Lélia talks about Lélia: a tribute to Lélia Gonzalez

Abstract

ABSTRACT This text is the translation of an interview given by Brazilian anthropologist, professor, and Brazilian Black Movement activist Lélia Gonzalez (1935–1994) at the beginning of the 1980s. Gonzalez, who is today enthusiastically incorporated into the academic anthropology after decades of silence in Brazil, exposes here some of the particularities of her stunning life itinerary. She has challenged Brazilian social theory by bringing forward the need for an approach that considers race, gender, and coloniality, and has worked towards an open dialogue with Latin American realities, including Brazil's. Her contribution has been recognized as essential by public intellectuals such as Angela Davis, and her reemergence has to do with the growing demand of decolonizing the Brazilian Academy, issued by the Black movement and other social movements in the country. The translation, having Brazilian Portuguese as the language of origin, has been made by anthropologists, social scientists, and translators from the RECânone Community Project, linking the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and the University of Brasília, both public centers of higher education in the country. Translators added notes aiming to help a non-Brazilian audience understand the racial, social, and cultural context where Gonzalez produced her academic and activist work.