“In the space where history and science have ceased to elect facts related to the history of Africans and their descendants in Brazil, literature enters their fiction,” said writer Conceição Evaristo to a careful audience during participation in the 23rd edition of the Paraty Literary Festival (Flip), at the Casa da República, mediating by author Lilia Guerra.
“The most remarkable book, the work that proves this is precisely A color defectfrom Ana Maria Gonçalves. It is necessary to create fiction to occupy these voids, ”recalled Conceição.“ And for those who work with memory, between forgetting and remembering, fiction enters. She enters as a choice, she enters to save us. ”
Referring to the title of the table, “annotations of a burn Brazil,” Conceição Evaristo said that the memory brought by the enslaved and subordinate peoples “burns” in the constitution of the nationality of the black population.
“This burning we bring us in the field of struggle and also puts us in the field of belief and hope, and puts us first and foremost in the field of action,” he said.
“This past of resistance has to continue to enhance our struggle,” said Conceição Evaristo, as a message to the new generations of the black population, after request made by a young woman from the audience.
“All the silencing that was provoked, all subordinate that our older ones have passed, that my mother has passed, that her grandmother has passed, that we passed, all this potentiates us to be here today,” he said.
The writer brought the memory of black women who had even their voices subjected to slave labor, they had to tell stories to the children of the big house. “That’s why I have said: our writing is not to line those of the big house, but to wake them up to their unjust sounds.”
ANA MARIA GONÇALVES
Author consecrated by the book A color defect and recently Immortal Elected of the Brazilian Academy of LettersAna Maria Gonçalves was also featured at Flip, with a table of Casa Record to talk about the work.
“The black history of Brazil is being reconstructed retroactively, as we get, whether through fiction, fill gaps that the story does not realize, whether through these documents that we find over the years, which answers doubts,” said Ana Maria Gonçalves.
“Sometimes, [vamos] Rewriting and revisiting the story, adding new chapters and layers, in an identity even though we are gradually building, ”he commented on the finding of documents that refers to the life of Luiza Mahin, Luiz Gama’s mother and that was inspiration for her work.“ I am very curious to see this documentation, and see what I hits with this story that I invented for her from a research that I did. ”
Writer Ana Maria Gonçalves talks about the book A Color defect at Casa Record during the 23rd Paraty International Literary Party. ROVENA ROSA/AGENCY BRAZIL
The author says that the novel is a large patchwork, and the protagonist, despite the inspiration in Mahin, is made up of several other women from a possible experience at the time when history is set.
“Kehinde’s story is made up of the story of at least 300 women. I went to newspapers, magazines and archives, researching women’s experiences that were from the same places and dates that Luiz Gama says his mother may have lived.”
*The reporter and photographer traveled at the invitation of Motiva, sponsor and official Flip Mobility Partner 2025.
