Afonseca (Dr Luís Vicente de)

Although he was a contemporary, we have little information for his biography. He was born in the parish (freguesia) of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos (‘the narrows of Câmara de Lobos’) on 21 July 1803 and died in Lisbon in December 1878.

He was a bachelor (bacharel, university graduate) in medicine of the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) and practised medicine with great success and skill. The most important part of the biography of this illustrious Madeiran lies, without doubt, in the way he championed the interests of this archipelago in the Cortes (Portuguese parliament). Without offence to anyone, it can be said that few men have represented their homeland in parliament with greater disinterest and self-denial than he did. That is why here in Madeira his name acquired such extraordinary prestige, amounting to true veneration, and why for many years he held an undisputed political supremacy on this island, which even his fiercest enemies acknowledged. He was deputy for Madeira for the long period of 34 years, something no one here has yet achieved, being first elected for the legislature of 1840 to 1842.

His great austerity of character, the proven self-denial and disinterest with which he handled questions in parliament, his personal qualities and his reputation as an intelligent and learned man earned him a remarkable and well-deserved standing among the politicians and parliamentarians of his time. They held Dr Afonseca in a regard and esteem that cannot be won without possessing the qualities that everyone recognised in him.

Despite all this, he had to wage bitter struggles against political enemies who did not hesitate to distort his noblest and purest intentions, and he even suffered humiliations and outrages that only the excesses of a narrow and factious partisanship can fully explain.

He always led a simple and modest life, dying poor and in almost complete obscurity. His long political career served him only to defend, with true self-denial, the interests of Madeira and of his fellow countrymen.

At a time we cannot determine, Dr Afonseca travelled to Brazil, where he stayed for some time. There he had a son, Len de Afonseca, who became highly distinguished as a poet and journalist.