Alexandre Braga

Lawyer, orator, journalist, and poet. He held a Bachelor's degree in Law from the University of Coimbra. He founded the poetic magazines Lira da Mocidade and O Novo Trovador, as well as a newspaper with political aims – O Clamor Público – where, among others, Camilo Castelo Branco, Coelho Lousada, Gomes Monteiro, and Augusto Soromenho would also collaborate. Affiliated with the Republican Party, he would distinguish himself, like his son Alexandre Braga, by his oratorical skills in defending popular causes. However, most of his speeches were not printed. As a poet, and although his volume of verses – Vozes da Alma – was successful at the time, Jacinto do Prado Coelho (cf. Dicionário de Literatura) finds little more in it than the common ingredients of Romantic poetry: «medievalism, popularism», «attraction to the grandiose», «complaints of ardent love».