PRESENTATION

The present issue of the História (São Paulo) magazine is launched with the dossier Biografias, Memórias e Trajetórias (Biographies, Memories and Trajectories), organized by professor Wilton Carlos Lima da Silva of the History Department at UNESP/Assis (São Paulo State University, Assis Campus). This dossier is comprised by Brazilian and Portuguese authors interested in the study of political and cultural constraints that affect the construction of biographic accounts, while searching for innovative sources for biographical research, as well as the reflection on the profession of historians dedicated to biographies.

Iara Lis Schiavinatto analyzes the role performed by the image in the public consecration of Luso-Brazilian governors, specially the participants of the Constituent Courts of 1820, by examining a collection of portraits made to secure official memory. The painting is also a subject of Cristina Meneghello's text, which is based on the work of Paranaense painter Eugenio de Proença Sigaud, aiming to reassess Sigaud's legacy by confronting the traditional artistic review with new elements contributed by historical research. The matter of Portuguese exile is a central point of the following two texts. Heloísa Paulo discusses the methodological difficulties and traps involved in biographic research of Portuguese exiles during Salazarism and appoints to the need of overcoming linear accounts and established memories. Next, Luiz Nuno Rodrigues analyzes the exile of General Antonio de Spinola, first president of the Republic of Portugal after the Carnation Revolution. Spinola sought refuge in Brazil after resigning from office and attempting to return by means of a frustrated coup d'état. Portugal still appears in Elsa Lechner's text, which is dedicated to narrate the biographical research of immigrants that currently live in this country and to reflect on the potentialities and limits of this type of investigation. In regards to Argentina, a prolific country when it comes to construe historical myths, especially on the two of the most prominent characters - Eva Perón and Ernesto Che Guevara - , examined by Cecília López Badano, which seeks to understand how the fictionalization of her biographies reconfigured social perception, transforming them into martyred heroes. The dossier is ended by the stimulant reflection of Benito Bisso Schmidt regarding the ethical work implications of the historian biographer.

The section of free articles brings two contributions that concern the history of the Portuguese monarchy. Armando Norte examines the formation of bureaucratic status in the first centuries of the Portuguese Kingdom, while Francismar Lopes de Carvalho pauses on the tense relations between employees and colonists of the Captaincy of Mato Grosso with the Portuguese Crown. Popular sectors are thematized under two different perspectives. Beatriz Ana Loner studies how the first extraction of the Ipiranga Lottery in 1880 affected the life of a group of slaves and free workers from Rio Grande do Sul. On the other hand, Luis Reznik and Rui Aniceto Fernandes examine the institutions that received immigrants from the Americas, dedicating special attention to Rio de Janeiro in the late 19^th century. Chile deserves attention from two authors. Manuel Loyola focuses on the so called Buena Prensa (Good Press), an initiative of the Vatican to modernize the Catholic press in the world and analyzes its unfoldings in the Chilean society. In turn, Carlos Dominguez Ávila proposes an original interpretation of the international repercussion of the coup d'état against Salvador Allende's government, based on diplomatic documentation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. The section is ended by an article by Carimo Mohomed, dedicated to explore the complex role played by Islamic currents in the formation of the Pakistani state.

This number is completed by a book review concerning Visigothic Spain and by an article translation carried out by Spanish historian Jaume Aurell, which converses with the dossier's subject, in its reflection, regarding the autobiographies elaborated by historians.

We appreciate the support given by CNPq (National Research Council), the Provost's Office for Research and the Programs of Post-Graduate Studies in History at UNESP, which made the translation and different editing phases of this issue possible.

José Luis Bendicho Beired

Jean Marcel Carvalho França

Editors

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  11 July 2014
• Date of issue
  June 2014