Joaquim Soeiro Pereira Gomes (14 April 1909 – 5 December 1949) was 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 of realist influence and became one of the major names of

Portuguese literature Portuguese literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the Portuguese language, particularly by citizens of Portugal; it may also refer to literature written by people living in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and Mozambique, and other P ...

of the 20th century. Pereira Gomes is, along with

Alves Redol António Alves Redol (29December 191129November 1969) was an influential Portuguese neorealist writer. Life Redol was born in 1911 in Vila Franca de Xira to Antonio Redol da Cruz, a shopkeeper, and Inocência Alves Redol. When he was fifteen, his ...

, the biggest name of the Portuguese neo-realist movement. He was also a communist militant and that was always present in his work. The

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...

headquarters (Soeiro Pereira Gomes Building), in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, is named after him.

Life

Soeiro was born in Gestaçô, Baião,

Porto District The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...

, the son of two farmers. He studied in the Agricultural School in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

. After finishing his studies, he emigrated to

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

, where he worked for one year before returning to Portugal. He then settled in Alhandra, working in the local cement plant, where he developed an intense campaign of cultural dynamization among the workers. But what really made him remarkable was his work as a writer and his influence upon Portuguese society

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

. In 1939, he started publishing his first texts in the weekly newspaper ''O Diabo''. Among his major works there are two novels of deep social criticism -- ''Esteiros'' and ''Engrenagem'' -- and several stories that are an exaltation of

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and communist militancy. As a member of the

, Soeiro was member of the Central Committee and was forced to live underground due to the repression of the Portuguese

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

regime. While living in such dangerous and precarious conditions and the fact he was a heavy smoker, Soeiro developed lung cancer and died of it, being unable to receive the medical help that he needed. His major work is ''Esteiros'', published in 1941, featuring many drawings by

Álvaro Cunhal Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal (; 10 November 1913 – 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese communist revolutionary and politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of the '' Estado Novo''. He served as secretary-general of the P ...

, dedicated to the '' 'Sons of the men who were never a child'' '. It is the story of a lower-class group of boys that, because of their social status, are forced to work in a small brick plant instead of studying. The book is a harsh critique of the dominant social system and its countless inequalities. He also wrote a novel which was posthumously published: ''Engrenagem''. It displays the changes suffered by an agricultural environment transformed into an industrial one. Differently from ''Esteiros'', in ''Engrenagem'', one may find a strong pamphleteer tone. It could be considered as a result of the close relationship between Gomes and the Portuguese Communist Party at the time he composed the novel. It is right to say that, along with

Fernando Namora Fernando Namora (15 April 1919 – 31 January 1989), with the full name Fernando Gonçalves Namora was a Portuguese writer and medical doctor. Namora was born in Condeixa-a-Nova, Coimbra District and died in Lisbon, Portugal. He received his med ...

and

Manuel da Fonseca Manuel Lopes Fonseca, better known as Manuel da Fonseca (15 October 1911 in Santiago do Cacém – 11 March 1993), was a Portuguese writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to com ...

, Gomes is one of the fathers of the movement known as Portuguese Neo-Realism.

Works

* '' Esteiros'' (1941) * '' Engrenagem'' (1951) * Contos Vermelhos * Refúgio Perdido * Última Carta

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gomes, Soeiro Pereira 1909 births 1949 deaths People from Baião, Portugal Portuguese male writers Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese anti-fascists 20th-century Portuguese writers