Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 19

The purpose of these memorials is to acknowledge the suffering that the Portuguese
soldiers endured during the wars; especially those who died are remembered and
honored. Their death may be regrettable. However, linked to a noble cause—
“serviço de Portugal,” for example—death is at least acceptable. Anonymous
death, however, is not acceptable. Anonymous death, however, is not acceptable. �
The central monument in Belém, inaugurated on January ��, ����, is impressive
by dint of its architecture (Figure �) but primarily owing to the huge number of
what Simpson (����:��), in a different context, calls “names cut in stone” (Figure
�). As I explain elsewhere (����:���), these names are “arrayed—disciplined—in
columns, their military ranks added, resembling and reproducing military forms
of organization and arrangements in line, pretending order, denying the chaos
of war.” The dead “can offer no resistance to being referred to as ‘combatants,’
although they or some of them might have wished to be remembered in subject
positions other than that of combatants.”
Occasionally, the range of people remembered seems wider. Some monuments
are dedicated to both the Great War and the Overseas Wars. The Monumento aos
combatentes do ultramar in Belém also honors those soldiers who died in peace
and humanitarian operations. As the name indicates, however, the monument’s
main focus is on the colonial wars. The alleged aim of this monument is to
contribute to “the unification of all the peoples involved in the Overseas Wars”
and this may seem to invite people other than Portuguese soldiers to contribute
to this unification. A closer reading of design and inscriptions, however, shows
that this is not the case (Möller ����:���–���).
Figure 2. Monumento aos combatentes das guerras do ultramar, Elvas
�
One ingredient of the Memorial ao Combatente, inaugurated November ��, ����, is the reading of the names
of the Portuguese soldiers who died in the context of the Great War.