Beja: Isaclino Palma, the “master” working clay.
There 33 years that your hands shape the clay and create living figures of the 91 year old. master Isaac, as it is known, It has made more than half a thousand pieces, and one by one count their, friendships, your passions, lived in Beja.
Isaclino Francisco Palma, 91 year old
Craftsman, naturalness and residence: Beja
Among the names that come to mind are those of Manuel de Melo Garrido, Bejense journalist and sports official (na photos), Max, a simple figure, but cultured city and the poet António Aleixo Algarve, who met in their youth times. All have passed but, They were immortalized by the hands of the clay master.
Is proud to have been a "Dragon Olivenza", as they are known all those who made military service in the Cavalry 3, Estremoz, unit still in active.
Imagine living without a great passion for clay, Isaclino Palma had in football one of its strong exaltations, having been player, coach, but it was as a referee that is still known in Beja.
After many years behind the coffee counter that gave its name (coffee Isaac), where time was divided between the customers and the drawings that made the naked eye or from photographs, Master Isaac arrives 1986, the municipality and the clay. Still maintains its connection to the local authority, also it is "teacher" at the University Senior Beja.
"My passion is to spread the art of clay and with it the sing Alentejo. My figures are, largely, people who were born and raised in the city ", adding that seek to give life or representation "to legends and stories, to Marian symbols and the Alentejo world ", ends.
Master Isaclino has the ability to recreate in clay, as "living legends", Beja Battle between Gonçalo Mendes da Maia and the Moorish King, Legend of the Bull and Cobra or the passion of Soror Mariana Alcoforado and the French captain.
In Kid met António Aleixo, who spent many summer seasons on father's house and the rural working life of the Algarve poet, It is one that idolizes. "Like many other Algarve to Beja to harvest. It was an odd figure that looked like listening to recite his poems. For a semi-literate man, It was a fascinating person ", recalls.
master Isac, already Expos in Lisbon and Oporto, but their joy was great when headed to Canada and the Casa do Alentejo showed the thousands of Alentejo living in Toronto, the experiences that many, some never returned to their land, They recalled with nostalgia.
The UNESCO Center for the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, opened in July 2017, hosting the exhibition Master Isac, called "Hands working the clay", than three months round the sets and figures residents, so you can better understand the issues and work of the craftsman.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
