Vasco da Gama(1469-1524)
The most famous of the Portuguese explorers and navigators, he chose
the Portuguese caravel, which at the end of the 15th. century was the
most advanced vessel of the age, for his expedition to discover a sea
route to India. The voyage, during which he rounded the coast of
Africa, lasted approximately two years. To us, this seems a long time,
but in fact it replaced a journey that would have taken many more years
by land. It also connected Europe to the East, forging trade links and
bypassing the Arab civilisation that lay in between. There can be no
doubt that the expeditions made by the Portuguese to all the far
corners of the world marked the beginning of what is nowadays called
globalisation: the movement of people, goods and ideas on a global
scale.
Luís de Camões (1524-1580)
The national poet par excellence. He led a remarkable life, being both
an adventurer and a scholar. As an explorer, he lived through various
uprisings and was involved in several military expeditions, losing an
eye in a battle against the Moors. He lived in Goa, in India where,
according to legend, he composed the Lusíadas in a grotto. Shipwrecked
near the River Mekong, he saved his manuscript with one hand, whilst
keeping himself afloat with the other. He fell foul of the authorities,
having injured members of the royal household and was imprisoned
several times for his erratic behaviour, particularly with regard to
debts.
He wrote a long narrative poem, "Os Lusíadas", in ten cantos which told
the story of the Portuguese Discoveries as an adventure of epic,
spiritual and civilisational proportions. “Cease the ancient muse to
sing”, is a line from the opening of the Lusíadas, meaning that the
muse that had made Virgil and Homer sing should now desist, since the
feats of the Portuguese were greater than those of the heroes of
classical civilisations. The main hero of the narrative is the
navigator Vasco da Gama. At the end of the poem, he is allowed to see a
miniature working model of the universe in which the celestial orbs are
perfectly interconnected. In other words, although it describes earthly
conquests, the poem also deals with the conquest of knowledge. The
companions of da Gama were given an island populated by nymphs where
they could delight in the most luxurious of pleasures.
For anyone interested in reading this classic of world literature, it
is available in almost every language. In addition to some plays that
are of minor interest, Camões mainly wrote lyrical poems. His love
poems are amongst the finest expressions of the passion that one human
being can feel for another.
Camões died in the year in which Portugal relinquished its independence
to Spain (for a period of sixty years).
Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)
I
f Prague is the
city of Kafka and Dublin the city of James Joyce, then Lisbon is the
city of Pessoa. He was educated in South Africa and was originally
bilingual but went on to become the greatest writer of the 20th.
century in the Portuguese language and one of the most interesting
poets of all time on an international level.
His work is divided amongst four heteronyms (fictitious authors with
their own individual styles). Thus Fernando Pessoa was able to invent a
dramatis personae of poets, which simultaneously were and were not the
author himself and generated an "entire literature". The extraordinary
thing about the heteronyms is that they are, in fact, stylistically,
ideologically and aesthically all very different. An important part of
his work is dedicated to the occult and to esoteric speculation. He was
a friend of the English magus and Satanist Aleister Crowley. The last
sentence he wrote before he died was “I do not know what tomorrow will
bring”.
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Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999)
The national
diva of fado and the greatest performer of this authentically
Portuguese form of music, Amália was born into a humble Lisbon family
living in a traditional neighbourhood in the city. Early in life she
was accustomed to hearing the popular songs of the street vendors and
washerwomen. She was employed in various jobs at an early age,
including working as a fruit seller. By the time she was fifteen her
exceptional voice was recognised in the street as she sang out her
wares. She met and married an amateur guitarist and began singing in
fado houses and appearing in plays. She was supported by Portuguese
Modernists, such as Almada Negreiros and António Ferro and gradually
built up not only a career, but also a legend for herself. In September
1952 she made her first appearance in New York and remained top of the
bill for 14 weeks. She was invited to move there but preferred to
remain in Lisbon where she had her roots. From this time onwards she
achieved international fame through her iconic performances on stages
throughout the world.
She reinvented fado by singing the traditional songs with a certain
urbane verve. Amália considered that living from and for fado was a
"strange way of life". She is buried beside national heroes in the
National Pantheon.
José Saramago (1922 - 2010 )
Born
in 1922,
this writer began to publish his work relatively late in life. He
mainly wrote novels but also some plays and chronicles. His work always
problematises history, beliefs and the way in which human relationships
are influenced by power structures. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature, the first time it had ever been awarded to a
Portuguese language writer . His "Evangelho segundo
Jesus Cristo" (“The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”) proved very
controversial in Portugal, since it told the story of Jesus as if
narrated by him. The famous American critic Harold Bloom considered
Saramago to be a new Shakespeare.
Álvaro Siza Viera (1933 - )
He was born
in the outskirts of Porto and when training as an architect was
influenced by the legendary founders of international Modernism, such
as Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Adolf Loss and Frank Lloyd Wright. His
works of architecture feature clean design and pure shapes, whose
volumes and surfaces intersect with the clarity of the dividing lines
between light and shade. He displays an exceptional sense of space that
is rare on an international level. The surfaces are usually white or
concreted and extend in an extreme decorative purity that conveys a
sensation of total architectural plasticity. His works can be found all
over Europe. In Portugal some are of unusual interest, such as the
Pavilhão de Portugal in the eastern area of Lisbon, the Baixa-Chiado
metro station, the Aveiro University campus and the Serralves Museum in
Porto.
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António Damásio (1944 - )
A doctor and
scientist whose work focuses on the structure of the brain and its
relationship to human behaviour. He published an international
best-seller entitled "Descartes’ Error - Emotion, Reason and the Human
Brain" in 1995. The book discusses the most advanced discoveries in the
field of neurology up to the date of publication and was followed by a
similar work entitled "The Feeling of What Happens ". Damásio’s thesis
is that reason is not autonomous, as it had been considered in the west
for centuries, but rather a cognitive category that connects perfectly
with the entire emotional performance of the brain. He works in the
United States and in Portugal and has spoken at conferences throughout
the world.
Maria João Pires (1944 - )
A pianist who
has achieved international recognition in the field of symphony music,
she gave her first piano recital at the age of five and was playing
works by Mozart by the time she was seven. She studied piano in
Portugal, at the Conservatório, and afterwards in Germany under Rosl
Schmid and Karl Engel. She became famous worldwide as a performer when
she won an international award in 1970 on the occasion of the
bicentenary of the death of Beethoven. Her main recordings and live
performances feature works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and
Chopin and she has given world tours of classical music.
Cristiano Ronaldo (1985 - )
He was born
in 1985 on the island of Madeira to a humble family who lived outside
the main centre and he soon revealed an unusual talent for football. He
began playing for an obscure local club but was quickly snapped up by
bigger clubs. Having been discovered by a talent scout, at the age of
11 he was sent to Sporting, one of the top three Portuguese clubs,
where his training was completed, triumphing in various regional and
international championships. He has played valiantly for the Portuguese
national squad and joined Manchester United and the most competitive
championship football in the world in 2006, where he has been a key
figure in the club’s attack strategy. His attacking style, with his
sights set firmly on the goal posts, has made him famous, in addition
to his talent for dribbling the ball past the opposition.
