Becoming and being an applied linguist: Celebrating the seminal work of Marilda Cavalcanti

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to offer some remarks on the important contribution of Prof. Marilda Cavalcanti to the development of the academic discipline called ‘Applied Linguistics’ in Brazil. It seeks to pay tribute to this great scholar and researcher for her pioneering spirit and dedication to the consolidation of the discipline in the Brazilian academic scenario, all too often in what appeared to many to be a gesture of rowing against the tide. After presenting a brief round-up of the challenges encountered by the pioneers and their tireless efforts to rid the field of the chokehold put on it by the so-called ‘theoretical’ linguistics, historically its ‘elder sister’, the text also proceeds to look at the ‘north-south’ stand-off that our researchers have been subjected to by their colleagues from the north, who still have difficulty in recognising that academic work of excellence can be carried out in our neck of the woods without the blessing or tutelage of whomsoever.