Guarani Justice: Debate on freedom of languages in Brazil reignites after judge bans translator for aboriginals during a trial.
Sadakne Baroudi: Guarani Justice: Debate on freedom of languages in Brazil reignites after judge bans translator for aboriginals during a trial.
Translation: Sadakne Baroudi, Rio de Janeiro
The trial of three defendants charged in the beating death of Guarani Chief Veron Marcos, 72, was suspended May 4th. The news not only drew interest from legal professionals, but among socio-linguists as well, in a debate that mixes constitutional law, racism, respect for traditions and the right to communicate in one’s native language.
Because Judge Paula Avelino Mantovani did not allow aboriginals to testify in Guarani, the Attorney General Vladimir Aras decided to abandon the trial. Aras will file for appeal, vowing to go all the way to the Federal Supreme Court, if necessary, to guarantee indigenous people the right to be heard in their language of origin. A new trial date was set for next year.
Estevao Romero, Carlos Robert dos Santos and Jorge Cristaldo Insabralde were employees of the South Brasilia Farms in Jutai, Mato Grosso do Sul where land rights conflicts between farmers and aboriginals are common. The fugitive Nivaldo Alves Olieira was charged along with the three with invading the tribal lands and attacking the Guarani in the middle of the night between January 12 and 13, 2003. In addition to the brutal murder of the chief Veron Marcos, the men are accused of six kidnappings, each with an attempted murder charge.
Change of Venue
The tension with the Natives and the strong prejudice against them caused the Federal Public Minister (MPF) to request a change of venue from the city of Dourados.
The request was accepted and the trial was moved to Sao Paulo (SP).
To ensure that the Indigenes would be understood throughout the trial, the researcher Tonico Benites was suggested by FUNAI and named by the Court as the interpreter for the aboriginals.
Benites is a Guarani native who completed his doctorate in Anthropology from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). More than just a word for word translation, his work would serve as a link between two distinct cultures in conflict.
In spite of not having lived among his people for 30 years, due to his scholarly work, Tonico Benites says that experience doesn’t reduce his uneasiness about participating in his first jury trial.
“For us, the Guaranis, conversation is the meeting of two souls. If you talk loudly, it shocks the soul of the other. And in a trial, there is a lot of shouting along with aggressive gesturing,” affirmed Benites.
Guarani Thought
The interpreter noted that there are other characteristics of a trial that are uncomfortable for the Guarani, like isolation and the prohibition of the witnesses and the victims talking to each other.
“For us, when we speak of someone who has died, the soul of that person is present in that place. Because of this, it is difficult to tell stories of them in front of the rest of the group and the person that was killed,” continued the translator.
According to Benites, the construction of the discourse is different between Portuguese and Guarani.
“The non-Indian speaks in a very direct manner. The Guarani is used to explaining other situations and telling stories even when he responds to a simple question,” he differentiated.
For the interpreter, the Guarani are at a disadvantage in the judicial environment and to obligate them to speak in Portuguese would be even more defeating.
“The courtroom is full of lawyers and farmers and we don’t know who is a lawyer and who is a farmer because there, they are all the same.”
The Judge
For the judge, Paula Avelino Mantovani, an interpreter should only be used when a particular witness does not understand what was asked or can not express a portion of his or her account in Portuguese.
The judge pointed out that the same Indians have already been heard in Portuguese in other phases of the process and criticized the gesture that forced the adjournment of this trial. “We’re not talking about the rightness or the decision rendered here. There are adequate resources for that. What is regrettable, however, is the attitude of the prosecutors, in an absolute affront to democratic principles, leaving the floor in total disrespect to defense attorneys, the jury, those present and the administration of justice, especially when taking into account the considerable resources already employed by this Court for completion of the trial, of contempt for the subsection of Dourados,” wrote the judge.
Withdrawal
Paula Mantovani rescheduled the trial on the grounds that the Federal Court has no resources to afford the transport, accommodation and feeding of defendants, victims and witnesses of the case, again this year. The jury had already been postponed in April because of the absence of defense counsel, due to health related complaints. This time, however, the judge held that the attorney is liable for any damage caused to the exchequer. When sought through the press office of the Federal Court in Sao Paulo, the judge declined to give interviews about the case.
The prosecutor believes that Aras leaving the trial was the way to guarantee the Guarani the right to communicate. He has appealed the judge’s decision to the Tribunal Regional Federal da 3 ª Região (TRF-3) and ensures that, if necessary, he will go all the way to the Supreme Court. According to the MPF, the Brazilian Constitution and international treaties, ethnic minorities are guaranteed the right to use their native language. The prosecutor noted that the State may not impose language on minorities in the kind of behavior that has already caused Brazil to lose some of its cultural diversity. And he countered the argument that victims and witnesses had been heard in Portuguese in other stages.
“Because it was wrong in the past does not mean that the problem can continue. It’s like saying that if I invaded your house once, I can always invade it,” he said.
Sociolinguistics
Professor Jose Ribamar Bessa Freire points out that, even for people with good training in Portuguese, the language used in court can be difficult to understand because it is hermetic. Freire, part of the sociolinguistics workgroup of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Literature and Linguistics (ANPOLL), is a consultant to the MEC for indigenous education and coordinates the curriculum of the indigenous peoples of the Department of Education at UERJ.
The researcher compares the case to foreigners trapped in airports, who have the right to defend themselves in their mother tongue, even when they have an understanding of Portuguese obtained through contact with other prisoners.
“I would like to see the judge called to respond to an international court that prevented her from defending herself in Portuguese. Even with fluency in other languages, she would feel a difficulty similar to that imposed on the Guarani,” he stated.
Guarani Law
Indigenous languages are now recognized as co-officials in countries like Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, but a gulf still separates the legal concepts of local cultures. An Argentinian judge, Manuel Moreira, studied the Guarani legal culture and showed that there are conceptual differences from the law brought by Portuguese and Spanish.
“He cites the case of a 40 year old Indian woman who stabbed and killed a 15 year old girl. She was convicted in the non-Indian court. After completing her sentence, she returned to the tribe and was judged based on the Guarani culture. She was cleared and her husband, who had had a relationship with the girl, was convicted,” explains Freire.
In Their Language
The linguist explains that the concept of Justice for the Guarani is in conflict resolution and not the punishment of the criminal. For them, the imposition of the rights of others would already be, in itself, arbitrary, as well as a form of violence.
“Accepting that they communicate in their native language is a way of avoiding a biased trial, as it reduces the impotence of the Indian before the courts and gives them confidence. This is essential for anyone seeking the real truth,” opines Freire.
He points out that even without the cultural differences that divide Indians and non Indians, it is easier for people to communicate in the mother tongue in which they think and dream.
“Few reach a level of bilingualism that gives the ability to reason equally in a second language. Usually there is subordination to the mother tongue. Even within the subordination, there are different degrees of bilingualism,” he stated.
Therefore, it requires an interpreter capable of knowing the nuances of both languages being used. The case continues.
The original article appears here:http://revistalingua.uol.com.br/textos.asp?codigo=12042
Translation: Sadakne Baroudi, Rio de Janeiro
