Dulce Maria Cardoso’s name is engraved on many Portuguese hearts.
The author of novels including Eliete, The Return and Violeta among the Stars, Dulce Maria Cardoso has had her work translated into various languages and published in more than twenty countries. Dulce Maria Cardoso’s writings are studied in university curriculums in different countries and have been the subject of various academic theses, as well as being adapted to cinema, theatre, and television.
Sometimes I lose my bearings but I never lose Porto.
Porto has gardens that are completely unknown, hanging in the Babylonian style, where rare birds are reared, including fantail pigeons, rare macaws with tropical colouring, and even the odd blue jay in a Moroccan birdcage. Nobody knows the gardens Porto has, or that people walk in them, but beyond the wisteria wreaths that touch the manes of the soldier’s horses when they pass below there are negligently-sculpted enclosures where the typical Porto characters reside: dandies, poets, collectors, scholars—extraordinary people who disdain power, who turn their backs when power knocks at the door. This is what draws me to Porto; this feeling that the city does not wish to feed on power. While people like that exist, the world will be tolerable.
My dear friend Glória, when she noticed that the professor teaching Introduction to Law was making fun of her strong accent, retorted "We Porto folk can exchange Bs for Vs, but we never exchange freedom for slavery," adding "Almeida Garrett: written with two Ts so that at least one is read.
