Discover da Silva
A modern day Portuguese Explorer
By
Jeffrey D. Wagner
English
teacher at the Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School
Published by
“The South Coast Insider Magazine”
November
2007, Vol. 11/No.11 (See below)
Wearing a pair of khakis, a dress shirt and his trademark winter cap in the library of his Rhode Island home, retired medical doctor and amateur historian Manuel Luciano da Silva confidently leans back in his swivel chair.
At 81, the Portugal-born da Silva feels as though he has achieved fulfillment and just about everything one man can during his lifetime.
"They say a complete man has to do four things — (he) has to plant a tree; has to have a son; has to write a book; and has to be a grandfather," he said.
"I have all these things doubled and tripled."
However, the energetic man still has more things on his agenda.
Da Silva says he has written eight books—one of which has been made into a movie — but he concedes that his feeling of fulfillment will grow deeper when the American edition of his most recent book, Cristóvão Colon (Columbus) was Portuguese, is welcomed by publishing companies in America.
Both da Silva and his wife, who have studied Portuguese maritime discoveries since shortly after the couple married in 1960, spent their honeymoon traveling through the south of Portugal, where the two launched their lifelong discoveries into their homeland's past. His wife, Sílvia Jorge da Silva, co-wrote Cristóvão Colon (Columbus) was Portuguese!
Meanwhile, the Portuguese edition of his book is considered a best seller in Portugal, the Azores and Madeira.
Da Silva also hopes more historians look into his theory that Columbus could have indeed been Portuguese.
His theory, his life, and his literary prowess—all elements of his most recent book—were enough to attract the attention of 98-year-old Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira, who contacted da Silva last year and adopted his book into a 70-minute feature film.
"This is unique because I'm still alive; they usually do this when you die," he said, noting that actors were hired to play him and his wife.
He said the 352-page book's bold honesty won the affection of the renowned de Oliveira, who had always desired to make a film about Columbus.
"He read other books about Columbus — somehow they didn't have blood," da Silva said. "He bought my book 62 days after it was released (in 2006)."
The film was awarded the Golden Medal or the Bisato D'Oro. The award meant that the film was deemed the most significant of the 14 presented at the 64th International Film Festival in Venice, Italy on September 6, according to literature provided by da Silva.
"The film is neither scientific nor historical, not truly biographical in nature, but a form of romanticized fiction, which evokes the grandiose feat of the Maritime Discoveries," the description reads.
The film, based on da Silva's book, claims that Christopher
Columbus was of Portuguese origin, born in a Portuguese town called Cuba. According to the theory, Columbus later named the country of Cuba after his hometown.
Da Silva's book and the film delve into the lives of da Silva and his wife and it celebrates something da Silva has done during his 45-years in medicine—study history as an amateur.
"The greatest discoveries have been done by amateurs," he said. "We have only one thing guiding us—the truth." Da Silva believes many professors and scholars are guided by political agendas and an innate desire to contend against colleagues.
He said such a competitive attitude blurs a historian's vision and stunts his or her curiosity.
"Professors don't look straight," he said. "(They have) one eye one way and the other eye (the other way). They waste so much time looking the other way (at what others are doing)."
He said he would like Columbus's remains to be studied with the theory in mind that he could be of Portuguese origin, which is something that nobody has ever fully researched.
But in addition to claiming Columbus as its own, Portugal has made other strides that have often gone unnoticed.
Author of the 1971 book Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock— which has sold more than 10,000 copies, da Silva has been studying the history of Dighton Rock and its Portuguese connections for the past 59 years.
At Dighton Rock in Berkley is an inscription of Portuguese explorer Miguel Corte Real.
Corte Real was missing for nine years, from 1502-1511, and da Silva believes the explorer was likely mixing and possibly breeding with the Wampanoag Indians.
Da Silva said there is evidence to prove that around the 16th Century, Portuguese explorers visited this area and had relations with the Wampanoag Indians. Da Silva said later explorers discovered that some Native Americans in that area later had European physical features.
He and his wife have also extensively studied the Newport Tower in Newport, Rhode Island, a 16th Century structure with a rough structural resemblance to the Convent of Tomar, carried during religious processions.
For free, da Silva has given countless lectures at a gamut of different forums on these topics.
In addition to his historical pursuits, da Silva still studies the medical profession and gives regular lectures on modern medicine.
In the last few years, he has made many medical cable television programs for the Portuguese-Americans of New England and also a similar series of medical programs for the Southeastern Massachusetts Health Planning and Development.
He emphasizes that although he has been retired for the past nine years, he still stays up-to-date on medical research and theories.
"I am a man who has attained fulfillment of life — very few men could say that," he said. But acknowledging that with success comes a responsibility, he adds, "If I have fulfillment of life, my pleasure is to give."
About this Magazine:
“The Insider Magazine” is published monthly for visitors and residents of the South Coast areas of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. “The Insider” is distributed free of charge from Mouth Hope Bay to Buzzards Bay.
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Ljiljana Vasiljevic
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