Yesterday afternoon, the name “Rotunda Poeta Joaquim Namorado” was inaugurated on Av. Dr. Mário Soares / Rua da Várzea de Buarcos, next to the Health Center.
The ceremony was attended by Joaquim Namorado´s family members; the mayors and deputy mayors, Pedro Santana Lopes and José Duarte Pereira; the president of the Buarcos and São Julião Parish Council, Rosa Batista, other mayors and personalities linked to Knowledge, Culture, Literature and Politics, with Freedom and Democracy as the aggregating element.
For the mayor of Figueira da Foz “this is an act of justice, albeit belated”, recalling that in his previous term "I took the decision not to continue with the Joaquim Namorado Prize, and that is my responsibility. We gave the literary prize a new name, ‘João Gaspar Simões’, but we should have continued with the ‘Joaquim Namorado Prize’ or perhaps created another one."
It was in this context that Pedro Santana Lopes said it was “an honor for Figueira da Foz to have Joaquim Namorado´s name on a traffic circle, in a beautiful place, not least because of the history of his residence in Serra da Boa Viagem”.
Addressing Joaquim Namorado´s family members present at the inauguration, the mayor said that “I´m glad there was this opportunity, it was a fault that was to be repaired and I´m pleased to have been able to repair it on my own initiative”.
Rosa Batista pointed out that “to honor Joaquim Namorado´s memory is not to allow much of what he experienced in Figueira da Foz, more specifically in Buarcos, where he had a house on the southern slope of the Serra da Boa Viagem, to fall into oblivion”.
The mayor of Buarcos recalled that “it was here that he spent a lot of time, it was here that he discussed many ideas, so we thought this would be the most appropriate place”.
Closing the ceremony, the honoree´s daughter, Maria Teresa Namorado, said that the inauguration “is an honor that the municipality of Figueira da Foz pays to the memory of my father who was neither born here nor died, but made this city his home, finding in many Figueirans, in many young university students, a group of political and intellectual supporters, a plethora of friends and comrades who thought with him and defended the causes and values of Freedom and Democracy for which he fought so hard”.
On behalf of the family, Maria Teresa Namorado stressed that “his ideological thinking and his political, civic and intellectual activism left their mark on many generations”, recalling that “our house, in Serra da Boa Viagem, was a hive of friends gathered around him, in constant conversation”.
PROFILE:
Joaquim Vitorino Namorado Nascimento, Portuguese poet and essayist, was born in Alter do Chão, Alentejo, on June 30, 1914.
He graduated in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Coimbra and dedicated several decades to teaching.
From April 25, 1974 until his retirement, he was a Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, in the Mathematics department.
He was also a member of the Figueira da Foz Municipal Assembly, elected by the APU.
He lived on the southern slope of the Serra da Boa Viagem, where he held preparatory meetings for the founding of the newspaper “Barca Nova”. On the initiative of this newspaper, on January 28 and 29, 1983, Figueira paid him a significant tribute.
As a result of this tribute, the Figueira Town Council had a literary prize for years, which achieved great prestige at national level.
Joaquim Namorado died in 1986.
Source: https://www.figueiranahora.com
Image source: https://www.lusofoniapoetica.com