“The colonial language was covered by marginal languages,” says Silvano Santiago in Filiparaiba.

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Under the slogan “Our Land and Our People – Origin, Identity and the Future of Democracy”, the event continues until Sunday (30) with ten thematic tables and more than 30 Portuguese-speaking authors. The most prominent stars of the program include Itamar Vieira Jr., author of the book “Torrto arado,” and Portuguese writer Inés Pedrosa, in addition to the winner of the Camões Award, the highest honor in the Portuguese language: Brazilian Silvano Santiago.

The first session, “Language as Territory of Citizenship,” opened discussions on Friday (28) with reflections on the role of language in constructing identities and expanding citizenship. The conference was co-curated by José Manuel Diego, and Paraiba authors Bernardina Freire, Aline Cardoso, and Silvano Santiago, who highlighted how the Portuguese language, once a colony, was transformed by indigenous and African freedom struggles. From this mixture, it has become a place of pluralism and living, capable of uniting citizens from different continents.

– Santiago said that the old colonial language was gradually covered by the marginalized languages ​​of massacred indigenous people and enslaved Africans, through their struggle for freedom. – If we realize, first, that the writers present here are European, American and African citizens, and, second, that they express themselves in a responsible and unique way through a language common to them, then the concept of citizenship has taken an extraordinary leap from the Charter of Caminia, where it did not originally exist, because we were all subjects of His Majesty, until the French Revolution, where we became citizens.

Poet Aline Cardoso highlighted the power of orality in shaping the Brazilian Portuguese language:

“Poetry opens up the space so that voices that were previously erased can be seen and heard,” she said. Language is not born in books. It is born where people walk. Dialect is memory, and our language is alive and renewed every day in people’s mouths. People think, people speak, they create philosophy without asking for permission.

In 2024, the first edition is designed around the 500th anniversary of Camões. This second edition, according to curator José Manuel Diogo, shows how words can be tools of symbolic liberation.

– This year it was necessary to talk about defending democracy – says Diogo. – We are witnessing this whole process of rollback of rights, attacks on minorities and immigration. She believes that democracy as an archetype of Western conquest has weakened, because democracy does not defend itself, it is not sufficient for itself.