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Portugal's 10.2 million people have surrendered to Brazilian films, television programmes, plays, gastronomy, music, dances and even the friendly and efficient attention paid in restaurants by waiters hired from among the 120,000 immigrants coming from what once used to be Portugal's main overseas territory. The Brazilians for their part are beginning to understand that Portugal is more than just the place from where 1.3 million Portuguese immigrants, many of them semiliterate and obstinate, came to live in their large South American country of nearly 180 million people. The Portuguese-Brazilian rivalry, based on frequent snubs from both sides of the Atlantic ocean, is beginning to change. That is largely due to ”the wise decision of then-president of Brazil Itamar Franco to appoint former Brazilian culture minister José Aparecido de Oliveira as ambassador to Lisbon in 1994,” Portuguese analyst José Carlos de Vasconcelos told IPS. Apart from having been the architect of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, ”Zé” (the Portuguese diminutive of José) Aparecido is a true admirer of the Portuguese culture. The better understanding between the two countries is to a large extent ”the work of Zé Aparecido, a true connoisseur of our culture, who has opened the doors of his embassy to culture at all levels and not only to the political leaders, to which is added the immense popularity of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Portugal,” Vasconcelos pointed out. Perhaps one should date the beginning of the Brazilian ”invasion” of Portugal to 1977, when the popular ”telenovela” or prime time Brazilian soap opera ”Gabriela” was such a hit that the work of parliament came to a halt and a cabinet meeting was cancelled so the politicians could watch the last episode. Back then, actress Sonia Braga, the leading character in the programme, which was based on a novel by Brazilian author Jorge Amado, became even more popular in Portugal than in her home country, and Amado's books quickly sold out in Portugal's bookshops. For a quarter of a century, watching Brazilian programmes has been part of the daily routine for Portuguese families, who turn on the television at dinner time to watch the telenovelas produced by the Brazilian media giant TV Globo. Brazilian artists, for their part, see a unique opportunity in the common language they share with Portugal, which puts them in a privileged position to star in live performances for which they are paid in euros at European-level rates of payment, that are five times higher than in Brazil. However, the increasingly warm ties between the two countries are not only seen in show business, but in tourism as well, as Brazil attracts more and more Portuguese visitors. The birthplace of samba (a dance rhythm whose roots lie in Carnival), capoeira (a combination of dance and martial art developed by African slaves in colonial times), and caipirinha (rum with lime juice and sugar) offers spectacular beaches and natural landscapes in spaces so immense as to be unthinkable in Europe, and has become one of the most sought-after destinations for Portuguese tourists. Brazilian cuisine is one of the big draws for the Portuguese, the world's top consumers of fish and seafood. ”Spending one's vacations in the northeast of Brazil, on indescribable beaches, eating a huge barbecue of seafood for three by the sea for the price of a plate of chicken and chips in Lisbon, moreover being very well attended to in a country where people speak Portuguese, is for us a dream come true,” bank director Sergio Cunha told IPS on his return from Brazil. In the past, the only thing many Brazilians knew about Portugal was from the colonial history and what they gleaned from assigned secondary school reading of Luiz Vaz de Camoes, the father of the Portuguese language. The other side of the coin was the stereotype of the backward country, a favourite butt of jokes similar to those that people in other Latin American countries make about Galician immigrants from northern Spain. One of these scornful jokes says that ”a German computer has a memory whereas a Portuguese one has a vague recollection.” Nowadays however, many Brazilian media are reporting on a modern Portugal that became possible in the bosom of the EU. In Brazil, the Portuguese presence can be felt through investment in various areas that directly affect the majority of the population, such as mobile phones, large supermarket chains and the distribution of water and electricity -- not to mention the thousands of tourists. And in Portugal, the owners of bars, cafés and restaurants are happy to hire Brazilian immigrants. ”They are very friendly and fast. People come here to relax and prefer to encounter a good-humoured, upbeat Brazilian than a slow, unenthusiastic Portuguese employee. And we, the owners, want to sell,” the proprietor of an open-air bar in the exclusive Costa do Sol district near Lisbon told IPS. Concert halls in Lisbon and in other large cities like Porto and Coimbra in the north have ceased to receive only the most renowned Brazilian performers such as Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Maria Bethania or Gal Costa, and now offer shows by others who are less well-known on the international scene, such as Alexandre Pires, Daniela Mercury or Fafá Belem. And Brazilian actors who enjoy great popularity in Portugal through the telenovelas have discovered what a gold mine their Portuguese audience represents. Staging a Brazilian play in Portugal ”carries a great financial risk. It is safer to have actors that are already well-known through television,” according to theatre producer Diana Valente Perfecto. Meanwhile, caipirinha has surpassed port (wine from Oporto) as one of the favourite aperitifs in Portugal, the traditional Portuguese carnival has been strongly influenced by the world-famous carnival of Rio de Janeiro, dozens of Brazilian bars and restaurants with live music have opened their doors, and there are capoeira schools all over the country.