Faustina Barradas and Mariana Rafael
Biography
Faustina Barradas was born on September 4, 1945, in Vale de Vargo (Serpa). From an early age, she was familiar with the struggles of rural workers and the distribution of communist propaganda. Her parents, Sebastião Camilo Barradas and Faustina Maria Candeias, harvesters, were affiliated with the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and had previously been arrested by the PVDE/PIDE. Her mother was also involved in the military.
In 1954, at the age of 9, Faustina moved to Lisbon with her parents, who went underground. At 14, she began working at the Fábrica dos Alfinetes, where she participated in the distribution of propaganda related to October 5th and May 1st.
In 1961, she became an employee of the PCP. After a period in Lisbon, living in Dias Lourenço’s house, she moved to Porto and worked in several printing shops.
After her parents’ arrest in October 1965, Faustina herself went underground. At 16, she set up a clandestine home in Gondomar with José Carlos Almeida, whom she would marry and have three daughters with. After the birth of her youngest daughter, the eldest had to go live with her paternal grandparents.
She remained underground in the northern part of the country until the 25th of April, performing various tasks related to the security of the home or the setup and operation of several clandestine printing presses.
Mariana Morais Rafael was born underground in 1949, in Barreiro. Her parents were clandestine printing presses for the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). For security reasons, in 1952, at the age of two and a half, she went to live with her maternal grandmother and aunt and uncle in Vale de Vargo, in the Lower Alentejo region. Her uncle was arrested for organizing strikes, and her aunt for supporting strikers. In 1956, she returned to her parents, who were in hiding and ran a printing press in the Espinho area. Between the ages of seven and 17, Mariana lived in 24 different houses, many of them clandestine printing presses where newspapers such as Avante!, O Militante, O Camponês, O Têxtil, O Corticeiro, A Terra, and O Amanhã were printed, as well as countless manifestos and pamphlets.
At 17, armed with a false passport, she jumped across the border into Spain and headed to Moscow, where she studied. Back in Portugal at 18, she worked as a PCP organizer for three years. In 1970, she lived in hiding with her future husband, Armando Morais. During this period, pressure from the PIDE (Public Security Council) forced the family, already with two children born in hiding, to constantly move, moving between five houses and several rooms.
In 2002, Mariana Morais completed her journalism degree at the University of Beira Interior with a 14-point average.
Date of Collection: 20.06.2016
Keywords: Women, Underground, Peasants, Family, Comunist Party, Children in the Underground, Typographies.
