Mocidade Portuguesa (MP) y Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina (MPF): educación e identidade nacional em el período Salazar

Resumen

The Estado Novo was how the period of Salazar’s dictatorship in Portugal became known and consisted of direct interference and influence in the country’s culture. It’s main instrument of action for the dissemination of nationalist ideas was the education of children and young people. Two institutions were created to serve this purpose: Mocidade Portuguesa (MP) and Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina (MPF). The first was created in 1936, and the second, in 1937, with the same purpose in promoting a moral education focused on Christian and civic values, in the fight against liberalism and Marxism. To this end, it’s actions were in the school environment and outside the school, with various activities, of a moral and civic nature, such as camps and welfare actions for the poorest. After the Salazar dictatorship ended in 1974, both the MP and the MPF ceased to make sense in a society focused on cultural elements linked to democracy and gender equity. For this article, the institutions will be presented in their ideologizing perspectives through bulletins and newspapers created institutionally, to disseminate the ideas to be maintained, according to the government, by virtue of being part of the Portuguese nationality and against a liberal education or Marxist. Bulletins and newspapers were published monthly and, in some periods, fortnightly. More than two hundred issues were consulted, including the Jornal da MP, the Bulletin of the National Commissariat, the Bulletin for directors of the MPF Centros Primários and the newspaper Lusitas, published between the years 1937 and 1963. Despite all the institutional effort, the lack of resources at times to maintain these training and propaganda materials, although they were mandatory acquisition for members of both the MP and the MPF. It is also possible to observe the direct interference of the Portuguese dictatorial government in the management of the two non-formal educational institutions reflected in the daily school life, but which did not achieve the desired totality and youth engagement, as both ceased to exist with the governmental model that created them.