What is it to be Brazilian?

Childhood, migration and cultural heritage in the narratives of two children

Abstract

This research delves into the narratives of two brothers of 12 and 13 years old, sons of a Brazilian mother and a Spanish father, born and residing in Spain, who have never been in Brazil. The study poses questions with the aim of accessing their testimonies and understanding how they organize notions of belonging and Brazilian identity outside the country. The research values children’s ethnoknowledge as contextualized knowledge, developed through interactions, emotions, language and shared memories. The methodology employed is based on relational and in-depth interviews, through prompting phrases, specially designed for children, prioritizing listening without judgment or corrections, fostering connection, respecting the pace of the narrative, and the trajectory of each participant. The children’s responses are built on everyday experiences, intertwining family interactions, long-distance and transnational relationships, Brazilian sociocultural networks, and Spanish symbolic universe about Brazil and migrations, with the results being accessed through situated children’s accounts. The conclusions indicate that, for these brothers, ‘being Brazilian’ is not defined exclusively by institutional nationality or direct territorial experience, but by cultivated, narrated, and symbolically ties or bonds updated in daily life. ‘Being Brazilian’ goes beyond formal-institutional nationality, encompassing sensory, relational, and historically constructed aspects, expressed in music, gastronomy, language, family traditions, and cultural references. Finally, the overarching purpose of this research is to provide visibility to these narratives, taking children‘s voice protagonists and storytellers of their histories, in an epistemological gesture that recognizes their experiential authority.

Submission: Mar 15, 2026 ⊶ Accepted: May 12, 2026