Peregrinação

What do secret agent 007 and football player Luís Figo have in common with a book written in the 16th century? Nothing at all until Portuguese newspaper ‘Expresso’ decided to invite architect Carlos Marreiros to illustrate Peregrinação, a text in which Portuguese adventurer Fernão Mendes Pinto (1509–1583) tells the story of his journey to the Far East.

This is where James Bond, the secret agent created by Ian Fleming, comes in, hopefully bringing with him “Japanese with laptops and Portuguese with records by Fado singer Amália Rodrigues”. As Marreiros says, “Fernão Mendes Pinto was a prisoner, who was sold I don’t know how many times as a slave. There’s a scene (in the book) in which he says ‘they preferred a mound of dates to me’, referring to his captors. He was an ambassador; he was a Jesuit. On top of all this, he was a spy. This is my interpretation. He provided geographic information and military information etc... So he was clearly a bit of an 007!” Marreiros laughs as he looks at a drawing of Mendes Pinto dressed as James Bond.

Hélder Beja / Macao Magazine