José Maria Ferreira de Castro (24 May 1898 – 29 June 1974) was a Portuguese writer and journalist. Ferreira de Castro had a long career in journalism, and considered his fiction writing to be an extension of his documentary reporting; in that regard, he is considered to be one of the fathers of contemporary Portuguese social-realist (or neorealist) fiction, a forerunner of socially committed literature about the rural and working classes later further established by Alves Redol, and more than once a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Ferreira de Castro was part of the group of noted public intellectuals that were opposed to the authoritarian Estado Novo regime; despite his participation in almost every peaceful action directed against the regime, his national and international recognition as an acclaimed novelist meant he was never a victim of excessively violent repression, such as prison, torture or loss of political rights.
Life
The eldest son of José Eustáquio Ferreira de Castro, a poor peasant, and Maria Rosa Soares de Castro, he lost his father at the age of 8. At 12 years old, he decided to emigrate with the intention of supporting his family. On January 7, 1911, he embarked on the steamship Jerôme bound for Belém do Pará, in Brazil. There, he would publish his first novel, Criminoso por Ambição, in 1916.
Later, for four years, he lived in the rubber plantation of Paraíso, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, on the banks of the Madeira River. After leaving Paraíso, he lived in precarious conditions, having to resort to jobs such as pasting posters, or as a deckhand on Amazonian ships.