A Tradição

During the sixteen years between the Proclamation of the Republic (1910) and the military coup of 1926, which opened the doors to the emergence of a long and lasting dictatorship, there were many social and political upheavals that prompted the illustrious figures of the period to embrace a personal commitment to public life. The periodicals of this First Republic are thus true mirrors of the different partisan struggles and conflicts between eminent personalities. A Tradição is, in this sense, a hybrid, a publication whose subtitle clearly defines the content (and its times): 'Integralist, Political, Literary and Artistic Bimonthly Magazine’.

Its title, moreover, points to a specific direction: that of respecting the values of an old regime. The magazine’s visual grammar reveals that this is not a typical Modernist magazine, with no clear recognizable aesthetic guidelines – this much can be understood from the non-existent cover.

Its political affiliation is clear from the first text, written, in fact, by Alberto Monsaraz, the 2nd Count of Monsaraz, a famous integralist who fought for the monarchy, even after 5 October 1910. Here Monsaraz praises the magazine, welcoming it to the fold of Lusitanian Integralism, and describes its director as follows: ‘A Tradição, written by students, among which Cordeiro Ribeiro who, being under 20 years of age, has already been arrested five times for defending his beliefs, is another decisive guarantee that our hopes are not misplaced, nor has the propaganda conducted by these impenitent reactionaries been ineffective.’ (p. 4).

As is customary in publications of this type, the magazine’s pages purposefully and unscrupulously promote their own authors, that is, the elements of the editorial board. On page 5, Alfredo de Freitas Branco, editor-in-chief of A Tradição, a ferocious opponent of the republican regime and author of several books signed under his aristocratic title (Visconde de Porto Novo), speaks of Almada’s Futurist Conference in a subtle yet very unforgiving tone (‘a futurist conference, not suitable for appreciation here, seeing as Futurism is no more than a 'blague'...’). Armando da Silva, the magazine’s editor, writes a very favorable review of Freitas Branco’s first book (Charcos, Casa Ventura Abrantes). A true contradiction, since the first criticism presented in the ‘Echos d'arte’ section, directed against a concert by Ruy Coelho, does not even discuss the concert itself, accusing it instead of lacking ‘moral decency’...

On the other hand, and as far as literary criticism is concerned, A Tradição, as commonly seen in periodical publications of its time, references recently published works, some of which gifted to the editors. In the first issue, the work of João Cabral do Nascimento that Fernando Pessoa had already mentioned in the last text of Exílio (1916) where he theorized Sensationism, As Três Princesas Mortas num Palácio em Ruínas, is discussed. Again, this can be understood as a favor to an integralist author, an interpretation underlined by the fact that Alfredo de Freitas Branco would later be replaced by Nascimento in the second and last issue of the magazine, due to the Viscount of Porto Novo’s decision to fight in the Great War. In the opening issue (May 15, 1917), the magazine’s only literary text, a conservative sonnet on ‘The Distant Voice of the Race’ (‘A Voz Longínqua da Raça’) is his. As one would expect, Armando da Silva writes about the new editor-in-chief's book in the second issue (June 9th, 1917). It should also be noted that in the same issue, more literary texts are published, not only by the chief editor (‘Sonetilhos’, little sonnets), but also by Afonso Lopes Vieira, a consecrated writer of the period, whose pages in A Tradição still include a review of his recente Ilhas de Bruma.

Regarding the visual aspects of the magazine, it should be noted that it contains no illustrations, which further confirms the austere and political nature of the publication; rather, it simply presents the Lusitanian Integralism emblem on the back of the cover, with the accompanying motto: a pelican and the inscription ‘Pola Grei and Pola Lei’ (‘For the People and the Law’).

Ricardo Marques