Fernando Vicente
Biography
Fernando Filipe Esteves Vicente was born in Lisbon on June 12, 1941. In 1959, he entered the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), where he graduated in Engineering. He became involved in politics and the student and association movement, particularly after the academic crisis of 1962, following which he was expelled and prevented from taking exams and completing the academic year. He joined the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) in 1962. He chaired the board of the IST Student Association between 1964 and 1965, after holding various positions. He was expelled from the University of Lisbon in 1964 due to his activity as a student leader. He continued his studies in Porto and completed his degree in Lisbon. In 1967/1968, he joined the Inter-Association Meetings (RIA). This was followed by military service and the colonial war in Angola, where he carried out politicization and anti-colonial awareness work.
He was arrested on November 10, 1972, following a complaint. He was a member of the PCP’s Intellectual Sector. He was sent to Caxias, where he was beaten and subjected to statue torture and a total of 31 days of sleeping torture divided into 33 days. First, five days and five nights, then 13 days and 13 nights, and finally another 13 days and 13 nights. He was released on parole on January 24, 1973.
After the April 25th Revolution, he was responsible for organizing the Avante! Festival for 27 years. He later broke ranks and abandoned the PCP. Always involved in the struggle for the memory of the resistance, he protested the transformation of the PIDE/DGS headquarters into a luxury condominium. He was one of the founders of the Civic Movement “Don’t Erase Memory” (NAM) and actively participated in the fight for the creation of the Aljube Museum of Resistance and Freedom.
Date of Collection: 16.10.2019
Keywords: Academic Struggles, Student Movements, Students, Colonial War, Comunist Party, Prison, PIDE, Caxias, Torture, Interrogations, Post Traumatic Stress, Memory Preservation.
