Lafões: Press and history (1895-1910)
by Norberto Gomes da Costa
published by Edições Nodar (nodar.005)

Edições Nodar publish “Lafões: Imprensa e História (1895-1910)” (“Lafões: Press and History (1895-1910)”), a collection of texts written by historian Norberto Gomes da Costa (born in Nodar, São Pedro do Sul in 1940) that were over two years published in the biweekly newspaper “Gazeta da Beira” and are the result of a study of the regional press of Lafões (municipalities of São Pedro do Sul, Vouzela and Oliveira de Frades, Viseu district), in the final five years of the nineteenth century and first ten of the twentieth century, times that were marked by intense political and social unrest, which led in 1910 to the fall of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic in Portugal.

The Ultimatum of 1891 was an important milestone in the accentuation of the political unrest, examplified by a Republican Party emerged in the 80s of the XIX century, with publications throughout the country, which added to the ones supporting the monarchist regimen. Some of these newspapers conspired to hasten what was already being announced. These are times of proliferation of newspapers from North to South of Portugal, mostly with ephemeral life that sometimes boiled down to a few days. The Lafões region was no exception in the panorama of regional journalism and, in the period from 1895 to 1910, several newspapers came to light. Some were impossible to track down, but regarding three of them (“Democracia de Lafões”, “Revista de Lafões”, published in Vouzela and “Vouga” in S. Pedro do Sul) it was possible to follow their routes and contents, which were analyzed in detail by the author to bring light more than a century later, to chronicles that depict the region’s main families, local political struggles, both enthusiastic praises and fierce attacks, and national events viewed from a peripheral region, etc.

In certain aspects, some of the characters mentioned in these gone newspapers are amazingly close to others from present times, perhaps showing that there is still a certain “parochialism” in the regional politics, in which the faces and voices often seem mere different sides of the same coin with a purely local exchange value.

Edições Nodar decided to publish this book as a tribute by the directors of Binaural/Nodar, brothers Luis and Rui Gomes da Costa, to their father, the historian Norberto Gomes da Costa. With this gesture they also intended to show that there is no incompatibility between contemporary/multimedia approaches (those followed by Binaural / Nodar) and others more representative of classical forms (such as an historical essay), and that the most important thing is that thinking should be free and uncomplicated, linking aspects of the past, present and future, to an ever deeper knowledge of a particular territory such as Lafões in Portugal.

Presentation of the book “Lafões – Imprensa e História (1895-1910)”:
Saturday, December 22, 2012, 15:00

Rainha D. Amélia Spa Auditorium

Termas de Sao Pedro do Sul, PT