Early life and career
Born to a ''bhatkar'', or landowning family, Pais was a primary school teacher by profession. He attended ''liceu'', or high school, in Portuguese before undergoing his teacher training. He contributed short stories in Portuguese to newspapers such as ''Diário de Goa'' and ''''Os Javalis de Codval''
A collection of Pais's stories was published in Lisbon in 1973 by Editorial Futura under the title ''Os Javalis de Codval''.Themes
Several key themes recur in the short narratives contained. One subject is matrimony, a particularly prevalent topos in Lusophone Goan writing for the discussion of caste identities and social mores. In stories such as “Ferdinando,” “De Mal a Pior” or “Um Diário e Duas Cartas” these perennial machinations are depicted within the context of a society undergoing deep social shifts that render these compacts even more fraught. Another subset of tales focuses on the breakdown of traditional rural society, featuring Hindu characters in the main and striking a similar tone to Pundalik Naik’s Konkani-language novel ''Upheaval'', perhaps the most prominent Goan novel to deal with this subject. These stories include “Uma Filha da Terra” and “Munu.” The third subgroup is represented by “Os javalis de Codval,” “O navio encalhado,” “História de minas,” “Outra história de minas” and “No comboio.” All of these narratives involve in some way a journey out into uncertainty, a setting forth in search of wealth, security or merely sustenance that ends in some sort of reversal. Both the journeys and the conditions under which they are undertaken resonate with the social, economic and political changes occurring in Goa at the time in which the stories are set.Unpublished Stories
At his death, Pais left behind a dozen uncollected stories. It is unclear whether they had been broadcast or published in the written press in some form. These stories extend Pais's concerns beyond 1973. In 2003, the story "Um Portuguese em Baga" (A Portuguese in Baga) was published in the Portuguese-Language anthology of Goan writing "Onde O Moruoni Canta", which deals subtly with questions of identity in a post-colonial Goa.Paul Melo e Castro. 'Postcolonial Subjects in the Goan Short Stories: "A Portuguese Soldier's Story" by Lambert Mascarenhas and "Um Português em Baga" by Epitácio Pais', ''Ellipsis'', 11 (2013), pp.87-100 http://apsa.us/ellipsis/11/meloecastro.pdf''Preia-Mar''
Pais left behind an unpublished novel in Portuguese. It was published by Goa, 1556 under the title ''Preia-Mar'' in 2016. The novel follows the trajectory of a young Goan named Leo. From a privileged yet impoverished family, Leo tries to strike it rich by any means possible in the Goa of the 1970s. Moving through various strata representative of the society of his times – new ascendant classes linked to smuggling, mining and politics, hippies tired of the West in search of drugs and spirituality, the fishermen of the coast and repatriates from Idi Amin’s Uganda, the novel reaches a climax that defies local tradition even as it calls into question the principles of the new order.Bibliography
*Epitácio Pais. ''Os Javalis de Codval''. Lisbon: Editorial Futura, 1973. *Epitácio Pais. ''Preia-Mar''. Saigão, India: Goa, 1556, 2016. *Epitácio Pais. "Um Português em Baga", inTranslations into English
*Paul Melo e Castro. ''Lengthening Shadows''. Saligão, India: Goa, 1556, 2016 *''Weeds in the Red Dust: The Collected Stories of Epitácio Pais'', trans. Paul Melo e Castro. Margão, India: CinnamonTeal, 2024References