The motto was “We were in Portimão on the 25th of April”. And so it was that, on Saturday, April 13th, six people, protagonists, in their own way, of April 25th, 1974, met to talk about their memories, at the Portimão Museum.
On stage were Colonel José Glória Alves (then captain), who commanded the (few) operations of the Armed Forces Movement in the Algarve, in the early hours of the morning and on the 25th of April, as well as Colonel Carlos Branco (then major), also involved in the operations of the rebellious military in the Algarve region, as well as teachers Madalena Gracias and Regina Serrano, and also José Gameiro, today scientific director of the Portimão Museum, but who was then a militia officer in Mozambique, corresponding with his girlfriend through of drawings that he shared for the first time in public, and Carlos Romão Reis, now vice-president of the Group of Friends of the Portimão Museum, but at that time a student at the city's high school.
Moderating, or rather, participating in the conversation, he was Elisabete Rodrigues, journalist and director of Sul Informação, who was 11 years old on that “complete and clean initial day”.
All these protagonists, throughout more than two hours of conversation, illustrated by images from the time, recalled how they lived, personally and directly in Portimão, this historic transition from dictatorship to freedom and the democratic regime.
More than a report – which it is not – the video that records the meeting is a historical document, with testimonies that may never be made again, and that remain for posterity.
The gathering “We were in Portimão on the 25th of April” was organized by the Group of Friends of the Portimão Museum, as part of the official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.
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