{"id":1111,"date":"2026-02-28T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diasporasemportugues.ilcml.com\/?post_type=glossary&p=1111"},"modified":"2026-05-04T22:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:20:57","slug":"luiz-ruffato","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/diasporasemportugues.ilcml.com\/en\/glossary\/luiz-ruffato\/","title":{"rendered":"Luiz Ruffato"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luiz Ruffato was born in Cataguases, Minas Gerais. His fictional work has been published in fifteen countries. Ruffato has received many awards in Brazil, including the prestigious Jabuti literary prize, the Machado de Assis and the APCA prizes, as well as international awards, such as the Escritor Galego Universal in Galicia award in 2015 and the Hermann Hesse Award in Germany in 2016. Several of Ruffato\u2019s works have been adapted to film and theater, and many graduate theses and dissertations have been written about his fiction. His award-winning Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos<\/em> is among the 25 best books of Brazilian literature of the twenty-first century, selected by a jury comprised of one hundred international and Brazilian jurors on behalf of the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Beginning with his award-winning debut novel Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos<\/em> (2001), Ruffato has dedicated his flourishing literary career to portraying the struggles of the working class, including immigrants and, particularly and personally, the Italian diaspora in his native state of Minas Gerais. The book\u2019s structure and focus are on a single day in the life of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, from pre-dawn to deep night, as well as from one end of the city to the other. In the short, unconnected fragments that compose this work of fiction, Ruffato highlights the city\u2019s vast spectrum of human diversity that inhabits this monumental urban center.<\/p>\n

This dissonant plurality stretches across socioeconomic divides, from the most wealthy and powerful to those most defenseless and underprivileged. The latter often include migrants from various regionals of Brazil, including its drought-ridden northeast, as well as immigrants to Brazil. Within S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s dense, industrial sprawl, members of its populace are often overcome by rural or ancestral nostalgia that, in turn, ushers them mentally and emotionally back to their places of origin and heritage. The reader encounters, among others, a taxi driver whose directional knowledge of the city does not lessen his longing for his home state of Sergipe; an elderly woman on a city bus who dozes and reminisces about her rural childhood; a drunken apartment dweller who recalls her rural schooling while her father and brothers toil in southern soybean fields; and a man stuck in a traffic jam who recollects past generations in Italy and Portugal (Harrison 2005: 157-158). These aching hearts hold a multitude of placed-based memories. Their remembrances, in turn, prove to be essential survival tactics in a merciless city. As first evident in Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos<\/em>, many forms of aspiration and longing persist throughout Ruffato\u2019s fictional oeuvre.<\/p>\n

Ruffato\u2019s subsequent works of fiction, such as his ambitious five-part Inferno Provis\u00f3rio<\/em>, published in one volume in 2016, underscore gross socioeconomic inequities, from agricultural communities to industrialized cities. The first section of this epic tome, Mamma, <\/em>Son Tanto Felice<\/em>, centers on Rodeiro, a community of poverty-stricken Italian immigrants in Minas Gerais. These outsiders find themselves caught between two worlds, as well as between rural and urban labor systems. In its totality, Inferno Provis\u00f3rio<\/em> is a saga that documents fifty years in the life of the country during the 20 th century. It portrays the incongruous coexistence of agricultural monocultures and industrialization.<\/p>\n

In Estive em Lisboa e Lembrei de Voc\u00ea<\/em> (2009), Ruffato shifts the main character\u2019s trajectory from Brazil back to Europe. The novel does so by framing economic inequalities via the theme of Brazilian immigration abroad. This slim book is divided into two parts: the first part tells the story of Cataguases-born Serginho, his downtrodden life in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and his misguided dream of finding lucrative work in Portugal. The second part recounts Serginho\u2019s six and a half years as a wretched Brazilian immigrant in Lisbon. In analyzing Estive em Lisboa<\/em>, critics such as Allysson Casais underscore Ruffato\u2019s notable attention to Brazilians who travel abroad out of economic desperation and financial necessity, and who, consequently, overstay their status as undocumented individuals. The dream of becoming prosperous enough to be able to support one\u2019s family and return to Brazil in comfort is revealed to be a myth. Rather, discrimination and discontentment caused by a sense of displacement and non-belonging, are a constant thread in Ruffato\u2019s fiction as well.<\/p>\n

