The Constitution of the Portuguese Language as a National Identity Element in Contemporary Institutional Portugal: Race, Capital, and Globalization

Based on documentary research at the Torre do Tombo National Archives, and employing the perspective of glottopol- itics and critical sociolinguistics, this paper analyzes the role of the Portuguese language as an element of national cohe- sion and internationalization through two major linguistic-politic events: the National Commission of Centennials (1938-1943) and the National Commission for the Commemorations of the Portuguese Discoveries (1986-2002). In contrast with other states, in which different nations and languages are under the same legal--political system, and in which the oppres- sion of linguistic minorities became less accentuated as we approach the present, the Portuguese case works differently. In the context of globalization and transi-tion to democracy, the value of Portuguese is seen to mobilize a type of re-nationalizing identity through processes of racialization of the colonized population and of symbol-ic detachment from Portuguese emigrated communities.