A inauguração da estátua de Gonçalves Zarco no Funchal

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to emphasize the manipulation of the formal tribute to Gonçalves Zarco, in the context of the institutional relationship of the archipelago with the Estado Novo government and its impact on, as Eduardo Pereira wrote in the Ilhas de Zargo, “socially progressive and renewing life of the Estado Novo in Madeira”. I believe that this instrumentalization corresponded to a form of control and was inserted in a broader process of affirmation of the Nation-State that led to the regression of administrative autonomy. The inauguration was part of a plan of profound remodelling of the city, on the march from the early 1930s. It will become evident that the modernization project of Funchal was outlined in the first decade of the twentieth century, but only found ways to unfold later, in a political framework which combined political will to impose power.

Keywords

• Funchal
• Estado Novo
• Zarco
• Francisco Franco