Imaginários da mobilidade haitiana no Brasil: uma leitura do conto “Meu mar (Fé)”, de Itamar Vieira Junior

Abstract

This article analyzes Haitian mobility in Brazil based on the short story "Meu mar (fé)" (2020 [2017]), by Bahian writer Itamar Vieira Junior, in which a Haitian woman in illegal migration explains the difficulties of mobility and racism practiced in Brazil. The article is organized into three parts: the first highlights the migratory attitude that characterizes humans, lists the reasons for departure according to the Martinican intellectual Patrick Chamoiseau and observes how contemporaneity can associate movements with the space of flows (OLLIVIER), with enriching plurality and with the discovery of polyphonic individualities. The second part briefly reviews three Caribbean texts, from 1955 to 2005, in which, pessimistically, it is a Haitian character in motion. To this panorama is added the conception of Haitian writers around an apparent double impossibility: that of remaining in Haiti and that of being fully welcomed into a new society. In the end, the article focuses on the Brazil-Haiti relationship, the concept of "amefricanity" (GONZALEZ) and the laws on the reception of Haitians in Brazil before proposing a reading of Vieira Junior's short story. By moving away from the rather negative views of Haitian mobility, the tale fosters a debate about friendship, speech, and success.