Important Message

Dear Readers,

Due to the Holiday Season, I will not upload any post during this week, because I do not have easy access to the internet where I am.

I wish you all an incredible 2011 and I hope to see you here on 3rd January.

Regards,

Larissa Bona

Merry Christmas

Dear friends, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2011! 

Larissa Bona

Portuguese Community in Brazil

Source: rouxinoldebernardim.blogspot.com

Brazil is the country with the largest Portuguese community outside Portugal and although official records inform that such community have 5 million members, there are unofficial estimations that this number could be of 18 million members.

Most Brazilians have some degree of Portuguese ancestry: some descend from colonial settlers, while others have recent immigrant Portuguese origin, dating back to anywhere between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.

Due to "miscegenation", Brazilians of different "races" may have Portuguese ancestry: Whites, Blacks, Amerindians and people of mixed race.

There are no reliable figures for how many Brazilians descend from the Portuguese.

This is mainly because the Portuguese presence in Brazil is very old, making it almost impossible to find correct numbers.

Even though most Brazilians have Portuguese ancestry, most Brazilians identify themselves as being simply Brazilians.

In 1872, there were 3.7 million Whites in Brazil (the vast majority of them of Portuguese ancestry), 4.1 million mixed-race people (mostly of Portuguese-Amerindian-African ancestry) and 1.9 million Blacks (some of whom probably had some degree of Portuguese ancestry).

These numbers give the percentage of 80% of people with total or partial Portuguese ancestry in Brazil in the 1870s. 

At that time, the Portuguese were the only Europeans to settle Brazil in large numbers, since other groups (notably Italians) only started arriving in large numbers after 1875.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a new large wave of immigrants from Portugal arrived. From 1881 to 1991, over 1.5 million Portuguese immigrated to Brazil.

In 1906, for example, there were 133,393 Portuguese-born people living in Rio de Janeiro, comprising 16% of the city's population. Rio is still today considered the largest "Portuguese city" outside of Portugal itself.

Genetic studies also confirm the strong proportion of Portuguese genetic ancestry in Brazilians.

According to one study, at least half of the Brazilian population's Y chromosome comes from Portugal. Black Brazilians have an average of 48% non-African genes; most of them may have Portuguese ancestors.

Source: Wikipedia

Larissa Bona

Grandchildren of Portuguese Citizens: Practical Examples Part I

Source: cafepress.co.uk

On my previous posts, I have said it was very common for the grandchildren to have the opportunity to choose between the attribution of citizenship and the naturalisation (acquisition of citizenship), but that I advised to choose the acquisition only if the children of the Portuguese citizen has passed away.

Further on, I provide you practical examples for you to understand why I advise this:

Case - Imagine that Francisco is a Portuguese citizen, who had a son called Joseph who was born in the USA, therefore an American citizen. Later on, Joseph also had a child called John, also born in the USA and also an American citizen. John have read our blog and discovered that, as a grandchild of a Portuguese citizen, he can apply for the Portuguese citizenship. He writes to me and ask me: through which procedure should I apply for the citizenship?

First situation -  Joseph, who is John’s father and Francisco’s child, has passed away:

The indicated procedure in this case is the NATURALISATION (ACQUISITION OF CITIZENSHIP). In the moment that Joseph passed away, he lost the right to apply for the Portuguese citizenship as child.

Therefore, there is not the possibility of him obtaining the citizenship to, then, “transmit” it to John. Thus, the only option left for John is to obtain the citizenship though naturalisation as grandson.

Larissa Bona 

History of Portugal: Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia

Source: Wikipedia

The first Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula occurred in 219 BC. Within 200 years, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Empire.

The Carthaginians, Rome's adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies.

The Roman conquest of what is now part of modern day Portugal took several decades: it started from the south, where the Romans found friendly natives, the Conii.

It suffered a severe setback in 194 BC, when a rebellion began in the north. The Lusitanians and other native tribes, under the leadership of Viriathus, wrested control of all of Portugal.

Rome sent numerous legions and its best generals to Lusitania to quell the rebellion, but to no avail — the Lusitanians gained more and more territory.

The Roman leaders decided to change their strategy. They bribed Viriathus' ambassador to kill his own leader. Viriathus was assassinated, and the resistance was soon over.

Rome installed a colonial regime. During this period, Lusitania grew in prosperity and many of modern day Portugal's cities and towns were founded.

In 27 BC, Lusitania gained the status of Roman province. Later, a northern province of Lusitania was formed, known as Gallaecia, with capital in Bracara (today's Braga).

As with the Roman names of many European countries, Lusitania was and is often used as an alternative name for Portugal, especially in formal and literary or poetic contexts.

The 16th century colony, which would develop into Brazil, was named Nova Lusitânia ("New Lusitania").

In common use are such terms as Lusophone, meaning Portuguese-speaking, and Lusitanic, referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries — once Portugal's colonies and presently independent countries still sharing some common heritage.

Source: Wikipedia

Larissa Bona

Grandchildren With At Least One Portuguese Grandparent

Source: cafeprees.co.uk

Still discussing case by case who is entitled to the Portuguese citizenship, today we will talk about the grandchildren of the Portuguese citizens.

The Article 6,4 of the Nationality Act establishes that the grandchildren, with at least one Portuguese grandparent, can apply for the Portuguese citizenship through naturalisation, without the need of living in Portugal, as long as his/her Portuguese grandparent has not lost the citizenship.

But opposite to the children of Portuguese citizens, whose the fact of having Portuguese parents is enough to justify their application, the grandchildren must meet further requirements, besides having a Portuguese grandparent, under the terms of Article 22,1 of the Nationality Statute, which are:

• Being over 18: this means that underage grandchildren cannot apply for the naturalisation, not even represented by their parents;
• Having enough knowledge of the Portuguese idiom;
• Not having been found guilty of a crime whose penalty, in Portugal, is of imprisonment of three or more years;
• Have never served the Army or worked for the government of any foreign country.

This procedure is only advised in the situation in which the parent of the grandchild, who is the child of the Portuguese citizen, has passed away before obtaining the Portuguese citizenship for himself/herself.

Summing up:

Case: grandchildren with at least one Portuguese grandparent, born abroad;

Type of citizenship: Derivative Citizenship.

Procedure: Acquisition of citizenship through naturalisation.

Documents to instruct the application: Birth Certificate of the grandchild; ID of the grandchild; Birth Certificate of the Portuguese grandparent; Birth Certificate of parent who is child of the Portuguese citizen; Document proving the knowledge of Portuguese of the applicant; Criminal clearance of the applicant.

Larissa Bona

Brazil vs. Portugal

This is a funny advertisiment made by Nike with the national football teams of Portugal and Brazil.

Very nice!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Larissa Bona