Another Ruffato work of fiction that focuses on the immigrant experience, both abroad and in Brazil, is O Antigo Futuro<\/em> (2022). The narrative is divided into four parts that take place in reverse order through a series of flashbacks. These four sections capture the lives of four generations of the Italian Bortoletto family by corresponding to the following places and dates: Somerville, 6th August 2016; S\u00e3o Paulo, 8th October 1994; Cataguases, 7th February 1967; and Rodeiro, 6th August 1916. Within these sections, one hundred short chapters recount Alex\u2019s family story over the course of one hundred years. The first section of the novel documents Alex\u2019s harsh life as a Brazilian immigrant living in the U.S. The last section of the book depicts the departure of Alex\u2019s great-grandfather from Italy to settle in southeastern Brazil to labor on the coffee plantations. In each section, the family confronts hardship, loss, and incidents of inhumanity. Moments of tenderness and hard-earned achievement embedded in the narratives are few and far between.<\/p>\n

As Miguel Rettenmaier points out, O Antigo Futuro<\/em> traces the demoralizing history of manual labor and precarious survival in each of the represented generations: Alex\u2019s, his father Dagoberto\u2019s, his grandfather Al\u00e9ssio\u2019s, and his great-grandfather Abramo\u2019s. Moreover, Ruffato\u2019s novel makes clear that these four generational figures, portrayed in reverse order, are also symbolic of a country unable to move forward toward a better future. Instead, as the novel\u2019s title and formal structure accentuate, Brazil perpetually repeats the failures of its past.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Ruffato was the keynote speaker at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the year the fair highlighted Brazil. In his speech, he presented a scathing critique of contemporary Brazil, based on its many inequities. According to Ruffato, the majority of his country\u2019s inhabitants are \u201cdeprived of the basic rights of citizenship: housing, transportation, leisure, education and healthcare\u201d. Ruffato went on to specify, among others, domestic violence and abuse, sexual orientation intolerance, ethnic genocide, racial and socioeconomic discrimination, and poor access to education and illiteracy (Nielson 2013: 92-94). While proclaiming the transformative powers of literature, he decried: \u201cWe have turned our backs on the other \u2014 whether immigrant, poor, black, indigenous, female, homosexual \u2014 as an attempt to preserve ourselves, forgetting that in doing so we are imploding our own conditions of existence\u201d (idem<\/em>: 95).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quotations<\/h6>\n

A partir da minha experi\u00eancia pessoal, de neto de imigrantes da prov\u00edncia de Padova que chegaram ao Brasil no fim do s\u00e9culo XIX, tento compreender a presen\u00e7a (ou aus\u00eancia) da tem\u00e1tica na literatura brasileira, lembrando que o pa\u00eds comporta o maior n\u00famero de descendentes de italianos do mundo. Desde meus primeiros livros venho refletindo sobre a quest\u00e3o da chegada dos imigrantes numa regi\u00e3o espec\u00edfica, Minas Gerais, e sua posterior adapta\u00e7\u00e3o, desfazendo o mito que existe, dentro e fora do Brasil, de que os Oriundi chegaram para \u201cconquistar a Am\u00e9rica\u201d e l\u00e1 enriqueceram e se fizeram impor como classe social dominante. (\u201cOs Invis\u00edveis\u201d, online<\/em>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Estou aqui tentando ganhar a vida, pra ajudar minha fam\u00edlia que ficou l\u00e1 em Goi\u00e1s\u2019, e ele, galanteador, \u2018Se calhar, estamos todos na mesma situa\u00e7\u00e3o, meus queridos\u2019, informando que ele tamb\u00e9m, embora cidad\u00e3o da Comunidade Europeia, \u2018Sinto-me exilado\u2019, angolano de corpo e alma […]. (Estive em Lisboa<\/em>: 75)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

