Kazuko Nishimura

The Goddesses of Brazil Kazuko Nishimura

Brazil... a discovery shrouded in mystery, a colonization stained with slavery.

In March 1500, the Portuguese Conquistador, Pedro Álvares Cabral, is in command of a fleet, the size of which has never before been dared by a European power.

Sponsored by King Manuel I, the endeavor heads to India to set up a trading port for Portugal and bring back coveted spices. Though Cabral returns with much more than that. He discovers a huge land farther west, which is eventually named Brazil. The land is fertile and populated by natives who resist being enslaved and put up a fight to keep their freedom.

The Jews, the first migrants, introduced Brazil to the hugely profitable sugar agroindustry. Alas, the long arm of the Inquisition of Europe extends to its American colony and cannot behold beyond extermination of the heretics. People are castigated, burnt at the stake because they worship a different God. Brazil's natural resources are exploited by the French, Dutch, and English.

Portugal applies its African model to protect its sovereignty and colonize Brazil, ultimately, importing a huge number of black slaves from Africa as labor. The blacks fight chains and manacles and set up the legendary Quilombo dos Palmares-a sanctuary for the Maroons, a hugely successful settlement that defies the Crown's regime. It proves hard work cannot be motivated by pain, freedom fosters progress and its democratic political organization does not need the King of Portugal. Palmares and its leader-Zumbi-must be destroyed at any cost. How far is the Crown willing to go to achieve its objective?