GONÇALVES DIAS: MY BRAZIL, BRAZILIAN

Abstract

Abstract: On August 10, 2023, Gonçalves Dias would have turned 200 years old. It seems that Brazil doesn't need to remember this poet who shaped our face, made our independent identity germinate, gave us belonging, taught us to feel nostalgia and pride in being Brazilian. Who are we? It's difficult to be Brazilian, it's very difficult because our singularity is plural. We are mestizos par excellence. The Portuguese we speak reveals us, tells us who we are in multiple accents. I'm proud to belong to the Brazil framed by Gonçalves Dias. Gonçalves Dias was born in Caxias, in the interior of Maranhão, closer to Teresina than to São Luís, in the backlands of a country that had just become independent the year before. A country whose identity was barely in its infancy. All we knew about ourselves and the world was what the colonizer saw and said. We had no voice, nor did the mirror reflect our face. Gonçalves Dias is more than anything a reference. What I'm looking for is a way of reading Gonçalves Dias, focusing on the feelings of Brazilianness and belonging that he provokes in us. More than anything, I want him not to be forgotten when his 200th birthday should be celebrated. I get the impression that our Brazilianness is dancing to the beat of the palm leaves or coconut palms, and that now it is the thrush itself that is twittering in the verses of the samba, singing: Brasil, meu Brasil, brasileiro.

Keywords: Gonçalves Dias. Identity. Belonging. Brazilian.