The grand old man of Brazilian journalism, Barbosa Lima, who died on July 16th aged 103, dedicated his life to the cause of democracy - not always a soft option in his homeland. A fervent nationalist, he wrote more than 3,000 articles and 70 books - and he himself became a living history book. Lucid until the end, his last article was published in the newspaper Jornal do Brasil on the day he died.
Barbosa Lima was born only five years after slavery had been abolished in Brazil. It was four years since the abdication of the emperor and the proclamation of the republic. The Brazilian 20th century was one where oligarchic presidents gave way to revolutions, civil war, populism, military dictatorship and democracy.
Lima played an active part in many of these episodes and, as his country approached the new millennium, he was still writing furious articles, criticising its "government of pygmies" for supporting privatisation, globalisation and the demands of the International Monetary Fund.
The son of a traditional family in the north-east state of Pernambuco, he began his career at 15, on the newspaper A Provincia, in his hometown of Recife. In 1926 he became the youngest ever president of the Brazilian Press Association - he died, the oldest.
Between 1935 and 1964, he was active in party politics, and in 1948 was elected governor of Pernambuco. He also became a federal congressman for the state, although he lived most of the time in the then capital, Rio de Janeiro.
A fierce opponent of the generals who seized power in 1964, Lima, then 76, stood for vice-president in the 1973 campaign of the opposition leader Ulisses. They knew their campaign did not stand a chance against the repression and censorship of the military, who had already chosen their next presidential general.
When asked why he took part in a lost cause, Barbosa Lima said that if anyone could prove to him that inertia was better than protest, he would give up. For him it was important to show that the will for democracy existed, and that one day the military regime would end.
In 1992, at the age of 95, he headed the signatures on the petition requesting the impeachment for corruption of President Fernando Collor, and was one of those who delivered it to the national congress. For many, Lima had become "the moral reserve of the nation", a man whose lifelong defence of democracy, press freedom and Brazil's interests was matched by his personal probity and honesty.
Lima was married for 67 years to Maria Jose, aged 92, who survives him, together with three children, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Barbosa Lima: born 1897; died, July 2000