All along those several weeks in the road I was on the lookout for the “ongoing revolutionary process” (PREC) that marked the period of 1974-75; a process which culminated in the agrarian reform and in the “dream” of a socialist state in Western Europe. What I found in the Alentejo region of today was a mirror of contemporary Portugal – “a country lacking in memory”.
Every time I explained to people from my generation about what I was doing, about the mythical places of the PREC and the agrarian reform, I learned that they had no knowledge about what had occurred in their own land; it led me to think about how we seem to be born in a country without a collective concern about preserving the memory of recent history and events so close to us.
We are still imprisoned in the realm of distant history, fixated in that eternal grandeur of the overseas discoveries, without looking at what actually identifies us today as a country and in the world – what got us where we are today so that we can understand the present and envision the future.
It was an immense honour to have the opportunity to meet some of the main actors of such an important period for the Alentejo region. I am deeply thankful to everyone for sharing their stories and for letting me portray them without any requirements or limitations.
To sum up the enriching experience I had in Alentejo, I would say that the region’s social, political, and economic potential has been developing slowly but steadily.
Even if all of the “April’s dreams” vanished after the PREC’s ending, the few examples which remained were able to adapt to the current reality of a market economy; also, the political concerns of the people I met are not crystallised in long-gone, orthodox ideals.
If we return to look at these territories in a few years, I think we will keep finding strong-principled people living by their values, people who discuss their ideas and fight for what they believe in, be it part of a collective dream or otherwise.
I think democracy is indeed the most beautiful, actually living dream in the Alentejo of today.
João Carvalho Pina
March 2011
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