Orlando da Costa

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Orlando António Fernandes da Costa (July 1929 - January 27, 2006) was a Portuguese writer of Goan descent on his father Luís Afonso Maria da Costa's side and of Portuguese and French on his mother Amélia Maria Fréchaut Fernandes's side, born in the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, Lourenço Marques. He lived his youth in Goa, another Portuguese colony at the time. With 18 years he left Goa and travelled to Lisbon, where he made his studies on history and philosophy. In 1951, Costa published his first work, named A Estrada e a Voz, a poetry book. He continued publishing, not only poetry, but also drama and romance.

During the 1950s, Orlando da Costa passed most of his time in the House of the Students of the Empire, an institution mainly built to house students from the colonies that were studying in the metropole. There he contacted with many of the future leaders of the nationalist movements of the colonies, such as the MPLA, the FRELIMO and the PAIGC.

Orlando da Costa joined the Portuguese Communist Party in 1954, during the dictatorial regime of Oliveira Salazar, when the Party was still outlawed. He developed his work as a communist in the intellectual sector of the Lisbon region.

Orlando da Costa was father to Isabel dos Santos da Costa, who died a child, and politician António Costa, present Mayor of Lisbon, and former Portuguese Minister (Internal Affairs and Justice), Portuguese deputy, Member of the European Parliament and one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, born of his first marriage to writer Maria Antónia Palla, born Maria Antónia de Assis dos Santos. By his second marriage to Inácia Martins Ramalho de Paiva he was the father of journalist Ricardo Costa.

[edit] Works

• 1951 - A Estrada e a Voz
• 1953 - Os Olhos sem Fronteira
• 1955 - Sete Odes do Canto Comum
• 1961 - O Signo da Ira
• 1964 - Podem Chamar-me Eurídice
• 1971 - Sem Flores nem Coroas
• 1979 - Canto Civil
• 1984 - A como estão os cravos hoje?
• 1994 - Os Netos de Norton
• 2000 - O Último Olhar de Manú Miranda