SARDINHA, ANTÓNIO. – Portuguese writer and politician, born in Monforte (Alentejo) in 1888, died in Elvas on 1 January 1925.
After the fall of the monarchy (1910), he founded (1914) and directed the movement of monarchist ideas known as «Integralismo Lusitano», whose organ was the important journal A Nação Portuguesa, and which marked the beginning of the return to the country’s traditional politics, of Catholic inspiration and corporative tendencies, recognizable in many respects in Portugal’s present-day political regime. His poetic work (approximately half a dozen volumes, among which A epopeia da planície, 1915, and Na corte de saudade, 1922, stand out) is characterized by an archaizing flavor well suited to the emotive and traditional character of the themes that inspire it; his prose work (approximately a dozen volumes, among which O valor da raça, 1915, and A questão ibérica, A aliança peninsular, antecedentes e possibilidades, 1924, stand out) remains lively through the confidence of its historical information on the one hand, and through its ardor for polemic and political struggle on the other.