Is it possible to welcome online? Strategies and affections in remote classes of Portuguese as a welcoming language for Haitian immigrants
during the pandemic
Rev. EntreLinguas, Araraquara, v. 10, n. esp. 1, e024017, 2024. e-ISSN: 2447-3529
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29051/el.v10iesp.1.18716 12
their opinion about those words. Below is an excerpt where a student comments on the verse
"My path is new, but my people are not":
[4]
[Transcription of the class of May 25, 2021]
Sheila: It's interesting, everyone, to know that the person who wrote this song
is also Brazilian, right? And she's describing words that are so related to... just
like us Haitians. We see, despite the suffering, everything we have
experienced in life, and we feel... (gestures with hands interlocking fingers)
we... we cling to those words. "My path"... I will repeat it again because I think
it's very, very... I'm thinking... "My path is new, but my people are not." The
path I am facing. To explain to you what I'm going to say, I will try, if you
allow me, to explain a little of my history in Haiti so you know about it. I was
6 years old when I dreamed of coming here to Brazil. I never dreamed of living
in my country. Why? Why did I have that dream? Because when I was 6... My
father was French, and my mother was Haitian. They killed my father in front
of me. He was a lawyer. He had lived in France all his life, there in France, in
Paris. Then, he met my mother on an adventure there when there was a soccer
team in Haiti. They met and decided to get married. Unfortunately, as he was
studying at college, he couldn't stay. He went back to Paris and promised my
mother that he would return after 10 years. So, my mother had to wait for him
for 10 years to come back. And when he came back, they had a beautiful
family, five children. Understand? But we didn't have the opportunity to live
the joy of that family together. Unfortunately, they killed him. And the way
they killed him, you saw that they were not foreigners, others, they were the
brothers, you understand?, it was the Haitian people who did that. Since that
time, I told my mother: I think my body is here, but I feel that my spirit is
saying that there is a better life out there, something better waiting for me. But
that doesn't mean I don't love. I love being Haitian. I am Haitian, okay? That
will not change. It will never change. But I feel a wind that's saying, go forth,
spread out. Maybe you'll encounter a reality you've never known before. When
I decided to come here with my husband, I came to Venezuela, and I found
out there is a border that connects Venezuela and Brazil. And I said: why not,
right? I'm going to fulfill this beautiful memory I had since I was 6 years old.
Then I came here. Even though everyone went through so much difficulty
getting into Brazil, for me, it was not so hard. It was so easy you wouldn't even
believe it. I came here, and I was very well received, and I really liked it. But,
with everything I explained to you, that they killed my father, and I lost my
mother as well, a few years later, when the earthquake happened. It was very
difficult for her, and she died. She died in my hands. Understand? There's so
much history that, in short, I can't tell you all about it now. In short, I've gone
through so many tragedies in my life. I don't know, I decided to think about
the weight of it. But I'm thinking a lot, you know? There, I left my family, left
my sisters, and a brother, the only one, that my mother was pregnant with
when they were killing my father. My mother was pregnant with that niño,
that boy. He must be 30 years old now. It's been about 10 years since I saw
him. I carry all, all this on my back. (...) That is to say, despite everything, you
will always be Haitian. That is to say, despite the color, the race, everything
you've lived through, and everything that's happening in your life, you remain
the person you truly are. (...) So, folks, we are Haitians. We left because of