Adriana Nogueira, Regional Director of Culture of the Algarve, mourned the death of Margarida Tengarrinha, which occurred this Thursday, October 26th, at the age of 95.
In a note published on social media, the Regional Directorate of Culture remembers Margarida Tengarrinha as an «artist, writer, teacher and resistant to the Salazar regime».
Born in Portimão, on May 7, 1928, she began her organized political activity in 1948, as part of the MUD Juvenil, at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa (ESBAL).
In 1952, she was expelled from ESBAL, banned from attending all colleges in the country, as well as from teaching at the Paula Vicente Preparatory School, where she was a teacher, for her participation in the fight for peace, atomic disarmament and against the NATO meeting in Lisbon . That same year she became a PCP activist.
In 1955, he joined the PCP clandestinely, together with his companion, José Dias Coelho, using his artistic skills to falsify documents and in this way support the work of those resisting the dictatorship. She was a writer for the newsletter A Voz das Comaradas, aimed at female PCP activists, and for Jornal Avante.
After the murder of José Dias Coelho, on December 19, 1961, she left for Moscow with Álvaro Cunhal, with whom she worked for two years, and then to Romania, where she worked as an editor for Rádio Portugal Livre. She returned to Portugal in 1968, returning to
clandestinity and writing at Jornal Avante.
After the 25th of April, she became a member of the PCP Central Committee, was part of the Lisbon Regional Directorate and was a deputy for the Algarve.
He illustrated and edited several books, including “Quadros da Memória” (2004), “Memórias de uma Falsificadora” (2018) and “A Luta na Clandestinidade pela Liberdade em Portugal” (2018), an autobiographical book, adapted to the Theater by Joaquim Horta in 2021.
Margarida Tengarrinha was the winner of the first edition of the Maria Veleda Regional Award (2014), promoted by the Algarve Regional Cultural Directorate.
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