[ Portugal is sick.
The references that identify us have been systematically distorted and diluted. The uprooting of populations raises the feeling of emptiness and orphanage that is many times associated with emigrants, but in reality, that feeling is also starting to get installed on urban areas.
The consequences are everyday more visible in the incident of instability and social despair with which we are confronted almost in a daily basis.
We have been offered this unique moment of the canonization of D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, a moment that we have not known how to enjoy conveniently so that it would help us to reunite with the most profound values of Portugality.
There are, however, little lights that still shine, such as the city of Évora, which, by recovering its cultural, social and physical patrimony, keep alive the hope of a Portugal that looks to the future but at the same time is based upon the traditions that have built our beliefs.
The “Festa Brava”, our traditional and popular bullfight, is, without a doubt, one of our manifestations that brings together the people from Minho to Algarve, passing by Açores, and one that must be cradled. It is due to this that I salute Maria Sobral Mendonça who, in good time, embraced this theme, by contributing with her art to the cause of National tradition.]
Dom Nuno de Bragança van Uden
The references that identify us have been systematically distorted and diluted. The uprooting of populations raises the feeling of emptiness and orphanage that is many times associated with emigrants, but in reality, that feeling is also starting to get installed on urban areas.
The consequences are everyday more visible in the incident of instability and social despair with which we are confronted almost in a daily basis.
We have been offered this unique moment of the canonization of D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, a moment that we have not known how to enjoy conveniently so that it would help us to reunite with the most profound values of Portugality.
There are, however, little lights that still shine, such as the city of Évora, which, by recovering its cultural, social and physical patrimony, keep alive the hope of a Portugal that looks to the future but at the same time is based upon the traditions that have built our beliefs.
The “Festa Brava”, our traditional and popular bullfight, is, without a doubt, one of our manifestations that brings together the people from Minho to Algarve, passing by Açores, and one that must be cradled. It is due to this that I salute Maria Sobral Mendonça who, in good time, embraced this theme, by contributing with her art to the cause of National tradition.]
Dom Nuno de Bragança van Uden
Royal House of Portugal
