Catarina Eufémia

Catarina Efigénia Sabino Eufémia (born February 13, 1928 in Baleizão , † May 19, 1954 in Monte do Olival near Baleizão) was a Portuguese farm worker.

Protests in the Alentejo occurred since the early 1950s riots, when the Salazar - dictatorship in the form of the Security Police National Republican Guard (GNR) hard against the farm workers was going on. They protested against low wages and their continuing exploitation by the large landowners widespread in the Alentejo .

Catarina Eufémia was selected on May 19, 1954 to be the spokeswoman for a small group of farm workers who asked for higher wages. The commander of the summoned GNR patrol shot them down without further ado. The funeral, which had been hidden in vain, led to riots when a large crowd gathered to protest.

Since then, Eufémia has been a symbol of resistance and the struggle for a more just society, especially in southern Portugal. She has been immortalized in the works of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen , José Afonso and others. In the 2007 organized by the public television broadcaster RTP , the election of the "Greatest Portuguese of all time" ( Os Grandes Portugueses ), she was voted 46th place.

Individual evidence

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