Silveira (José Marciano da)
Madeiran teacher, clerk and polemical journalist (1826–1887), editor of the Voz do Povo and author of satirical verse.
He was born in the parish (freguesia) of Camacha in 1826 and died in Funchal on 8 July 1887. He worked as a primary schoolteacher in Machico, and at his death was a copying clerk in the Municipal Administration (Administração do Concelho, the government's local civil office) of Funchal. For many years he edited the Voz do Povo, in which invective and diatribe were at times the main arguments of his polemics and press campaigns. He handled the scurrilous verse of the gazetilha (satirical verse column in a newspaper) with great ease, using it to wound and deride his opponents and adversaries. He did not spare even his own son-in-law, the journalist João Augusto de Ornelas, whom Silveira sought to wound and humiliate in Filho do Ferreiro, a pamphlet that has gone through several editions, intended especially for the Madeiran colonies in Demerara, Trinidad, etc. His journalistic output is vast, but his writings are generally modelled on the Tripa Virada and the Besta Esfolada of José Agostinho de Macedo. Some of his poems appear in ‘Flowers of Madeira’ (Flores da Madeira).
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 05
Abroad
- Camacha
Santa Cruz. His birthplace.
Camacha is an upland parish above Caniço in Santa Cruz municipality, founded in 1676 with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel. The Elucidário covers its church, role in the 1828 Miguelist invasion, quintas, levadas, the Poiso shelter house, its Pentecost pilgrimage, women's padded skirts, its plants and gardens, and its famous wickerwork industry started by Hinton.
- Demerara
Guyana. Madeiran emigrant colony for which editions of his pamphlet were made.
Demerara, in British Guiana, received mass Madeiran emigration from about 1840, including emigrants after 1846, and was the main export market for Madeiran onions. The Elucidário also records it as the source of the dwarf banana, of entire-leaved sweet potatoes (1845) and of the ant Iridomyrmex humilis, and as the place where Alípio Augusto Ferreira edited O Portuguez.
- Funchal
Where he died and worked as clerk.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Machico
Where he taught primary school.
The parish of Machico was the landing place of the discoverers Zargo and Tristão Vaz and the seat of the captaincy of Machico; the parish was founded c. 1450. The Elucidário covers its clergy and stipends, chapels, historical events, mineral springs, localities, population and notable natives.
- Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago. Madeiran emigrant colony for which editions of his pamphlet were made.
Trindade (Trinidad) was a destination of Madeiran emigrants after 1846. Editions of José Marciano da Silveira's pamphlet were made for its Madeiran colony.
People
People mentioned · 03- José Marciano da Silveira1826–1887
Primary teacher and polemical editor of the Voz do Povo; subject of this entry.
- João Augusto de Ornelas1833–1886
Journalist and Silveira's son-in-law, satirised in the pamphlet Filho do Ferreiro.
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Portuguese polemicist whose Tripa Virada and Besta Esfolada were Silveira's models.