Walfrido Antão was an Indian prolific '' cronista'' and short story writer in the

Portuguese-language Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom ...

Goan press, becoming particularly active as this tradition breathed its last. The crónica is a journalistic form common in

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and which was widely cultivated in

Portuguese Goa The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

. It can be roughly defined as a literary text combining elements of the short story, the memoir and the opinion editorial. Born in Arossim, Antão contributed several hundred such articles to ''

O Heraldo ''O Heraldo'' is a century-old English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published in Panaji, the capital of the Indian state of Goa. History ''O Heraldo'' was established as the first daily Portuguese newspaper on 21 May 1900 by Aleixo ...

'' and ''Diário da Noite'' from the late 1950s until the demise or

Anglicisation Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

of these papers.

''Crónicas''

Antão's ''crónicas'' reflect his preoccupations with environmental concerns, Goan culture, the future of the Portuguese language in the territory, and issues related to

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...

, of which he was one of the first promoters in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

Short stories

Antão's stories, like the rest of his journalistic output, seem influenced by what we could loosely term

existentialist Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

concerns, such as alienation, freedom,

absurdity Absurdity is the state or condition of being unreasonable, meaningless, or so unsound as to be irrational. "Absurd" is the adjective used to describe absurdity, e.g., "Tyler and the boys laughed at the absurd situation." It derives from the Lat ...

, authenticity and self-determination. Indeed, anecdote holds that Antão was an acquaintance of Sartre's in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

at the height of existentialism's influence and prestige. Yet Antão's treatment of existential themes is always mediated by his engagement with Goan actuality, his concerns about the dissolution of Goan identity and the destruction of the Goan landscape. Earlier, before the environment became an issue, he allowed his brother-in-law to extract sand from the dunes on his ancestral property - that was later sold to Park Hyatt Resort, Arossim. The extent to which the author himself was touched by existential despair, which here could be conceptualized as a loss of hope concerning the signification and transformation of life, is open to debate. His texts certainly seem delicately balanced between positive and negative elements.''Lengthening Shadows''. Saligão, India: Goa, 1556, 2016.

References

Samples of Antão's writing (in Portuguese)

Diálogo: A Morte e a Vida ou um Bilhete a uma Maria Enfermeira
(see elo de Mascarenhasbr>Walfrido Antão
- A nostalgia na obra de imala Devi(see imala Devibr>De Mobor a Agonda (Canácona) ou Desenvolvimento, Para Quem?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antao, Walfrido Writers from Goa Portuguese-language writers Indian male short story writers 20th-century Indian short story writers 20th-century Indian male writers