São Paulo – The garden of the Imperial Museum, in the city of Petrópolis, state of Rio de Janeiro, was where Brazilian Ivna Chedier Maluly (pictured above) used to stroll as a child. The outdoor area of the former summer palace of the Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II served as a place for games and even school lessons for the granddaughter of Lebanese immigrants, who used the affective memory generated by that time to write the book ‘Memórias de Pedro, o último imperador do Brasil’ [‘Memories of Pedro, the last emperor of Brazil,’ in free translation]. The work, recommended for readers over 12 years old, is being launched in the Brazilian publishing market.
The publication mixes passages from the history of the empire of Brazil with fiction. In the text, Ivna gives voice to the statue of Dom Pedro II in the garden of the Imperial Museum to provide reflections, mea culpa, and express posthumous wishes about the events of the empire and of life itself. “My feet are planted in this tropical garden. I can’t even move them. There are also many children,” says the emperor in the book, through Ivna – or Ivna, through the figure of the emperor.
The reports, based mainly on feelings, briefly cover themes such as the Paraguay War, the use of the first telephone in Brazil, the emperor’s childhood with the early departure of his father and mother, his appetite for chicken soup, and slavery in the country, between others. “Another error haunts me: Slavery. I was against it; however, I have done almost nothing to abolish it. I was unable to. I gave in to pressure from parliament. And I acceded to dehumanization,” says Dom Pedro II in Ivna’s book.
‘Memórias de Pedro, o último imperador do Brasil’ is a publication by the Brazilian publishing house Rebuliço with illustrations by Aline Haluch. The preface is by the Brazilian writer and researcher Roberto Khatlab, currently living in Lebanon. The book is just one part of an extensive survey by Ivna on the subject. And in her studies, the Brazilian learned she and the emperor had more in common than Petrópolis and the palace gardens. Dom Pedro II traveled to Lebanon, the homeland of the writer’s family. “It greatly encouraged Lebanese to go to Brazil,” said Ivna on immigration.
Ivna is the granddaughter of Lebanese through her mother’s and father’s families and, like many descendants of Arabs in Brazil, has been building a career in literature. The Brazilian is a journalist and works in education and also literature in parallel. Her first publication, ‘Cadê seu peito, mamãe?’ [‘Where’s Your Breast, Mom?’ in free translation], aimed at children, was written after Ivna had breast cancer. The work was based on the experience of talking with the young son about the absence of the breast before reconstruction.
Ivna also wrote two books for babies: ‘Gabriel e a fraldinha’ [‘Gabriel and the little diaper,’ in free translation], and ‘Maria Luiza e a banheirinha’ [‘Maria Luiza and the little tub’], as well as another about the history of samba, ‘O samba faz 100 anos’ [‘Samba turns 100’], in a project of the Brazilian community in Belgium. The writer also contributed to several collections. Born and raised in Brazil, Ivna now lives in Europe — in France, after several years in Belgium — some of her publications were made in Brazil, in Portuguese, and others in French and English in Europe.
Ivna lived in Brazil until she was 28 years old. Born in Petrópolis, the city where Dom Pedro II built his summer palace, she studied journalism in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. Before moving to France for a master’s degree, the writer worked at the newspaper Gazeta Mercantil, Museum of the Republic, and Peugeot Citroën (now PSA Group) in Brazil. The close contact with the French language at Peugeot, in addition to what she already had at home, was an incentive to study in French lands.
In France, Ivna studied Eurojournalism, which led her to spend three months in Belgium to defend her dissertation. She married a Frenchman who was also studying in Brussels, where they lived for 15 years and had one child. The journalist worked as a correspondent in Belgium and reported as a freelancer for Brazilian and European news outlets. She also taught Portuguese at the European Parliament and performed translations, mainly from French into Portuguese and vice versa. Five years ago, the couple returned to France, where Ivna currently teaches journalism at a social center, focusing on the fight against fake news and cyberbullying.
Arabs
The writer had much contact with Lebanese culture through her immigrant grandparents. “My grandparents, despite being in Brazil, kept the traditions with the cuisine, the religion,” the journalist told ANBA. Part of Ivna’s memories is the special clothes her grandparents wore for Orthodox and Maronite religious celebrations, the smell of pita bread coming out of the oven to be eaten with curds, and the songs and conversations in Arabic she listened to.
The grandparents moved from Lebanon to Brazil in the 1920s. Her father’s family went to São Paulo and the mother’s to Rio de Janeiro; initially, the father’s worked in agriculture, and the mother’s in commerce. The meeting of Ivna’s parents took place at the traditional dance at Quitandinha, in Petrópolis. At the time, the balls were famous in the city and ended up providing a place for the meeting. The writer’s father had left São Paulo to study medicine in Petrópolis, and the mother also went to live there with Ivna’s grandmother, who wanted to escape the heat of the state capital.
Ivna still doesn’t know Lebanon, but she still wants to travel to her grandparents’ land. “I have it inside me: I want to go to Lebanon, I want to go to Lebanon, but I haven’t been there yet,” she said. She said she planned a visit to the Arab country in the European summer of 2020 but ended up giving up, which was providential due to the explosion that occurred in the Port of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, at that time.
Launch
The book about Dom Pedro II will have launch events in Brazil. One of them took place this week at the Paraná Public Library in the state’s capital, Curitiba. On Saturday (13), the book will be launched at the Imperial Museum, in Petrópolis, from 6:30 pm to 10 pm BRT, and on August 20, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm BRT, the book will be presented at the Planetarium Foundation of the City of Rio de Janeiro. Both events will be open to the public.
The work will be available for sale on the internet and in bookstores in Brazil after the events. According to Ivna, education departments are already interested in purchasing the work. For now, ‘Memórias de Pedro, o último imperador do Brasil’ only has a Portuguese version, but the writer seeks to translate the book into other languages for publication abroad. She expects to take care of the matter soon.
Book data
Title: Memórias de Pedro, o último imperador do Brasil
Writer: Ivna Chedier Maluly
Illustrator: Aline Haluch
Target audience: 12/13 years old up
Pages: 40
Price: BRL 40.00
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Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
