Bernardo Santareno is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of António Martinho do Rosário (November 19, 1920 – August 20, 1980), a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

writer.

Life

He was born in 1920, in Santarém,

Ribatejo The Ribatejo () is the most central of the traditional provinces of Portugal, with no coastline or border with Spain. The region is crossed by the Tagus river (''Ribatejo'' translates to "upper Tagus", or more precisely, "up the Tagus" relative ...

, to Maria Ventura Lavareda and Joaquim Martinho do Rosário. He completed highschool in Santarém, at Liceu Nacional de Sá da Bandeira, in 1939. Graduated in Psychiatry from

Universidade de Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

in 1950. Died aged 59 in Oeiras. In 1957/58 worked as an on-board physician in the Portuguese cod

fishing fleet A fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing (as in the "tuna fishing fleet"), or all fishing vessels of ...

, an experience that inspired, among other writings, his sole prose effort. His left-wing stance often put him at odds with the Estado Novo dictatorship. Santareno left unpublished one of his most powerful plays, ''O Punho'', which takes place during the post-revolutionary

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

(Reforma Agrária) in

Alentejo Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo''). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alent ...

Work

His literary career begun with three poetry books published between 1954 and 1957. Subsequently, he dedicated himself to theatre, focussing on issues like human dignity, individuality and freedom, and the fight against all forms of discrimination and oppression. The first plays were quite naturalist and colloquial but, from 1966 onwards (with ''O Judeu'', about 18th century playwright

António José da Silva António José da Silva Coutinho (8 May 170518 October 1739) was a Portuguese dramatist born in colonial Brazil, known as "the Jew" (''O Judeu''). The Brazilian spelling of his first name is Antônio; António José da Silva Coutinho in Hebrew is ...

, persecuted and killed by the Portuguese

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

), developed a more

brechtian Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

and interventionist tone. As a result, some of his work would only be performed on stage after the fall of the dictatorship. In 1975 he collaborated, along with

Ary dos Santos José Carlos Ary dos Santos, GCIH or just Ary dos Santos (Lisboa, December 7, 1936 – Lisboa, January 18, 1984) was one of the most relevant names of the Portuguese popular poetry of the 20th century. Born of a bourgeois family, Ary dos Sant ...

, in the text for the

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

show (what is known, in Portuguese, as 'teatro de revista') ''P'ra Trás Mija a Burra''. Santareno, himself a "discreet homosexual", often deals with homosexuality in his plays - it has a central place in works like ''O pecado de João Agonia'', or ''Vida Breve em Três Fotografias'' (about male prostitution) - along with multiple issues related to moral and social prejudice (adultery, virginity, the role of women in marriage, religious values, etc.).

Bibliography

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

* ''A Morte na Raiz'' (1954) * ''Romances do Mar'' (1955) * ''Os Olhos da Víbora'' (1957)

Prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

* ''Nos Mares do Fim do Mundo'' (1959)

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

* ''A Promessa'' (1957) * ''O Bailarino'' (1957) * ''A Excomungada'' (1957) * ''O Lugre'' (1959) * ''O Crime da Aldeia Velha'' (1959) * ''António Marinheiro ou o Édipo de Alfama'' (1960) * ''Os Anjos e o Sangue'' (1961) * ''O Duelo'' (1961) * ''O Pecado de João Agonia'' (1961) * ''Anunciação'' (1962) * ''O Judeu'' (1966) * ''O Inferno'' (1967) * ''A Traição do Padre Martinho'' (1969) * ''Português, Escritor, 45 Anos de Idade'' (1974) * ''Os Marginais e a Revolução'' (comprising the plays: ''Restos'', ''A Confissão'', ''Monsanto'' and ''Vida Breve em Três Fotografias'') (1979) * ''O Punho'' (published posthumously in 1987)

References

1920 births 1980 deaths People from Santarém, Portugal Portuguese male writers 20th-century Portuguese writers 20th-century male writers LGBT history in Portugal {{Portugal-writer-stub