Aldyr Schlee

Aldyr Garcia Schlee (Jaguarão (RS), November 22, 1934 – Pelotas (RS), November 15, 2018) was a Brazilian writer, journalist, translator, illustrator, and professor.

Schlee had two main areas of expertise: Brazilian – Uruguayan international relations and the literature of Uruguay and of Brazil, with further specialty in works produced by authors from the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

He wrote various short stories and his work has been included in a number of anthologies.

Some of his books first appeared in Spanish and were published in Uruguay. Personally fluent to the highest levels both in Portuguese and Spanish, he also grew up with and around his family who spoke German, historically a strong regional language (see Riograndenser Hunsrückisch) and the second most widely spoken language in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

As an academic, he founded the Faculty of Journalism of the Catholic University of Pelotas and taught international law at the FederaL University of Pelotas, from which he was removed by the military dictatorship due to his left-wing and anti-regime positions.

In 1953 Schlee designed the world-famous Brazil national football team jersey Camisa Canarinho. Schlee died on November 15, 2018, at age 83, and on the eve of a Brazil vs. Uruguay friendly match in London.

Schlee twice received the prestigious Bienal Nestlé de Literatura Brasileira literary prize; and he also granted the Prêmio Açorianos de Literatura prize, five times.

In a 2011 interview Schlee said that during World War II he personally witnessed German-Brazilian farmers in a chain gang, arrested because they had been caught speaking their native language when the Brazilian Vargas government had summarily prohibited anyone from speaking it; the author explained how it shocked him and caused a lifelong impression on him, to see those men being paraded single file through the city of Santa Cruz do Sul where he lived at that time.