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LIVES OF THE PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING WORLD

INTRODUCTION

After having installed 43 biographies on our site, in the Portuguese language, VIDAS LUSÓFONAS (LIVES OF THE PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING WORLD) is now launching its English Version. To us, the Internet is not simply a ship on which we can navigate throughout the World.  We also want the World to begin navigating on this particular sea whose waters touch the many shores where the Portuguese language is spoken.  

 

We estimate that the English Version will grow at the rate of 1 or  2  biographies each month. We believe that, with this initiative, our site will be increasingly visited by the descendants of the Portuguese Diaspora, wherever they may be.  And, we hope, by others as well...

 

It is our belief that historical precision is not limited to the prose of a notary public nor to an entry in an encyclopedia.  In our thinking, we can share our lives through important figures of our common past, wherever they may have come from in the Portuguese-speaking world.  Here, we intend to tell the story of an endless number of Portuguese-speaking people, regardless of nationality, who contributed significantly to a human endeavor, to a country or to an era.  Each biography will observe historical accuracy mixed with a touch of imagination by transposing the action to the present - the effect is much greater when dealing with what is happening than with something that happened long ago.  Everything is "now", a half-dozen pages for each figure, with the impact of the short story;  conciseness is the word. 

 

This site is not a History book.  It is, rather, a gallery of portraits recreated from clues handed down to us by History.  Plutarch and Tacitus were the pioneers: each life has its own story.  To which we add:  and everything is happening, now...

 

 

 

                                                                                 Fernando Correia da Silva
March 15, 2000

Translated by John D. Godinho

 


AFONSO HENRIQUES
Founder of the Portuguese Nation: 1109-1185

 

ALEXANDRE 0'NEILL
Poeta: 1924-1986

 

AMÁLIA RODRIGUES
Singer: 1920-1999

 

AMÍLCAR CABRAL
Freedom fighter, 1924-1973

 

ANTÓNIO FRANCISCO LISBOA
"O ALEIJADINHO"

Sculptor: 1730? -  1814

 

 

CÂNDIDO RONDON
Explorer, Geographer, Peacemaker:  1865 - 1958

 

CECÍLIA MEIRELES
Poet 1902-1964

 

CÂNDIDO PORTINARI
Painter: 1903 - 1962

 

CLARICE LISPECTOR
Writer : 1920 - 1977

 

EÇA DE QUEIROZ
Novelist: 1845-1900


FERNANDO PESSOA
Poet, 1888 - 1935

 

FLORBELA ESPANCA
Poet:  1894 – 1930

 

GARCIA DA ORTA
16th Century Doctor and Naturalist:  1499? – 1568

 

GRACILIANO RAMOS
Fiction writer, 1892 – 1953

 

MACHADO DE ASSIS
Writer, 1839-1908

 

MIGUEL TORGA
Poet and writer of prose - 1907-1995

 

MONTEIRO LOBATO
Writer of children’s books: 1882 – 1948

 

PEDRO ÁLVARES CABRAL

Navigator, 1476 (?) - 1520 (?)

 

 

 

PÊRO DA COVILHÃ
Traveller, Spy:  1450 (?) - 1530 (?)

 

 

 

SACADURA CABRAL

Pioneer airman: 1881 - 1922

 


VASCO DA GAMA

Navigator and Warrior, 1468 (?) - 1524


 

VILLA-LOBOS
Composer: 1887-1959

 

 

 

ZUMBI DOS PALMARES
Slave Freedom Fighter: 1655-1695

 

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