It is a very local controversy in the state where I live, in which representatives from "Socialism and Freedom Party(PSoL)"(aka. Woke and SJW Party) are pushing to change the lyrics of our state anthem.
Between the years of 1835 to 1845 the Brazilian Empire had a terrible Civil War while several parts of the country tried to succeed. Not precisely those years but the separatist war I'm referring to happened throughout those 10 years. The anthem refers mostly to that.
In the end the Empire was saved by a 14 years old boy and 20 years after the Brazilian Empire's national identity was forged when the country was invaded in the bloodiest conflict of the American continent.
Mas n茫o basta, pra ser livre
Ser forte, aguerrido e bravo
Povo que n茫o tem virtude
Acaba por ser escravo
Which can almost literally be translated as
It's not enough to be free
To be strong, fierce and brave
People without virtues
Ends up becoming slave
The original meaning of the lyrics refers to something that often happens after revolutions where the people ends up exchanging a tyrant for another. Like those comic strips criticizing what often happens when people rely too much on a charismatic leader to overthrow a dictatorship and that leader ends up becoming a dictator himself.
According to PSoL representatives, it is a problematic segment as it infers the idea that black people are to blame for slavery, so they suggested to replace the segment with.
It's not enough to be free
To be strong, fierce and brave
People without virtues
Ends up enslaving others
Which damages the original meaning and doesn't even rhyme in the native language.
The original idea is not to replace a tyrant in Rio de Janeiro(The Empire's Capital) with one in Piratini(Capital of the Revolutionary Republic). We didn't have a supremacist culture here to be afraid the small republic the revolution was trying to achieve could subjugate our neighbors.
A particular thing I often saw in social events where we had to sing the National Anthem here, most of the times they play the State Anthem afterwards, and the whole thing ends up looking and sounding odd.
While the National Anthem is playing it sounds like people are forcing a melody to be sung, as if they were making some kind of effort not to fall asleep. But when the State Anthem begins, people put strength on their lungs as if they were getting ready to fight.
Well, it might not be that odd as our cultural identity is a lot more tied to our state than to the rest of the country.
