Afonso, Raquel: Homosexuality and resistance in the Estado Novo Ourém: Lua elétrica, 2019, 256 pp.

Abstract

"Mário" is a monologue by Fernando Heitor that premiered in August 2019,about seventy years after the first persecutions and convictions of Valentim de Barros, a homosexual dancer who lived during the Estado Novo (on whom the play's Mário is based). During most of his life,Valentim was persecuted, diagnosed with several pathologies (the names of the time do not allow us to understand what Valentim's sexual identity was, given the confusion between a homosexual sexual orientation, a transgender identity or even crossdressing) eventually being subjected to a lobotomy that was, like all other treatments, imposed on him by a state and a markedly heteronormative and patriarchal medical discourse, dying in Miguel Bombarda Hospital, where he 'lived' for years on end.