From the tragic love of Inês de Castro, crowned queen after death, to the Amazonian legends of the Vitória-régia and Iguazú, Brazil is pure epic romance.
From the tragic love of Inês de Castro, crowned queen after death, to the Amazonian legends of the Vitória-régia and Iguazú, Brazil is pure epic romance.
The love that created Iguazú Falls
The maiden Naipí, destined to be sacrificed to the serpent god M'Boi, flees by canoe with the warrior Tarobá; the enraged god splits the river to create the falls, turning her to rock and him to a tree leaning over the water.
Read the story
The legend of the Vitória-régia
The maiden Naiá, obsessed with becoming a star to join the moon Jaci, sees his reflection in a lake, dives to embrace it and drowns; Jaci turns her into the "star of the waters," the giant Amazon water lily.
Read the story
Brazil's saddest sonnet
Brazil's greatest writer — mixed-race and grandson of freed slaves — and Carolina, his Portuguese wife: 35 years of marriage whose end inspired "A Carolina," one of the most celebrated love sonnets in the Portuguese language.
Read the story
They loved and fought for freedom
The leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares, the great refuge of self-liberated enslaved people in Brazil: warriors and lovers who resisted the slave empire side by side.
Read the storyThe samba reborn by love
The great poet of samba, founder of the Mangueira school, and Eusébia "Dona Zica," the cook who had loved him since youth: they reunited as mature widowers, and she pulled him out of obscurity and drink to give him back his song.
Read the storySome of the greatest are Naipí & Tarobá, Naiá & Jaci, Machado de Assis & Carolina.