Vasco Castro. Sometimes a painter, sometimes a journalist, a politician, an association manager, an actor, an activist, very often a cartoonist and almost always Bohemian, very much so. Vasco, the only son of the also artist and poet Afonso de Castro, was born in the borough of Ferreira do Zêzere on 10 August 1935 because his mother, Lídia Borges, gave classes there at the primary school but it was in Vila Real and its outskirts that he grew up until he was 18 years old. It was there in Trás-os-montes that he started winding people up, provoking the school headmaster with some early cartoons, writing short, naive plays or already acting as the correspondent of Mundo Desportivo. 

In 1953, having finished secondary school, he took the train and despite being enrolled at the University of Coimbra, he only got off at Rossio Station to enrol in the Law Faculty. In the capital he worked with various publications such as Diário de Lisboa, Sempre Fixe, Os Ridículos, O Mundo ri, Cara Alegre and A Bola and he took part in the amateur dramatics group Direito, creating the group Jograis de Lisboa and supporting the Humberto Delgado's candidature for the presidency. He worked at the Tágide restaurant, crossing the paths of various artists, attending the surrealist literary circle of Café Gelo and becoming part of the nightlife.

With the political and colonial situation of the “Estado Novo” (the Salazarist regime), on 9 or 10 June 1961 he went into exile in Paris until 1974. In the City of Lights he was dazzled in  away that would affect him for the rest of his life. With his main refuge in the district of Montparnasse, he started out doing odd jobs, but his drawings soon found their place in the French press, Le Monde, Le Figaro, France-Observateur,  L’Humanité and Actualité and he created publications with “O Comunista” or the Underground LX magazine. He took part in several films by the director Jean Pierre Mocky (L’Etalon and Solo) and his political and social militancy stepped up particularly in May 68 and in the antifascist propaganda closely aligned with the extreme-left, even organising a music Festival in Cassis. And then there were the many loves of his life. One day he confessed  “I should never have left this place”. He took part in the Cartoon Biennials of Montreal in 1970 and 1972 and with the writer Xavier Domingo he carried out cartoons about André Breton, Hemingway and François 

Mauric. With the carnation revolution of 1974 he returned to Lisbon and took part in Sempre Fixe, República, Página Um, Diário de Notícias, Pão Manteiga and the Público newspaper with drawings and texts. He also had 2 works published about the golden years in Paris, “Montaparnasse, mon village (1985) and “Montaparnasse until the hours run out”. Finally, he was to achieve his last big dream, a space that could house his collection of artistic works with more than 4000 drawings and 200 paintings. A dignified place for looking after, preserving and showing his work and legacy.

Vasco, died on the 11h of July 2021.