MEMORIES BULLY

Lisboa

Lisboa can be described with all the cliché of being a Mediterranean city in this “garden planted by the sea” that’s Portugal, however, Lisboa is so much more than that. In a city in which we can feel the contrasts and crossings between the old and the modern, I decided on an Autumn Sunday that makes you remember Summer wander through the typical Lisboa.

I started in Mouraria. It was initially the Moorish neighborhood, now Mouraria is defined by a medley of nationality and cultures that makes it one of the typical Lisboa neighborhoods, despite it, this is one of the places where you can find an “alfacinha” — that’s how they call Lisboa inhabitants. However, Mouraria surprised me right on the entry of the neighborhood, through Martim Moniz, where I find shops from China, Africa, India, and probably from any other place in the world.

Thinking that I’m going to find the sequel of this world, I venture through Capelão street and, just after a couple of steps, I stumble in Fado, the most representative that the Portuguese culture has to give.

With a photographic exhibition opens in May 2013, I’m compelled to follow and recognize some of the most important voices of Portuguese Fado — Fernando Maurício, Argentina Santos, Maria Severa, and the famous Amália Rodrigues — and I’m able to determine that I know almost nothing about Fado.

For a few moments, I think about following the photographs that teach me about the Mouraria Fado but, as soon as entering the João do Outeiro street…