O Rodolfo avivou a conversa, \u2018N\u00f3s estamos lascados, Serginho\u2019, aqui em Portugal n\u00e3o somos nada, \u2018Nem nome temos\u2019, somos os brasileiros, \u2018E o que a gente \u00e9 no Brasil?\u2019, nada tamb\u00e9m, somos os outros, […]. (idem<\/em>: 78)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018\u00c9 ilus\u00e3o, Serginho\u2019, pura ilus\u00e3o imaginar que uma-hora a gente volta pra nossa terra, \u2018Volta nada\u2019, a precis\u00e3o drena os recursos. (idem<\/em>: 79)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alex contava agora pouco mais de tr\u00eas anos nos Estados Unidos, tempo suficiente para perceber que aquela ideia de que regressaria em breve n\u00e3o passava de fantasia. Ainda podia ouvir Ruan, primo da cunhada, Riv\u00e2nia, que o acolheu ao desembarcar do \u00f4nibus na South Station, em Boston, dizendo: Todo mundo chega aqui pensando em trabalhar, economizar, e voltar logo, o bolso cheio de dinheiro… Pura ilus\u00e3o! A melhor coisa que voc\u00ea pode fazer agora \u00e9 esquecer o Brasil \u2014Forget it! \u2014 e, quanto antes, melhor. (O Antigo Futuro<\/em>: 18)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Por\u00e9m, nos Estados Unidos, ningu\u00e9m falava com ele. No restaurante, os colegas, que s\u00f3 conversavam em espanhol entre si, exclu\u00edam-no das confabula\u00e7\u00f5es, visto que n\u00e3o o consideravam latino […] Nas ruas, entretanto, os americanos identificavam-no como hisp\u00e2nico, um corpo estranho, tratado com indiferen\u00e7a e hostilidade. Assim, mais e mais, entocava-se na sua caverna de amarguras.\u201d (idem<\/em>: 56)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Acuados, habitavam o limbo do mundo. Viviam aterrorizados pela possibilidade iminente de serem descobertos, capturados e devolvidos a um pa\u00eds que tamb\u00e9m os rejeitara. (idem<\/em>: 68)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Selected Active Bibliography<\/h6>\n

Ruffato, Luiz (2024), \u201cOs invis\u00edveis: A imigra\u00e7\u00e3o italiana na literatura brasileira\u201d. Contexto<\/em>, v. 2, n. 46. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.47456\/contexto.v2i46.47431<\/a>
\n— (2022), O Antigo Futuro<\/em>. S\u00e3o Paulo, Companhia das Letras.
\n— (2019), O Ver\u00e3o Tardio<\/em>. S\u00e3o Paulo, Companhia das Letras.
\n— (2016), Inferno Provis\u00f3rio<\/em>. S\u00e3o Paulo, Companhia das Letras.
\n— (2009), Estive em Lisboa e Lembrei de Voc\u00ea<\/em>. S\u00e3o Paulo, Companhia das Letras.
\n— (2001), Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos<\/em>. S\u00e3o Paulo, Companhia das Letras.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Selected critical bibliography<\/h6>\n

Almeida, Sandra Regina Goulart; Cury, Maria Zilda Ferreira (2018), \u201cImmigrant and Ethnic-Minority Writing in Brazilian Literature: A Fundamental Presence\u201d, in Sievers, Wiebke and Vlasta, Sandra (org.), Immigrant and Ethnic-minority writers since 1945: fourteen national contexts in Europe and beyond<\/em>. Leiden\/Boston, Brill\/Rodopi: 77-105.<\/p>\n

