LISTENING TO MIGRATION IN LUIZ RUFFATO'S ESTIVE EM LISBOA E LEMBREI DE VOCÉ

commissioned as part of the commercially oriented Amores Expressos project, Luiz Ruffato’s 2009 novel Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de você captures the mixed emotions and strained belonging that mark the lives of Brazilian migrants in Portugal. Ruffato drew on his one-month residency in Lisbon and his connection to cataguases to craft the tale of the mineiro Sérgio de Souza Sampaio who migrates to Portugal. For Serginho and other Brazilians, Portugal represents an ideal destination given the shared Portuguese language and the two nations’ interconnected histories and cultures. Upon arriving in Lisbon, the reality diverges from the anticipated vision of Luso-Brazilian unity as sounds of spoken language differentiate Brazilians as non-native in Portugal. To render the political and affective dynamics of language, Ruffato writes by ear as he listens carefully to rhythms, pauses, and transformations of speech. I argue that, in doing so, he pays attention to the oral and aural experiences of Brazilian migrants as they reconfigure their senses of being and belonging when faced alternately with hospitality and in Portugal.