I'm Spanish, and I'm teaching History to a Brazillian boy in a Homeschooling project- he travels around the world because he's an athlete. Although the history of his own country doesn't seem to be part of his curriculum, I think we could use some lessons to get to know his country a bit better than he does. I'm concerned that he doesn't know that much of where he comes from, and I think he should. The problem is that Spanish bachelor's degrees in History do not care that much for anything but mostly the West and former Spanish colonies, so I know really little from Brazil.
there's a non-fiction trilogy by Brazilian author Laurentino Gomes, 1808, 1822 and 1899 - which become huge best-sellers and are really fun to read. You can purchase the books via Amazon. Specifically for the Independence you might start with 1822