Editorial data - One title, three magazines, and the final issue

The encounter between a generation of early-60s irreverent Catholics and the editor who took it upon himself to found and direct the magazine that allowed their collective voice to be heard was subtly registered, with mutual satisfaction, in O Tempo e o Modo’s starting issue, published late January 1963, at the time of António Alçada Baptista’s thirty-sixth birthday.

In addition to Alçada Baptista, the owner of Moraes Editora, the founders of the periodical that presented itself as a magazine of though and action were Pedro Tamen, the inspired author of the title and editor until May 1971, João Bénard da Costa, the editorial chief of staff, Nuno Bragança, Alberto Vaz da Silva, and Mário Murteira. They were part of a new Catholic elite that criticized Salazarism and objected to hierarchical obedience among whose ranks could also be found Manuel de Lucena, M. S. Lourenço, Ruy Belo, Nuno Portas, João Paes, Cristovam Pavia, and other future writers and collaborators of the publication.

The initial reference was given to them by the magazine Esprit, founded by Emmanuel Mounier in 1932, whose example was felt both in the shared purpose of contributing toward the creation of a new civilizational order and on the organic, editorial, and even graphic, level. Traits such as the existence of an advisory board, the essayistic structure, the publication of thematic issues, including the overlap of some of the chosen subjects, such as sexuality, show the undeniable affinity that bound the two periodicals, also observable in their graphic similitude, namely in the appropriation of the French cover model by the new Portuguese title.

In a decade of explicit or latent, but always extensive and deep, transformations, O Tempo e o Modo knew from the start how to claim its stake as congregator of Catholic and non-Catholic authors and of promoting change in the areas it devoted itself to, even if the national context was hostile for inquisitive enterprises, as the folders of censored articles demonstrate, issue after issue.

However, the cultural and political merit and prestige acquired by the magazine, which remains associated with the title to this day, under the guidance of Bénard da Costa and with Vasco Pulido Valente as the vice editorial chief of staff, was not enough to ensure the economic viability of a sober project, with its extensive essays and dossiers, necessarily directed to a select audience.

It was the negative evolution of the financial situation – with revenues that covered only a third of expenses – that led Alçada Baptista to express the desire to remove the burden of publication from the publisher Moraes Editora. Consequently, the title’s ownership was transferred to an anonymous society with the same name, which was created in mid-1968.

If the editorial of the fifth anniversary issue, nr. 56, January 1968, already highlighted the need for a more in-depth renovation of the magazine and argued for a less erudite editorial model, more in tune with current news, the publication of issue nr. 73, November 1969, carried that tendency one step further with the creation of a ‘New Series’, adopting a more popular format, with shorter articles and humorous illustrations, but that did not interrupt the ongoing issue numbering.

However, the mutations went much deeper than what was expected, since they weren’t limited to ownership and editorial configuration changes, but were also accompanied by a new general orientation and editorial staff.

From the original staff remained Bénard da Costa, who had taken on the role of director with issue nr. 71-72, March-April 1969, in addition to being named editor from June 1971 until issue nr. 92, Oct.-Nov.-Dez. 1971 – the job was then given to Luís Matoso, albeit in an interim condition.

During the last years of the original series and the first few of the one that followed it, Amadeu Lopes Sabino led an editorial staff composed almost exclusively of university students who were mobilized by an international ideological context with important expressions in Paris throughout the month of May 1968, in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the battlefields of Vietnam. João Martins Pereira, Jorge Almeida Fernandes, Sebastião Lima Rego, Armando Trigo de Abreu, João Ferreira de Almeida, and Nuno Júdice, among others, became regular contributors to the publication.

Although the fundamental rejection of the bourgeois civilizational disorder could apparently bring together the authors of both series, the rift between the two generations of 60s university students was evident in the criticism of the traditional and reverential view of culture and its patriarchs, in the outspoken sinophilia, and in the everyday life of an editorial staff who now submitted the publication of articles to collective discussion and approval, and adopted a joint authorship principle.

The cycle that had started in 1967 underwent a second inflection that was made clear in the January 1973 editorial, where the Maoist tendency that had been present since the beginning of the new series led to a scathing analysis of the magazine’s tenth anniversary, while simultaneously a break with the more recent ambiguity and eclecticism was announced, in the name of the only progressive ideology.

Even though, nominally, the direction of the magazine was only transferred from Luís Matoso to Guerreiro Jorge in issue nr. 104, May 1974, a new effective orientation was prevalent since 1972, under the direct responsibility of José Maria Martins Soares and the critical supervision of Arnaldo Matos. This was clear both in the letters that criticised doctrinarian deviations, signed by a particularly enlightened reader, and in the modality of collective self-criticism.

The new staff now included three journalists – Adriano de Carvalho, João Carreira Bom, and João Isidro –, some young ISEG students – António José Telo, Emanuel Santos, and João Pinto e Castro – and a significant number of collaborators who were organized into thematic study groups.

While retaining the appearance of a simple cultural periodical, the magazine now swung between the explanation of the Maoist body of theses that was shared by the writers and its militant and pragmatic political expression. In addition to the study of the history of 20th century political movements, the analysis of Portuguese social reality, the critique of international politics, and the diffusion of revolutionary Chinese and Albanian literary and artistic examples, after the 25th of April the magazine featured direct party appeals, often with graphic language originating in mural propaganda.

With the September 1977 issue, nr. 126, the more or less regular publication of the magazine ceased.

A single issue appeared for the 3rd series, dated March 1984, with Carlos Vargas as director and Fernando Rosas, who had been close to the magazine during the 70s, as editorial chief of staff. The initiative, which rejected any heritage and claimed only the cultural and civic breath of a relevant title, never went beyond this initial impulse.

Luís Andrade