HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF?
DOES HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?
— a conversation with historian Maria Alice Samara and journalist Marcello Sacco
DANTE & C.ª, JULY 17, 7:00 PM
Rua Luís Augusto Palmeirim, 12C, 1700-274 Lisbon
"The incomprehension of the present is fatally born of ignorance of the past. But perhaps it is no less vain to exhaust oneself in understanding the past if one knows nothing of the present."
Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft, Jorge Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 2001
Just over a month ago, 100 years passed since the May 28, 1926 Coup d'état. It marked the beginning of a dictatorship in Portugal that would last almost 48 years. Also approximately a century ago (1925-1926), Benito Mussolini's government approved a set of "State Defense Laws," known as the "leggi fascistissime" (most fascist laws), which institutionalized the process of Italy's fascisation.
Based on this double centenary, we will discuss these two dictatorships, their longevity, and also their capitulation, evoking 25 Aprile 1945 (Italy) and 25 de Abril de 1974 (Portugal).
It will also be an opportunity to examine and discuss the current political moment in both countries. Can the historical parties of the Portuguese political system and the new President of the Republic learn from the Italian experience? On the broader European level, what results have the main approaches to far-right forces produced—essentially, the cordon sanitaire or the mimicry of their political ideas?
Visiting Room, Caxias, by Júlio Pomar (1947), Oil on paper mounted on particle board, 54.6 x 89 cm. Museum of Neo-Realism Collection. Photography: © EGEAC, Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, António Jorge Silva. © Fundação Júlio Pomar/SPA.
At just 21 years old, Júlio Pomar was arrested in Évora for being a member of the Youth Democratic Unity Movement and was imprisoned for four months, in Aljube and Caxias. His later work reflected that harsh experience. The work "Visiting Room" evokes prison visits, always in a context of strong surveillance. The Visiting Room of the Peniche Fortress — currently the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom — where a reproduction of that work is exhibited, is like a capsule of that time that must not be forgotten. Nor repeated.
Maria Alice Samara was born in Lisbon in April 1974. With a PhD in Contemporary Institutional and Political History from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon, she is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC – NOVA FCSH). She has worked on topics related to the First Republic and, more recently, regarding the Estado Novo period, she has dedicated herself to studies on Resistance, space, and memory. She is the author of several books.
Marcello Sacco was born in Lecce (Italy) and has lived in Lisbon for about 30 years. He is an Italian teacher, translator, and journalist. He currently collaborates with the Ansa Agency and the newspaper Il Foglio, and in Portugal, he has collaborated with Diário de Notícias and RTP. He has several journalistic and academic publications on Italian, Lusophone, and Iberian politics and culture. He is the author of several narrative books and the essay Salazar. Ascesa e caduta di un dittatore tecnico (new edition in 2025). As a translator, he has published in Italy various Portuguese and Brazilian authors, including Raul Brandão, Agustina Bessa-Luís, José Gil, and Almeida Faria.