José Manuel Diogo debuts column in Folha about the relationship between Brazil and Portugal

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José Manuel Diogo, director of the Luso-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and founder of the Associação Portugal Brasil 200 anos, debuts this Wednesday (29) a weekly column on the website of Sheet which will address the relationship between the two countries.

Born in the Portuguese city of Castelo Branco, close to the Spanish border, Diogo, 55, has developed a close relationship with Brazil over the last two decades and now lives between São Paulo and Lisbon. The column will address factors of approximation between the two countries.

“The Portuguese language, at the same time that it brings us together, is also the main factor of distance, because it puts us in a situation of familiarity that is later frustrated by communication errors”, he says. “While our shared vocabulary is the same, we don’t share the same cultural code.”

Diogo sees in literature one of the main windows to break the estrangement and strengthen ties. He was one of the creators of the project recently published by Sheet, which, in the framework of the bicentennial of independence, elected the 200 most important books for understanding Brazilian history.

Graduated in journalism from the University of Coimbra — a course he helped to create —, the businessman began his academic training in the area of ​​mechanical engineering, in which he had contact with the radio.

He draws attention to the growing volume of Brazilian immigrants in Portugal and to the incentive mechanisms created by the Portuguese government for this flow, largely due to the aging of the Portuguese population, a challenge for the country.

In 2021, the number of Brazilians in the country exceeded 204,000 – a number that does not represent the whole, as it does not include those who have dual citizenship or those who are still in an irregular situation.

“It’s as if we were witnessing the first sustainable and friendly counter-colonization movement in history”, says Diogo, who, however, draws attention to the need to invest in mechanisms that help to break down rooted stereotypes and prejudices.

The columns will be published in the umbrella of the project “Onde se Fala Português”, a page of reports on Lusophony launched last year in partnership with Público and Mensagem de Lisboa newspapers.

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