Timor-Leste wants to host a meeting of Portuguese-speaking writers

O Timorese government has today expressed its willingness to welcome the next meeting of Portuguese-speaking writers, which has been held in Cape Verde for 14 editions, considering that this presence can help boost Portuguese in Timor-Leste.

The intention was transmitted by the Minister of State Administration of Timor-Leste, Tomás do Rosário Cabral, during his intervention on the second day of the XIV Meeting of Portuguese Language Writers, which takes place until Saturday in the Cape Verdean capital.

The minister spoke about the difficulties of the Portuguese language in East Timor, especially as a result of the Indonesian invasion, and indicated that the country is now introducing language into public administration and also into the Timorese community.

The growth of English, the use of tetum, and the proximity of neighboring countries where Portuguese is not spoken have contributed to the difficulties of the Portuguese language growing in East Timor.

The minister recognized the support of Portugal in this task and took advantage of the meeting of writers in Cape Verde, promoted by the Union of Capital Cities of Portuguese Language (UCCLA) and the Municipality of Praia, to propose the city of Dili as the stage of the next event.

Faced with this “rept”, UCCLA’s secretary-general Paula Leal da Silva said that this organization “goes wherever they want it to go”.

The Portuguese language as a second language of learning outside the Portuguese-speaking world was the theme of today's first panel of the meeting of writers, with several testimonies of writers who make their literary creations in the language of Camões.

Like Meri Grubic, writer, researcher and translator of poetry in Portuguese language to Croatian, but also the writer of Galicia Maria do Rosário Bello, for whom the “galego da Galicia is Portuguese, with a different accent”.

This Portuguese teacher, who considers this profession the most important in the world, justifies the insistence on having Portuguese in Spain, Galicia: “Because Portuguese is my mother tongue. My grandmother spoke to me in Portuguese”.

“The Portuguese Language as an element of adaptation in a world of change” is the central theme of the XIV Meeting of Portuguese Language Writers.