The International Journal of Portuguese Language (RILP) has been published since the foundation of the Association of Portuguese Language Universities (AULP) in 1986, and has been the medium of expression of scientific society that expresses itself in Portuguese.

Maria Helena Mira Mateus, directed the first series consisting of seventeen numbers and, José Augusto Seabra, coordinated the second series with three numbers, series interrupted with his disappearance. The third series, starting in 2008, gained an institutional and thematic character and makes up a total of thirty numbers. It has been 30 years of creating higher education networks in Portuguese.

This magazine is a unique national case of internationalization of the original language center, Portuguese, for the multilateral universe of cultures that have been historically associated with it, oblivious to the political variations that time imposes. Implicit is the awareness of the degree of international recognition and influence that language policies promote for certain languages ​​or can promote for the Portuguese language.

The justification for the need to launch a new series was self-imposed. The need to keep up with the new editorial times requires other rules to be implemented. For this reason, RILP was, however, prepared editorially in the Secretariat for registration, started to be referenced in the international catalog LATINDEX, international information system of international scientific journals, whose requirements in a first phase, imposed its annuality, a monitoring council scientific process and a content review process that transformed it into an adequate scientific journal with a view to international circulation.

In a second phase that will mark the IV series to start in 2017, the RILP will be subjected to the pressure of becoming semiannual, a condition for integrating other scientific reference catalogs, namely the SCIELO to which it will be submitted for appreciation, thus fulfilling international criteria that will tend in reverting RILP into a more attractive magazine in the world of international publications.

After completing thirty years of existence, the Association of Portuguese Language Universities, publishes this commemorative issue, which also aims to mark the end of the third series, opening the Journal to the free call of articles at the international level.

Institutional historiography will allow those to come to have information that is dispersed and will tend to overcome the limitations of our own humanity, always restricted compared to the time that an idea that gains institutional body can last.

After a first part in which it is possible to understand the institutionalization of the AULP and its identity from the testimonies of the successive managers of the general secretariat of the Association, a second part gathers the testimonies of consecutive institutional presidents and the Universities they represented making perceived dynamics, intentions and commitments as well as the dynamics generated in the associative sphere. It was not possible to collect the testimonies of everyone, some due to absence in the physical world, others because distance did not favor their collection, in which we highlight in particular Prof. Dr. Brazão Mazula from Mozambique, but we want to read this issue carefully to everyone and do it justice.

A third part, lives up to the collective collection that together and with the combined effort it was possible to register in a written work. The historiography of the Encounters and their registration in Minutes; a synthesis of the content of the RILP and the impulse to reprint works dear to different cultures; and, finally, the launch of the academic merit award on scientific work, are completed with a last part in which the list of Meetings and Presidencies, added to the collection of RILP indexes, will allow, in the future, only the consultation of this issue for the investigations to which we are often asked to contribute.

In this introduction, one last word is dedicated to the headquarters team. The life of an Association of this type implies a careful management of resources, whether human or material. Since the beginning of the creation of the AULP, behind it is the work of Mr. Rogério Rei, without which economic stability and a healthy financial balance owes him everything. It is a daily, discreet job, with good will and good faith as it is rare to find. For that, a special thanks is due to him.

It is also important to remember the contributions, although not witnessed here, by Dr. Analídia Perdigão and Prof. Doctor Gabriel Feio, who served as acting general secretary after the departure of Alarcão Troni, as well as the commitment of Dr. Teresa Botelheiro, executive secretary in the years 2011-2013, even when the guidelines of the Board of Directors were not coincident with the guidance of its management.

The impulse and support for editorial activity had an exemplary dedication in Mestre Suzano Costa, executive secretary in the years 2008-2012, interrupted by the desire to complete his formative pursuit to the highest level of the PhD, which AULP supports and to whom bodes well and wishes personal and professional successes. Over the past decade, Dr. Sandra Moura, has been able to gradually build up her training and today she is the key to a stable and knowledgeable secretariat. More recently, Dr. Pandora Guimarães from the communication area was able to impress creative enthusiasm and support for editions that she considers invaluable and which AULP no longer does without.

Upon completing the thirtieth year of activity, AULP took on a life of its own and despite some difficulties in its path, it has been able to keep up with the time and dynamics that it determines, auguring a fruitful continuity for the project that is implicit in it: the creation of a network knowledge at the level of higher education anchored in the sharing of a common language and the different cultures that have been associated with it.

Rui Martins

Cristina Montalvão Sarmento