ABSTRACT
Portugal was like an ancestral home, a place where they could take a vacation from a life lived elsewhere, and where they hoped to spend their last years. The Portuguese language is spoken by some 200 million people; it is the official language of seven independent nations; and it is the third most widely spoken European language, after English and Spanish, having recently overtaken French. The other Portuguese-speaking nations are Portugal's natural cultural partners: its cultural boundaries do not coincide with its European political frontiers; they extend well beyond Europe. A nation's political and economic power considerably influences, or even determines, the overall perception of the quality of its culture. This accounts for the poor self-image of the so-called peripheral cultures: the periphery, looking at itself with the borrowed eyes of the center, sees itself as definitely peripheral. Every culture needs dialogue: its own identity depends on its difference from other cultures.
