Paulo Martins of Salem says he was sitting in his second grade classroom in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, on April 25, 1974, when soldiers marched past the school and he was sent home along with his classmates.
Late that night, a radio broadcaster confirmed there was revolution in Lisbon to overturn the country's authoritarian Estado Novo regime.
Martin's says he'll never forget that time when the military joined the populace to overturn Europe's longest-running dictatorship.
“[They] were trying to defend the people, the population,'' he said about the military. “There was no freedom of speech before, basically no education ... the women cannot have say at all.”
On Thursday, Martins joined others across the state to celebrate the the 50th anniversary of the revolution, known as the Carnation Revolution because soldiers put flowers in the barrels of their rifles to show they meant no harm. Events included receptions and talks at places including the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Harvard University and — where Martins was — at the Saab Center for Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.
Massachusetts has about 270,000 people with Portuguese descent, the second largest such population in the United States, according to the 2020 Decennial Census. In New Bedford alone, over 31,000 — almost a third of the population — identified as Portuguese in the 2021 American Community Survey.
“The military stood up against the dictator and helped bring democracy and liberty to people by not fighting the people, but standing with the people.”Paulo Pinto, chief executive of the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers
The Carnation Revolution launched a new Constitution, improved women's rights, and established civil liberties that had long been barred under the authoritarian regime that was launched in the early 1930s. It ended Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and other areas.
Daniela Melo, a lecturer at Boston University who lives in New Bedford, said the revolution stands out as one that was mostly nonviolent and bloodless, a coup carried out by army officers who sought democracy.
Melo said before the revolution, one in four Portuguese could not read or write; there were issues with child labor, access to health care, lack of infrastructure, and significant poverty. She said the Portuguese diaspora that already existed in Massachusetts became politicized and active — talking about the future with members of political parties forming in Portugal.
“It became a very powerful image, the pictures of the soldiers who helped carry the coup that brought down the regime,” she said. “They became this powerful symbol of wanting to democratize, wanting to bring change, and wanting to avoid bloodshed as much as possible in that process.”
In Cambridge, staff at the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers, a social services organization, held a luncheon Thursday for seniors where staff passed out carnations and attendees sang songs about freedom.
Paulo Pinto, chief executive of the alliance, said he was 8 years old when his family arrived in Portugal from Mozambique and the revolution started. He said the anniversary is a “special day” for many at the event, who were in Portugal at that time. “Democracy is worth fighting for,” he said. “But it is very fragile.”
Pinto reflected that with so much war and death in the world today, what happened in Portugal was remarkable.
“The military stood up against the dictator and helped bring democracy and liberty to people by not fighting the people, but standing with the people,” he said.
State Rep. Antonio Cabral, a New Bedford Democrat, told GBH News that his family was already in the United States when the revolution took place. His said his parents immigrated because there was no economic opportunity under the dictatorship. At the time, he said, the Azores in Portugal didn’t have television. Democracy created modernization and debate, he said.
“There was really no liberty, no place to go,” he said. “Everyone was happy when it happened, particularly my dad.”
Anthony James Carreiro, who grew up in New Bedford, says he learned the history from school and from the local community. He remembers going to grade school with the children of refugees from Mozambique, who arrived because of the Carnation Revolution ending colonization.
“There was a lot of political upheaval in the whole globe at that point, so the conditions were right for our country to have a peaceful revolution,” he said. ”Even though so many revolutions in history involve such death and civil war.”
Now Martins is an organizer with the Boston Portuguese Festival that happens on Sunday, June 16. But he still considers April 25 a very special day to celebrate. “It’s so important nowadays to keep an eye on democracy that the way we know it and not take it for granted.”
