Palavras finais da minha intervenção

na segunda conferência da John Dos Passos Society, a propósito da iconografia em The Portugal Story: "... the visual syncretism of this shield somehow mirrors Portuguese attitude towards the Other and the tendency to miscegenation, to immersion and assimilation of alien cultures. We may be leaving today in the legacy of these narratives, of these galleries of heroes who in their deeds and in their cruelties helped building a specific presence in the world. In this post-modern hybrid text mixing subjective perceptions and History, fact and personal insight, narrative and collage, John Dos Passos seems to be finding his own legacy. This is the reason why, I think, he stopped telling his story when the Portuguese strategic agenda decreed that we should stop leaving. We kept on leaving but then there was no design, only an escape, the search for a better living."