Among first-generation Lithuanian immigrants in Brazil, certain popular phrases and expressions became emblematic within the community. Many of them blended Lithuanian and Portuguese or adapted words from both languages, reshaped within a new social, cultural, and linguistic context. These aphorisms and everyday expressions were collected and recorded by the memorialist and researcher of Lithuanian immigration in Brazil, Jonas Jakatanvisky, who voluntarily devoted much of his life to preserving the history of the Lithuanian community, while also actively participating in its cultural and associative organizations. This lecture analyzed part of this linguistic repertoire, using aphorisms as historical sources to reconstruct aspects of daily life, migratory experiences, and adaptation processes of Lithuanians in Brazil, highlighting language as a space of memory, identity, and cultural survival.

Photo by Jonas Petronis.