Casa de Portugal in São Paulo, in partnership with the Association Portugal Brazil 200 Years (APBRA), will host Mozambican writer Mia Couto on September 9 at 7 PM for a conversation dedicated to the theme of language citizenship. The initiative has the institutional support of the Consulate-General of Portugal in São Paulo and the Jaime Cortesão Chair.
Mia Couto, winner of the Camões Prize and one of the most recognized voices in contemporary Portuguese-language literature, will converse with Portuguese writer and columnist José Manuel Diogo, founder and president of APBRA. The event will depart from Mia Couto's literary work to discuss issues that cut across the construction of societies in Portuguese-speaking countries, including identity, memory, cultural diversity, development, and social integration.
At the center of the conversation will be the fundamental question of what role the Portuguese language can play in building a common space without erasing the differences that constitute it. Drawing from Mozambique's experience and Mia Couto's literary trajectory, the dialogue will also address the different forms of appropriation and reinvention of Portuguese across the various territories where the language is spoken.
Language will be discussed as a territory of creation, belonging, conflict, memory, and citizenship. The initiative is part of the work developed by Casa de Portugal in São Paulo and APBRA around the concept of Language Citizenship, which seeks to think of Portuguese not only as shared historical heritage, but as a contemporary space for the circulation of other languages, people, ideas, cultures, and rights.
