2024-04-12 17:29:18
In recent weeks, we have been preparing a special edition here at Contacto that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution. And there was a day, a few weeks ago, when we needed the red flowers that brought us democracy and freedom of expression for a photo shoot. So I went around the capital’s flower shops to see if I could find the symbol of our liberation. It was a frankly arduous task.
I already wrote about this almost impossible mission of finding red carnations in Luxembourg in April. I’ve been spending the holidays here since 2019, and every year I’ve made an effort to go down to Liberty Avenue listening to the songs that served as a slogan for the revolution, preferably holding the same flowers that the population stuck in the barrels of soldiers’ rifles.
On the day I was looking for carnations for the photo session, I informed the florists in the capital that the 50th anniversary of the Revolution would be celebrated on the 25th, and asked them to fill the vases with flowers.
But I can’t always find blackheads – and that’s a sadness I keep close to my chest. A year ago, I wrote a column talking about precisely this, and how the 25th of April was ignored by the Portuguese authorities. In my opinion, it was fair to fill the streets of Luxembourg with flowers, organize concerts and debates – and I was worried at that time that, in 2024, the year of celebration of the fiftieth anniversary, the Embassy or the Camões Cultural Center would not have the courage to do so. it.
Now that the date is approaching, it’s only fair to give it a go. The effort and presence of our diplomatic representatives in the celebrations that are being prepared has been visible. And a lot is indeed about to happen. The opening of an exhibition on the 1974 revolution at the National Museum at the fish market is probably the most visible of all. The promotion of a debate between two historians (Fernando Rosas on the left, Jaime Nogueira Pinto on the right) at the Cercle Cité is unavoidable. The film ‘Capitães de Abril’ will also be shown at the Cinemateca.
The Portuguese of the capital. Sónia, the woman who revolutionizes the Luxembourg museum
The celebration of the anniversary, in fact, began at the beginning of the year. In January there was a concert in Camões called ‘Notas de Abril’, in March there was the presentation of a book about women exiled during the dictatorship. I’m sure there will be more events throughout the year. And, after worrying about the date being forgotten, I have to admit that my fears are not true.
Here at our newspaper we also remain committed to the cause: we will have this special edition, with unpublished stories and others that will give context to the 25th of April. We discover a cell of resistance to the dictatorship created in the Grand Duchy, we publish never-before-seen images of the regime’s concentration camp, we tell the controversial life of Othello, the captain of Abril, and Salgueiro Maia’s daughter, who started her own revolution in Luxembourg .
And we talk about the days of the dictatorship, about everything we couldn’t do and everything we couldn’t say. The miserable poverty in which the Portuguese lived – and which made so many people flee to the rest of the world. Of a war that claimed thousands of lives and created eternal trauma. From a gray and sad country, which we don’t want to have again.
On the day I was looking for carnations for the photo session, I informed the florists in the capital that the 50th anniversary of the Revolution would be celebrated on the 25th, and asked them to fill the vases with flowers. I hope you remember the warning. So that we can all have the party that is being and saying. Long live freedom, always.
2024-04-12 17:29:18