prize for writer and singer Chico Buarque. This allowed the writer to officially receive the prize and therefore the award ceremony to be held. The change of government in Brazil ended the delay in awarding the Camoes Prize for writer and singer Chico Buarque.

Politics did not change the fact that writer and singer Buarque was honored in the world of Portuguese-language literature with the Camoes Prize, but it did delay the award for four years. The political turmoil in Brazil in the space of four months quickly ended the four-year delay. Well, that's a happy ending.

MINH PHAM

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