MALA DE MEMÓRIA DE JÚLIA MANN

This project, entitled Mala de Memória (Memory Suitcase), aims to promote and disseminate the use of Portuguese as a heritage language (PLH) through the creation of a memory bag. The narrative axis for the creation of this memory suitcase is the life story of the Brazilian Julia da Silva Bruhns or Julia Mann (married name), mother of the German authors Heinrich and Thomas Mann, who left Brazil at the age of 7 and remained in Germany until the end of her life, ceasing to speak the Portuguese language. In a letter to her son Henrich Mann, Júlia laments not being able to speak Portuguese with her children, and in her book „Aus Dodos Kinderheit: Erinnerung“ she recounts her journey from Paraty to Lübeck and her memories of Brazil and the Portuguese language. Thus, the hope is that the symbolism of the „mala“ will foster the sense of preservation, maintenance, and support in relation to Portuguese as a heritage language and bring to light the life of this Brazilian, which is still unknown to many, and to show the importance of maintaining heritage languages in the diaspora.

This initiative foresees the realization of five workshops of playful-didactic activities, combined with five more illustration workshops, for children from 8 to 12 years of age. These are intended to arouse interest in Portuguese as a heritage language (PLH), as well as to stimulate the continued use of Portuguese. The workshops were titled Julia Mann’s Memory Suitcase: Playing and Painting a Story in Portuguese. The „suitcase“ will contain printed materials and products resulting from the children’s participation in the workshops (word games, books, passports, and postcards of the drawings produced in the workshops of Portuguese as a language of heritage and illustration). These products will be deposited in this small suitcase, as well as being available online for download on the Brazilian Readership page on the Homepage of the University of Heidelberg, so that other institutions can use these recreational activities to foster interest and use of Portuguese.

The workshops will take place between October 2023 and January 2024, in Germany, in the cities of Bochum, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Munich, cities in which there are non-profit entities, such as the Mala de Herança network and Elblingua, dedicated to the promotion of PLH.

The project is coordinated by Marília Pinheiro Pereira, a lecturer at the Guimarães Rosa Institute (IGR) and at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, and is being funded by the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin.

See the schedule of activities and sign up to be part of this project at the institution closest to you:

SCHEDULE