Microfatherlands in Portugal hinterland

Abstract

A strong migratory flow from central inland Portugal (a mountainous country with weak population density, sparse settlements and concentrated population) has developed towards Lisbon since the end of the 19^th century. This demographic movement had a positive influence for the survival and some progress of most of the villages, by means of a specific, powerful associative mechanism.
Villages have become emotional reference marks, with identifying imaginary representations of themselves. Emblems and distinctive marks have been imagined and have become the basis of the existing popular heraldry; those natives who have distinguished themselves either at the local or the national level have been raised to «nobility»; each village competes for affirming its own identity and specific belongings, by creating differentiated encomia. Briefly, affective and material conditions have been brought together, so that every native village might become a small but unconfounded fatherland for both residents and emigrants. Regionalism is an omnipresent ideal, as long as itrepresents the cupola of aggregating, unifying ideas that fits minor social movements (e. g. the
federative networks of associativism in municipio and districts). Its great operative potencial leads to unity and strengthening of mutual assistance of individuals and communities within this set of microfatherlands.