José Gomes Ferreira

Who was José Gomes Ferreira?

José Gomes Ferreira, GOSE, GOL was a Portuguese poet and fiction writer with a vast work of varied influences. Gomes Ferreira was also a political activist that participated in the resistance against the dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, becoming later a member of the Portuguese Communist Party. In the late 1970s he occupied the presidency of the Portuguese Writers Association.

A native of Porto, Ferreira graduated in law in 1924 and became a consul in Norway in the late 1920s. Soon after, became a journalist and published his works on several progressive magazines. After the rising of the right-wing dictatorship led by Salazar, Ferreira acquainted himself with the democratic resistance movements. During the later years of the regime, he continued publishing and saw his poetic work recognized by his peers. After the democratic Carnation Revolution, Ferreira joined the Communist Party and continued his work until the mid-1980s.

His artistic work was representative of his concern with social problems, a mirror of his leftwing ideology.