literature

Today I will be free

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It's been days, it's been years waiting for a single day. Joys. Disillusions. It was the time that hurt with his risks and damages. It was the night and the day in hopes of one day. (Manuel Alegre)



It would be today.


When the magnetizing voice of Paulo de Carvalho was broadcasted on the radio that night, she knew it. Everything was about to change. Leaning back slightly in her armchair, she quietly enjoyed the lyrics of another failed attempt to win the Eurovision song festival.


The discrete DGS official sitting at the bottom of the living room watched her for a moment before resuming the report's drafting of the mission he was in. "Harmless". The police officer's opinion about her was so strong that he didn't even try to hide it.


He couldn't be more wrong.


She turned her gaze to the radio and sighed. Her countenance was calm yet, her mind was ravaged by an endless vortex of memories.


"She probably recalls a romance from the past while the singer mourns himself," wrote the pide. Once again, miles away from the truth. But how could he know? The success of the approaching event depended on the unawareness of it.


The waves murmur could be heard in the distance. Oh, the sea... How she loved the sea! The endless horizon, the nights under the starry sky. A few years ago, she spent more time aboard a ship than in her little mansion in the seashore.


Freedom of the high seas.


Yes, she loves freedom.She already had enough battles with her younger brother to prove it. Now, those days, when she faced Antonio to keep her independence, when she discovered a new world beyond the ocean and ran whith her breast uncovered on the streets of the capital to cheer the victory of the republic,they seemed to be so far away. In exchange for greater economic stability, she had been empowered by a totalitarian regime wich suffocated her slowly.


"Proudly alone", told her the boss. He made her to limit contact with her peers to the strictly necessary to favor the governmment, he brainwashed all her people and took control of her destiny.


But the promised heaven never arrived. The most deprived remained poor and ignorant, the women were subjugated by a male-dominated society, the freethinkers filled the cells in Tarrafal, artists and reporters saw their work severed by the blue pencil, even her beloved African brothers rebelled against her, trying to escape from her domain. Only the state treasury was in good condition.


The grandfather clock indicated midnight. It was time to change the currently tuned radio station. Without hurry, she browsed the channels and found the desired frequency. After a few minutes, it began.


Grândola, Vila Morena,
Terra da Fraternidade,
O povo é quem mais ordena,
Dentro de ti, ó cidade.


These words, full of meaning, filled the stale air of the division, purifying it little by little. The policeman twitched in his place. He didn't appreciate the song, since it was composed by a dissident.


It ends today.


The revolution is underway. Soldiers will begin, right now, military operations which will culminate with the overthrow of the Estado Novo. Soon, radio, television, Lisbon airport and the Headquarters of the Army Staff will be occupied by her captains.


Em cada rosto igualdade


No more isolation. No more censorship. No more social inequality. No more obscurantism.No more imperialism.


Grândola, a tua vontade,
Jurei ter por companheira
À sombra de uma azinheira,
Que já não sabia a idade.


She rose and walked towards the door with determination. Behind, she left the dumbfounded policeman, the fear and 48 years of dictatorship.


April 25, 1974. This is the day when she depose the Estado Novo.


Today she'll be free again.

ATENÇÃO! Se sabes ler português, aconselho-te vivamente a leres a versão original -> [link]

fem! Portugal at the verge of the Carnation Revolution.

Historical notes:
- The revolution of 25th of April (or Carnation Revolution) was a military coup that occurred in Portugal on April 25, 1974 and ended the prevailing fascist dictatorship, the Estado Novo (established 1933). Portugal was a dictatorship since 1926, when another military coup imposed a military dictatorship (later replaced by the Estado Novo).
- "E depois do Adeus" (the literal translation is "And after the Goodbye") [link] song performed by Paulo de Carvalho, was the theme brought by Portugal to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 (as always, Portugal failed to win). It was broadcasted on the evening of April 24 as the signal to start the military operations against the regime.
- The allusion to the topless uncovered breast relates to this illustration of the Portuguese Establishment of the Republic (5 October 1910) [link]
- The military coup was carried out by the MFA (Armed Forces Movement), composed mainly of intermediate and junior officers (captains), and characterized by the massive adoption of the population (which had been encouraged to stay home) to the revolution and the pacifism in which it took place (there were only four deaths).
- PIDE (later DGS) was the government's political police, who in charge of censorship (blue pencil) and drown out the voices of those who opposed to the state.
- Tarrafal, or Field of Slow Death, was a prison camp in Cape Verde.
- "Grândola, Vila Morena" [link] , by Zeca Afonso, is resistance song that escaped from the grip of censorship and had authorization to be broadcasted. Its transmission in the early hours of April 25 was the confirmatory signal that military operations were in progress and were irreversible.
More information at: [link]

Saya, thank you so much for the beta reading!


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