For my historian friends

When we got to the castle in Castelo de Vide, the very nice man at the entrance told us that there was a new museum inside, dedicated to one of Castelo de Vide’s most illustrious sons — Fernando Salgueiro Maia. On April 25, 1974, a 29-year old Captain in the Portuguese army, he brought his batallion(?) from Santarém into Lisbon in a parade of tanks to form part of the Carnation Revolution. He was positioned in Lisbon in the area of Convento do Carmo, where there is also a military barracks. Turns out the president of the government (Caetano someone) had fled there for protection.

Salgueiro Maia went inside, demanded the resignation of the government, and it finally came. He spoke to the crowd outside with a bull horn to announce that the government had agreed to step down. The museum shows the evolution of his thought and ultimate decision to join with the other “capitaes”. He had fought in both Moçambique and Guinea, and footage showed some of the carnage he witnessed. Convinced that these colonial wars were going nowhere and were atrociously immoral, he decided, as he said that “Há alturas em que é preciso desobedecer.” (there are moments when it is necessary to disobey).

As you might imagine, he was praised and feted in the aftermath of the revolution. But the story ends sadly. He was offered many positions in the new government, but unlike the other military heroes, he refused to join the government, being firmly of the opinion that military leaders have no business being government leaders. For that he was shunned, ostracized, and his loyalty questioned. It wasn’t until after his death (at a very young age in the 90s, from cancer) that the government gave his widow Portugal’s highest medals of honor.

He was born in Castelo de Vide in a modest home (father worked for the RR, mother a maid), and is buried, as he wished, in Castelo de Vide. He has three children — two adopted with his wife, who live in Luxembourg and Lisbon, and an out of wedlock son from his early days, who apparently lives in the US.

I think Castelo de Vide is rightly and enormously proud of this man.Read more