M. Macedo Faria

Journalist, writer, and poet, Manuel Pestana Gouveia Macedo Faria completed his secondary education at the Escola Industrial e Comercial do Funchal, where in 1950 he finished the Complementary Course in Commerce. He also completed the Elementary Course from the Instituto Científico Espanhol de Investigações Psico-Magnéticas in Madrid, the Biblical Doctrines Course from the Escola Rádio Postal, and the Training Course in Public Accounting. From 1960 onwards, he was a clerk-typist at the Escola Industrial e Comercial do Funchal. In 1997, he retired from the position of section chief on the staff of the Personnel Directorate of the Regional Secretariat for Social Equipment and Environment of the Regional Government of Madeira. In 1975, following an article published in the weekly Diário da Madeira under the title «Na Madeira Vitória da Social-Democracia: Uma Razão para a Independência? Quem São os Obscurantistas», he spent two months imprisoned in the fort of Caxias. In March 1979, he participated in the I Seminário de Jornalismo da Madeira. From 1978 to 1979, he belonged to the founding group of the Partido Democrático do Atlântico (PDA) and was a parliamentary candidate for Lisbon. During that same two-year period, he was elected member of the parish commission of Sé and delegate to APAM - Associação Política da Madeira. In 1980, he founded the Centro de Espiritismo e Parapsicologia da Madeira, serving as its director and president, and in 1984, he founded the association Legião de Cristo, serving as its secretary and president. In 1983, he ran as an independent candidate on the Portuguese Communist Party list for the municipal elections of the municipality of Santa Cruz in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. That same year, he became editor-in-chief of the periodical Zarco. He also contributed to the newspapers and magazines Estudos Psíquicos, Fraternidade, Eco do Funchal, Zarco, Madeira Nacionalista (from Venezuela), Diário da Madeira, O Semeador, Diário de Notícias (from Funchal), and Jornal da Madeira. His political-spiritual involvement, which could be said to be marked by a certain esoteric vocation, is reflected not only in his journalistic articles but also in some of the titles of his works as a short-story writer and poet. Some of his poems are included in Musa Insular by Luís Marino. He has several unpublished short stories and radio plays, as well as collections of published and unpublished correspondence and articles.