Casa do Artista,

Lisboa 19.02.16, 16h

Mr. Afonso Henriques Ferreira has the same name of the first king of Portugal;
they were both born in Viseu, he explains.

We meet twice in Casa do Artista to speak about life memories, politics, religion, culture.

His father was a military man, playing in the military band, who tried to make of Afonso a man of music. This would not be his future...
As a child Afonso moved with his family from Viseu to Coimbra, then to Grijò (to follow his father's career), and back to Coimbra again…
In Grijò (next to Porto), in a house belonging to the Augustinians Order, (a special place where a famous Portuguese novel “A Morgadinha dos Canaviais”
by Julio Diniz was set), he assisted, nine years old, to the announcement of the end of the war, made by BBC Radio.
Afonso loves this medium:
In Coimbra he studies electrotechnic in the “Escola Industrial e Comercial de Brotero”, and at 19 he enters into the national Radio Station of Porto,
moving then to Regional Radio in Coimbra;
He remembers recording sessions in the studio, adventures traveling to report important events, and his favorite monthly program “Serenatas de Coimbra” that permits him to meet and develop a friendship with the song writer and revolutionary

Zeca Afonso.
During work in Guarda, a colleague invites him to work in Lisbon;
Afonso moves to the capital and starts here a relationship with the national radio lasting for another 33 years.

On 1983, due to political problems connected to the Counter Revolution,
Afonso Henriques is forced to leave his radio work;
fortunately he has a second job and can earn his life working as sound technician for International Congresses...in the night before the 24 of April, during the organization of a congress that was to happen in Fundaçao Gulbenkian, opened by the President Americo Thomaz a lot of coincidences occur:
Mr. Afonso meets during a pause Zeca Afonso who escaped PIDE (the regime police) that intended, some days before the 1 of may, to going to lock him inside his house in Setubal;

back in Gulbenkian he is alerted that Américo Tomas doesn’t want to sit in a congress, at a table with just 13 seats, being superstitious…and after a few hours Grandola, Vila Morena is playing on the radio.
Mr. Afonso Henriquez loves his work, and lives it with passion: through it he travels to Madeira, Guinè and Capo Verde…
When in 1997 he definitely retires, he moves to the north of Portugal with his wife, in Castro Rei, next to Viseu, spending 7 years enjoying nature, the beauty of the river Pavia, the quietness.
In this moment he already knows Casa do Artista and when his wife, tired of the countryside, asks him to move back to the city he decides to ask for a room there…a few months later they are official House residents.
He says that in Casa do Artista he has the impression of living in a palace!!! a palace shared with 70 people!!
Since he lives there at least 70/80 people have already left…life shared with old people teaches the acceptance of death as the natural end of life.

Afonso Henriques is a very lively person, who loves to write, and speak about art, criticizing the disdain of politics against art and artists in Portugal.
Brotherhood and humanity live in him: he suffers with the abuses of political power, with injustice, and he tries in his daily life to have a conduct without preconceptions: for example, besides identifying with a leftist philosophy and thought, and declaring to be atheist, he has religious friends with conservative ideas.

…Afonso has many anecdotes to share: about Communism, and the time of Salazar, about rigged elections, and political homicides and violence…
He explains the apparition of “Nossa Senhora de Fatima” (the Virgin who appeared in Fatima) as a strategy to save the world from Communism and convert Russia…
He explains many events as a manipulation to obtain political power and control, and speaks about an Intellectual Mafia, conditioning the life of his country.
He believes that just with a “New Man” who will manage to get free and help the rest of the people to free themselves, the oppression exercised by economists and politicians can be defeated.
Afonso Henriques believes in the strength of people, and in the importance of education and culture (in Portugal still a half million of inhabitants are illiterate).

...To Listen is to Imagine...

Thank you Mr.Afonso for these hours of conversations, stories and considerations about life...

Good listening!

SPACE:

This interview recording took place in the living room of Casa do Artista, a big but warm space decorated with tables, sofas, carpets, lights, where the residents can work, make music, read and stay together.

The second time we sit at a table that Mr. Afosno explains to be his working space...in a corner of the room, beside a beautiful piano...