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It is worthwhile elaborating how D. Bosco’s dream was remembered.
Monteiro Lobato was the first Brazilian to refer to D. Bosco’s dream, as he was promoting his intention to search for petroleum under Brazilian soil.
? “Even a saint has already confirmed that there is petrol in Brazil. Just our technicians say that there is none,” exclaimed the entrepreneur and writer exasperatedly.
In his Dream, D. Bosco saw himself walking through all of South America from one extreme to the other, being guided by an angel. They crossed forests, swamps, rivers, fields, and plateaus. D. Bosco’s eyes were very sharp and saw no obstacles which could stop them. They saw inside the mountains and below the ground of the plateaus. They saw incomparable wealth, vessels of precious metals, inexhaustible mines of coal, and abundant depots of petroleum as they had not been encountered anywhere else in the world before.
The reference to petroleum and swamps in this dream moved Monteiro Lobato, who defended the idea with passion that black gold was hidden under the swamps of Mato Grosso.
Many years later, the governor of Goiás state, José (Juca) Ludovico, asked Segismundo Mello to prepare a book about all those who had defended the location of the new capital on the plateau of Goiás. Segismundo, who did not know the episode about Monteiro Lobato, met with Alfredo Nasser, an important public man in Goiás state. Alfredo Nasser had written an article promoting the transfer of the capital to Goiás, and he had referred to D. Bosco's visionary dream in his argument. At that time, something curious occurred: The article was quite old, and Nasser did not remember it. He didn’t even remember having mentioned the dream, and confessed that he could not recall where he might have read about it.
Segismundo talked to his brother in law, Germano Roriz, a good friend with Salesian Priests and through him, he obtained from Priest Cleto Calimar a copy of the dream with a translation into Portuguese.
When reading the translation, Segismundo was a little disappointed. The content of the dream might have referred to the construction of the capital on the plateau, but it was not very explicit.
"Tra il grado 15 e il 20 grado vi era uno seno assai lungo e assai largo che partiva da un punto ove formavasi un lago. Allora una voce disse repetutamente: - Quando se verrano a scavare le minere nascoste in mezzo a questi monti, apparirá qui la terra promessa fluente latte e miele. Sará una ricchezza inconcepíbile.”
“Between the 15th and 20th degree latitude, there was quite extended and quite wide a bay, which opened at one point where it formed a lake. At this moment, a voice began to say repeatedly. ‘When you come to extract the hidden mines in the middle of these hills, the promised land will appear here, where milk and honey will flow. It will be an inconceivable wealth.’”
Priest Cleto used to tell that, after reading the dream, Segismundo Mello asked him:
- So, Priest Cleto, the location of the future capital is not so well characterized here. D. Bosco refers to inconceivable wealth and to the formation of a lake. Couldn’t you arrange that passage so that it gave more of a sign of a city, or civilization?
The priest answered that he possibly could do something, but that the consequences were Segismundo's risk.
Before the book went to print, Segismundo had time to reflect and decided that the text about the dream should be reproduced according to the original. However, the booklet would present a photo of D. Bosco and it would say in the title:
"Saint João Bosco, who prophesized that a civilization in the interior of Brazil settled approximately at the 15th degree latitude would impress the world. There the new Federal Capital should be located."
The expression "a civilization that would impress the world" was not part of the text about the dream. D. Bosco had not even used the term. However, it became the official synthesis of the visionary dream. From that moment, everyone who referred to the construction of Brasília, would also refer to this idea.
This way, the Goianos accomplished their objective and successfully associated the saint with the assertion that the new Capital should be built in Goiás.
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