Saturday 21 July 2012

RIP - José Hermano Saraiva

The well known Portuguese Historian and Television presenter José Hermano Saraiva died yesterday in Sétubal at the age of 92. I know not everyone agreed with some of his takes on Portuguese History, but his career spanned 60 years. He was a teacher, lawyer, politician, Government Minister (albeit in the Salazar/Cãetano era), Diplomat and after the revolution, reinvented himself as a master historian in print and on TV. For me, his phrase..."Caros telespectadores..." will live with me till I die! He inspired my great interest in the histories of the innumerable "terras" throughout Portugal and, often their influence on places and events long distant from the shores of this small land. He kept working until last year! What a man! http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Hermano_Saraiva