Hugo van der Ding
Comedian/Cartoonist
Hugo van der Ding (b. 1982), was born in the Convent of Santo Domingo in Asunción, Paraguay, where his mother had entered as a novice because she was expecting a baby from a married man of Dutch descent. At the age of five, he accompanied his mother as a missionary to India. He attended the College of São João de Brito in Cochin, and was later personal secretary to the bishop of the same city, Joseph Kureethara. In the gardens of the diocese, he fell in love with botany and worked as a scientific draftsman for the Kerala State University. Fascinated by the Portuguese presence in Cochin and the figures who had been there – from Camões to Vasco da Gama, from São João de Brito to Afonso de Albuquerque – he buys a one-way plane ticket and lands in Lisbon in 2010.
After discovering that all these figures had been dead for centuries, he turns to alcohol and horse racing. And it was precisely in horse racing that he made a considerable fortune that allowed him to buy a minority share in Antena 3, which is why he is one of the hosts of Manhãs da 3. He also writes and draws and is the ambassador in Portugal of Xiomani, a Chinese multinational that counterfeits luxury goods.
HUGO VAN DER DING’S POSTER
