History that is a result of a panorama that begins its formation around by the early of the fifteenth century. Period when the need for expansion of Western European business, in a way had a saturated market, and the vast wealth accumulated by European traders, starts a search for new ways to respond to the market demands; which at that time focused on obtaining precious minerals such as gold, silver and diamonds. Undeniably face the challenges of the ocean was an important barrier to be overcome in the way of new achievements. The lack of knowledge about the unknown resistance established by the navigators, which avoided venture out overseas, and as a precaution usually stayed close to the coast.
     In this sense and in order to meet experienced navigators to transmit their knowledge and undertake new researches, was established in 1417 the Nautical School of Sagres, in Algarve, southernmost region of mainland Portugal. At that time, however, the Spaniards faced difficulties, basically because they have no unified government and have the presence of Arabs in the south of its territory.
     The purpose of Portuguese and Spanish was to establish a new route to the Orient by sea. That's when the need arises to be established a treaty between Portugal and Spain; fact which was consolidated with the Treaty of Alcáçovas, signed in 1480, which designated to Portugal the lands of the south of Canary Islands, as well as the shipping route through southern Africa to reach the Indies. The Spaniards, felt prejudiced and appealed to Pope Alexander VI which in May 4, 1493 issued a document called Bula Inter Caetera , which otherwise established an imaginary line 100 leagues distant from the African archipelago of Cape Verde, defining the division of the New World: the west of this the line belonging to Spain and east to Portugal. The terms of this document upset the Portuguese Crown.
     To solve this problem, was negotiated in the Spanish town of Tordesillas a new agreement between the two Iberian countries. Edited on June 7, 1494, it increased the Portuguese lands for a distance of up to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verdean island of Santo Antão. This Treaty precedes in just under six years the arrival of the first Portuguese expedition to the Brazilian coast, but already sets the southern boundary that which would become de St. Anthony of Angels of Laguna village, belonged to the Captaincy of Santana.
     It was on July 29, 1676 when the bandeirante Domingos de Brito Peixoto arrive to the area and founded the village, honoring it with the name of the saint of his devotion: St. Anthony. He became the third city in Santa Catarina State, which at the request of the king of Portugal, its installation was designed to expand the boundary beyond the Treaty of Tordesillas. The town thus became a starting point of expeditions, and over time it became populated and organized. The largest colonizers flows occurred in mid 1740 with Portuguese of the Azores, later in the first half of the nineteenth century with the Portuguese called of the mainland, and between 1748 and 1756 with the arrival of Azorean immigrants.
     They were years of intense territorial dispute between Portugal and Spain, which required the establishment of new limits for their achievements. It was when on October 1, 1777 is signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso, a new agreement that restores the property of the colonies required in South America. This treaty grants to Portugal: Colonia del Sacramento, Missions, left margin of the Uruguay river and the sovereignty over the River Plate, while Spain restitutes Santa Catarina Island. An agreement that somehow reaffirms the constant points of the Treaty of Madrid (1750).
     At that time, the socio-economic prominence of Laguna city becomes increasingly significant, and reaches its peak with the construction of the port in 1839, turning the quiet village of hitherto in a revolutionary scenario; fact that culminates in an attempt to separate the Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina from the Empire command. And so, on July 29, 1839 is proclaimed the Santa Catarina Republic or Juliana Republic, an extension of the Farroupilha Revolution. This achievement lasted until November 15, 1839 when the naval battle took place in Laguna battle, that imperialists get victory over republicans. In this period important personages like the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi, David Canabarro and Teixeira Nunes among others appear in front of these battles.
     In this period also appears, with her only 18 years of age, the heroic figure of Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro, born in Santa Catarina State. A woman of strong character and great determination that fell in love with Garibaldi and decided to follow him in his battles. They married in Uruguay two and half years later, becoming known as Anita Garibaldi. They had four children and they have fought in combat for Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay and Italy; living together until her death at 27, in the Italian city of Mandriole di Ravenna. Anita repeatedly demonstrated her warrior value, and is well known to participate in Laguna battle, when she crossed the channel numerous times, taking in a small rowboat, ammunition and weapons in full shooting. She became known as the Heroine of Two Worlds for her achievements in Brazil and Italy.
     In 1847, Laguna was elevated to city status by an Imperial Decree; and as the years passed a visible economic and social growth was seen in the city, making it bigger in the last decades of the nineteenth century, mainly as a result of its port handling. In that period occurred remarkable facts: from the year 1875 the arrival of Italian immigrants that came to colonize the southern of Santa Catarina State; from 1880 the start of construction of Tereza Cristina railway, which was completed in 1884; and in the early of 1890, the construction of Santa Marta Lighthouse, inaugurated on June 11, 1891.
     But it was by the turn of the century, in more recent history, the significant urban and cultural development took place in the city. This was reflected for example in new buildings as: residential, commercial, theater, cinema, newspaper, hospital, hotel; public lighting, public market, the construction of the library, among many others. Many of them still exist and are preserved in the Historic Centre, proving some of that golden age of the city. Between the decades from 1930 to 1950 great transformations occurred with the emergence of the first urban cars and buses, with cobbled streets, with the transfer of the port to the current location, as well as the train transfer to the end to Campo de Fora. At the end of the 1950s, there was a reduction in the port activity caused by the creation of the port of Imbituba, with capacity for larger vessels. In the 1960s, the construction of the BR-101 highway, and the construction of the bridge of the locality of Cabeçuda, caused the displacement of the economic sector out of town. Fact that began to be restored from the 1970s with the increase of tourism, port activities as well as new business. Strategies that have resulted in large development of the municipality and the population; characterized in its high HDI, Human Development Index, in the last decades.


