Pedro Aguiar
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Pedro Aguiar (born 29 December 1981) is a Brazilian journalist and retired geofiction micronationalist and MicroWiki editor who was the founder and King of the Kingdom of Porto Claro between 1992 until his expulsion in 1998. An early pioneer of the Lusophone sector, Aguiar dedicated himself to the development of Internet micronationalism and simulationism in the Portuguese-speaking world (Lusophones). He also wrote the Jéssica Encyclopeadia and re-established the League of Secessionist States, serving as its Secretary-General between October 1996 to July 1997. He is often regarded as the first micronationalist and founder of the online Lusophone and Brazilian sectors.
Early life
Pedro Aguiar was born on 29 December 1981 in Brazil, and grew up in Rio de Janeiro. Since Aguiar was young, he enjoyed geofiction. In 1990, aged 9, Aguiar had created three fictional countries: Zarmut, Armatia, and Rupetia.[1]
Career
Porto Claro
He created his first serious geofiction micronation, the Kingdom of Porto Claro, on 20 or 25 September 1992, alongside a group of friends. Aguiar was chosen to be king. Initially, Porto Claro was founded as a joke. By December, Porto Claro was forgotten by the group aside from Aguiar, who then became the sole citizen of the micronation. He continued to develop it as another geofiction project until discovering an online micronationalist community via GeoCities in 1996. Seeing that other individuals had the same interest as himself, he reached out to the community and eventually gathered online citizens for Porto Claro, expanding it to at least fifty by the start of 1997. On 8 March 1998, the online citizens wanted more control over Porto Claro (Aguiar's position as King gave him unrestricted power), and so the citizens held a revolution and reformed Porto Claro into a republic. Aguiar did not accept the change, which resulted in his expulsion from the nation that same year.[2] Aguiar would attempt to make several new micronations: Volkarina in 1999, Marraguasca in 2002, the Republic of Santana in 2003 and Meridia in 2004, though none would ever become as successful as Porto Claro.[1]
League of Secessionist States
In September 1996, Aguiar re-established the inactive League of Secessionist States. He advertised it online on GeoCities to several micronationalists, which led to several members joined. In October, he was elected Secretary-General, during which he established several clauses of the new charter, including the creation of the General Assembly, elections for lower positions and membership requirements. He also created its first website that same year. By the time his term ended in July 1997, he had received widespread acclaim within the organisation.[3]
MicroWiki
Aguiar discovered MicroWiki on 10 February 2006, and decided to launch a Portuguese-language version of it on the same day. Like MicroWiki, it was hosted on Wikicities. It reached 1,000 articles on 5 March. However, Aguiar quickly became inactive on both wikis.[4]
Personal life
Aguiar is a journalist, and graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Rio de Janeiro and a degree in film from the Fluminense Federal University. He was formerly a foreign news reporter for EFE in 2004 and Jornal do Brasil in 2006. He was also an intern at O Globo and the Central Brasileira de Notícias in 2005.[1] His other hobbies and interests include aesthetics, politics, music, screenwriting and Wikipedia editing.[1] Having first registered an account on 25 October 2002, Aguiar has since made over 8,000 edits to the Portuguese-language Wikipedia as of April 2022.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 User:Pedro Aguiar at Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ↑ História Real. (in Portuguese). "História". Republic of Porto Claro official website. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2022 – via the Internet Archive.
- ↑ "Secretário-Gera". (in Portuguese). The LoSS – official website. "Servindo como secretário-geral de outubro de 1996 a julho de 1997, o Sr. Aguiar, fundador de Porto Claro e primeiro micronacionalista na América Latina, foi responsável pela ressurreição da LOSS e pela criação do primeiro site independente da LOSS (que antes era hospedado sob o website da Talossa)." [Serving as secretary general from October 1996 to July 1997, Mr Aguiar, founder of Porto Claro and the first micronationalist in Latin America, was responsible for the resurrection of LoSS and the creation of LoSS's first independent website (which was previously hosted under Talossa's website)." Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ↑ Skye, Zabëlle Lunarius [Skye, Zabëlle] (31 March 2022) "Historical Overview of the MicroWiki community: 2005–2008". London: MicroLunarius Publications. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ↑ Contributions for User:Pedro Aguiar at Portuguese Wikipedia. (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 April 2022.