As Missões Culturais do Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional e o papel de Eurico Tomás de Lima (1940 – 1941)

The Cultural Missions of the Secretariat of National Propaganda (SPN) were an important initiative held in the early 1940s that aimed to organize several music concerts, with other moments that included a thematic lecture and poetry reading, in various cities and towns of Portugal. This article seeks to address the Cultural Missions in their political dimension, mainly the purpose of the SPN to reach the middle classes of small urban centres. We also aim to unveil the role played by the pianist and composer Eurico Tomas de Lima as chief of those missions in 1940 and 1941. The research for this article was based on several documentary sources and made possible to expose: the organization and structure of Cultural Missions, contributing to a deeper knowledge of these initiatives in terms of their propaganda objectives within the scope of the Estado Novo; the central role played by Eurico Tomas de Lima, who had several responsibilities implementing these initiatives; and the artistic and musical scope of the chosen programs.