Andrade, Cinthia Ramalho de; Nonato, Gleides Ander (2022), \u201cLuiz Ruffato e a constru\u00e7\u00e3o do personagem imigrante como sujeito em Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de voc\u00ea<\/em>\u201d, Panor\u00e2mica<\/em>, Araguaia, v. 36, mai.\/ago. 2022, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso – Campus Araguaia.<\/p>\n

Carvalho, Keiliane da Silva Ara\u00fajo (2020), \u201cPara al\u00e9m da fronteira: uma leitura do romance Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de voc\u00ea<\/em>, de Luiz Ruffato, sob a \u00f3tica p\u00f3s-modernista\u201d, Opini\u00e3es \u2013 Revista dos alunos de Literatura Brasileira<\/em>, S\u00e3o Paulo, Ano 9, n. 16: 302-320, Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

Casais, Allysson Augusto Silva (2024), Dois anos infindos: o brasileiro como estrangeiro na fic\u00e7\u00e3o de Luiz Ruffato<\/em>. Cotia, Urutau.<\/p>\n

Dolle, Verena (2018), \u201cDo \u2018sonho americano\u2019 ao \u2018sonho europeu\u2019: o romance de emigra\u00e7\u00e3o Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de voc\u00ea <\/em>(2009), de Luiz Ruffato\u201d, Literatura e sociedade<\/em>, S\u00e3o Paulo, n. 28: 298-316, jul.\/dez. 2018, Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

Harrison, Marguerite Itamar (2005), \u201c\u2018S\u00e3o Paulo Lightning\u2019: Flashes of a City in Luiz Ruffato\u2019s Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos<\/em>\u201d, Luso-Brazilian Review<\/em> 42:2 (2005): 150-164.<\/p>\n

Infante, Ulisses (2018), \u201cA imigra\u00e7\u00e3o italiana no Inferno provis\u00f3rio\u201d, Letronica<\/em>, Porto Alegre, v. 11, n. 3: 349-360, jul.-set. 2018, Pontif\u00edcia Universidade Cat\u00f3lica do Rio Grande do Sul. <\/p>\n

Nielson, Rex P. (2013), \u201cDispatch from Brazil\u201d, Mester<\/em>, 42: 1 (2013): 91-95. https:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/2j443663<\/a><\/p>\n

Oliveira, Vera L\u00facia de (2012), \u201cEstive em Lisboa e ningu\u00e9m se lembrou de mim\u201d, in Gai, Eunice Piazza; Oliveira, Vera L\u00facia de, Narrativas brasileiras contempor\u00e2neas em foco<\/em>. Santa Maria, Editora da UFSM: 43-57.<\/p>\n

Raynor, Cecily (2021), \u201cTesting regionalismo, migrant narratives and the construction of Brazil. An interview with Luiz Ruffato\u201d, in Latin American Literature at the Millennium: Local Lives, Global Spaces<\/em>. Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press: 121-130.<\/p>\n

Rettenmaier, Miguel (2023), \u201cO Antigo futuro\u201d, Brasil\/Brazil: A journal of Brazilian literature<\/em>, Porto Alegre\/Providence, v. 36, n. 70: 131-136.<\/p>\n

Silva, \u00cdvens Matozo; Matos, X\u00eania Amaral; Martins, Aulus Mandagar\u00e1 (2017), \u201cSelvagens mais que o bruto polifemo: a representa\u00e7\u00e3o dos imigrantes em Estive em Lisboa e lembrei de voc\u00ea<\/em>, de Luiz Ruffato\u201d, Letras Escreve<\/em>, Macap\u00e1, v. 7, n. 4: 399-417, 2\u00ba sem. 2017, Universidade Federal do Amap\u00e1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luiz Ruffato was born in Cataguases, Minas Gerais. His fictional work has been published in fifteen countries. Ruffato has received many awards in Brazil, including the prestigious Jabuti literary prize, the Machado de Assis and the APCA prizes, as well as international awards, such as the Escritor Galego Universal in Galicia award in 2015 and… <\/p>\n

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