     A rich history! History of many stories.
     A story built with fears and courages, where great navigators who landed their ships there, allow us to establish a relationship with the legendary words spoken in Latin by the Roman general Pompey the Great (106-48 BC) to the frightened sailors that refused to travel during the war: "Navigare necesse; vivere non est necesse". Expression in which the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), in his poem “Navegar é Preciso” (Sailing is necessary), offering us: "Navegar é preciso; viver não é preciso” (something like: sailing is accurate, living living is inaccurate). Expressions that make us think about. how much should be accurate navigate, and how much is not accurate to live.
     And I allow myself to think about how these expressions make sense when we think that at the end of the fifteenth century, in the city of Tordesillas, when it was defined an imaginary line 370 leagues from Cape Verde, were those Sirs established with "accuracy" to the navigators, a place which would be the Captaincy of Santana. And that in its southern end it, in a place of rare beauty - perhaps also be a point of inflection between the rugged coastline to the north and the open seas to the south -, would result to place St. Anthony of Angels of Laguna village. And despite the expansionist aims of the Portuguese Crown, how much was not possible to predict the unfolding events that happened there. That is, how much was "inaccurate" na anticipated definition of the real story that would happen there; on the life story of their personages: those who were already there, and those who came and would come to be. A discussion of the past and the future: its predictability and its imponderability; the historical relationship of spacetime. The story with their events, dates and personages that there left their marks and their feelings. Feelings that were and will be kept forever as images, in an admirable space of nature permeated by unusual meeting of so many elements: salt, marshes, hills, sand, dunes, heat, wind, beaches, canal, piers, rivers, mangroves, shell middens, fauna, flora, lakes, lagoons, and sea.
     Ah, the sea! The endless sea ... One that proposes us the poetry of nature's elements, that eliminate the traces, which holds the visible and invisible dynamics of life, one that brings and takes, one that gives and takes. That one which has the waves. Waves that move the vessels, that bring people and their food, that come into the port. Port which gives security: where the future comes. One guided by a light of hope, as the lonely light of a distant lighthouse; that stands proudly over the top of its promontory; that guide the ships, which gives the direction that guides men; men holding story.
     I take my imaginary thoughts up to the highest point: to the hill of Glory. I direct my eyes to the ocean; I only see the infinite: the infinite sea. I do not see traces, but I know they exist. I look down and watch more closely: the tracks are there, through tortuous ways and streets: pathways. They are pathways that have been shared by women and men, children and families, friends and neighbors, merchants and goods, marches and processions, religious and pagan festivals, rain and wind, wars and peace; streets that intersect theirselves in irregular sidewalk stones, conscious records of an visible-invisible unconscious. That perhaps carry an intimate and concrete essence of the feelings that were there over time. And which were gradually giving way to other feelings; other men and women who continue writing their stories. Stories that join with other and other stories, and that will form the great story of what is to be human.


     This photographic work was carried out since 2012 on trips to Laguna city. They were trips where I had the opportunity to learn about its historical and cultural heritage, interact with its people, make friends, and experience a bit more of people's lives. More than knowledge of books and information that supported me in my researches, walk inside the life of this city, so rich in beauty, history and culture, gave me an even greater learning about my own history.
     I do here my honor and my obeisance to the great personages who built with their personal journeys, the great history of this city and southern Brazil too. That history immortalized in the Latin words of the historian Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay, when he created the Coat of Arms of Laguna: ”AD MERIDIEM BRASILIAN DVXI” (“To the south, the Brazil I took”); that in essence symbolizes the important and decisive role of brave people from this city, not only in the emancipation of conflict in the southern region, but also in the history of national expansion process towards the River Plate.
     And as a form of retribution, I offer these images to the valuable people of the city of Laguna, for their strength and bravery, which gives great pride to the people of Santa Catarina, as well as the affection I get when I'm there.

Special thanks:
- To my father, Oduvaldo Florentino Machado, for the good memories about the Laguna city's history.
- To my friend João Francisco Marques de Carvalho, from Florianópolis, for sharing much of his historical knowledge.
- To psychologist Ana Cláudia Judice Alleotti for her wise words.
- To my friend Jorge Manuel Ferreira Pinto, from Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, for his contributions about Portuguese culture.
- To architect Leonardo Fernandes Pascoal, President of Cultural Foundation of Laguna.
- To Mrs. Zenaida Silva, Director of the Laguna Museums, and her working group: Rômulo Souza, João Rodolfo Lopes Pereira, Marco Antônio Costa Botelho and Solange Paschoal Araújo.
- At Laguna City Hall: Thiago Laurindo, Norton De Araújo Mattos, Wellington Linhares Martins Maria Gorete Alves Cardoso Fão.
- To Professor Airton Bento Machado for accompanying to me during the photos of the ruins of Atalaia Fort, the historical informations he gave me, and the suggestions about the books of the historian Wolfgang Ludwig Rau.
- To engineer Jerferson Machado Alves for his guidance during the visit to the ruins of Atalaia Fort.

Information about history and culture of Laguna city can be found at Cultural Foundation of Laguna, phone +55 (48) 3646-2542.

Laguna Geo Code: 28° 28' 54" S 48° 46' 56" W

"Authorization for Use of Image": It was conceded by Laguna City Hall the use of external and internal images of the Anita Garibaldi Historic Museum and House of Anita Museum, by this site as Authorization for Use of Image Term by Administrative Proceeding No. 1919/2015 of March 9, 2015.