“My children none of them can speak German [...] But today it’s late, I can’t do teaching”: language policy in the Vargas Period

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Pedro Daniel dos Santos
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Barbosa, Davi Souza Pereira
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Tabuleiro de Letras
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.uneb.br/index.php/tabuleirodeletras/article/view/17143
• topic: Política linguística.; Línguas de imigração; Língua alemã; Campanha de nacionalização; Era Vargas

The immigration of Germanic peoples to Brazil dates back to the imperial period and, during World War II, this community suffered with the nationalist measures implemented by the Vargas government. Therefore, this paper intends to identify and reflect on the forms of silencing and repression suffered by the German language during the nationalization campaign of the Vargas Era. This study is anchored in the theoretical contributions of the field of Linguistic Social History of Brazil (MATTOS E SILVA, 1998). The discussion focuses on the Decree-Law 406/1938 and the policy of repression against the immigration languages, contrasting it with the narratives recorded in the documentary Proibido falar alemão, especially regarding the impact of state intervention and its consequences. The results of this study point out that the Vargas government, making use of the nationalism, populism, and authoritarianism prevailing in the 1930s, promoted a policy of linguistic repression, characterized by the prohibition of the use of immigration languages and, in particular, the German language. Among the measures taken by the government were the prohibition of speaking German in public and private places, seizure of textbooks and interference in teaching practices in German schools, control over newspaper production, as well as great persecution in various other social contexts.