Helena Cabeçadas
Biography
Helena Cabeçadas was born in Lisbon in 1947. Her family influenced her politically. She was the grandniece of Admiral Mendes Cabeçadas. Her father was an anti-Salazarist Catholic, and several family members were politically active. After a stint in Mozambique, she settled in Lisbon, where she took her first steps in politics while still in high school. She was under surveillance by the PIDE (Political Institute of Socialism and Democracy) from the age of 12. At 14, she witnessed the academic crisis of 1962. In the 1962/63 academic year, she joined the Pro-Association of High Schools Commission and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). After being arrested in 1965, during which she was interrogated by the university rector, she was taken to the Civil Government and detained in the Caxias prison. She was prevented from completing her final year of high school and expelled from all schools in the country. Forced into exile, at 17, she left alone for Belgium, where she remained for ten years. She remained committed to the anti-fascist struggle and worked with Portuguese immigrants. At the age of 20, she moved to Paris, where she intensely experienced the events of May 1968, the year in which the PCP split occurred.
In Belgium, she completed her undergraduate degree in Social Sciences (Anthropology) and her postgraduate degree in Labor Sciences at the Free University of Brussels. With the April 25th Revolution, her exile came to an end.
Collection Date: 21.02.2022
Keywords: Mozambique; High school movement; Pro-Association Committee of High Schools; D. Filipa de Lencastre High School; Rainha D. Leonor High School; Student movement; Academic crisis of 1962; Academic crisis of 1965; Caxias Prison; PIDE/DGS; Exile; Brussels (Belgium); Free University of Brussels; Secretariat of the Meetings of Portuguese Students Abroad (SEEPE); Association of Portuguese Emigrants in Belgium (APEB); Patriotic Front for National Liberation (FPLN); Portuguese Communist Party (PCP); May 1968; Situationist International; Anarchism.
