Artur Portela

Artur Jardim Portela (born April 24, 1901 in Leiria , † March 12, 1959 ) was a Portuguese journalist and writer. He was a correspondent and war correspondent for the evening newspaper Diário de Lisboa for over thirty years .

Career

Artur Portela was born into a family of writers, painters and journalists. His father was the writer Severo Portela (1875-1945), his mother was Miquelina Penalva de Figueiredo Leite Pereira (* 1903). Through his mother he was the grandson of the writer Cipriano Leite Pereira Jardim (1841–1913), 2nd Visconde de Monte São. Artur Portela began to write for newspapers as a student at the Lyceum. Periodicals such as Combate and the union newspaper A Batalha were added. He was a Republican from an early age and was confronted with the fascist Salazar dictatorship and its strict press censorship. He supported the democratic opposition and was close to the liberal opposition candidate Humberto Delgado in the 1958 presidential election .

He made a name for himself as a literary and art critic and through interviews, for example with the writers Stefan Zweig , Miguel de Unamuno and Giovanni Papini , with the French politicians Paul Reynaud and Édouard Herriot , with Franco or in 1939 with Churchill on the eve of the Second world war .

He also wrote for various other newspapers: A Pátria , O Mundo , Última Hora and the Diário de Notícias .

He published several books including: "Batalha Humana", "Rosas de Itália", "Monges Negros", "Norberto de Araújo", "Duelos em Portugal", "Tumultos", "A Lareira de Portugal".

He devoted more than half of his short life to the professional representation of journalists. Together with Jaime Brasil and Julião Quintinha, he renewed the journalists' union and was its president. He introduced the pension fund for newspaper workers in Lisbon.

His brother Severo (1898–1985) was a painter. His son, Artur Guerra Jardim Portela (born September 30, 1937) is a well-known writer and journalist, he signed with Artur Portela Filho until he was seventy .

Honors

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death on April 10, 1969 in Lisbon in the Benfica district, a square was named after him, the Praça Artur Portela . Two years later, the sculptor Leopoldo Almeida created a bust of Portela for it.

Web links

• Toponímia de Lisboa , Direcção Municipal dos Serviços Centrais, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa
• Photo by Artur Portela between Franco and José Moscardó after the siege of the Alcázar of Toledo