Carnation Revolution: An obituary for iconic figure Celeste Caeiro

The cameras of news photographers and television stations were pointed out last April, a large audience was present, and Celeste Caeiro did again from her wheelchair what she had done just fifty years before: she spread red meat.

Fifty years ago, that was on April 25, 1974. She had given up her flesh without any public notice. She gave red meat to a soldier on his way to overthrow the Portuguese dictatorship. The fact that he put one of the carnations in the barrel of his gun was supposed to make Celeste Caeiro a nationally recognized woman – and gave the name to the Portuguese Revolution: Carnation Revolution. Suddenly carnivores were seen everywhere in Lisbon: in the barrels of soldiers’ rifles, in the hands of the people, in the windows of houses.

Celeste Martins Caeiro was born on May 2, 1933 in the working class neighborhood of Socorro in Lisbon. Her father leaves the family when Celeste is less than two years old. The mother hardly has any money, she has to work, sometimes she has several jobs at the same time. So the girl is partly growing up in children’s homes. At least she can train to be a nurse, but she can never use the profession for health reasons. The woman, who is only 1 meter 50 tall, struggles with breathing problems throughout her life. She works as a waitress and seller, gets married and has a daughter. The marriage fails, Celeste Caeiro becomes like her mother: a single parent.

Caeiro and her daughter Helena lead a modest life in the slums of Chelas in Lisbon. On April 25, 1974, the mother wants to start her shift at a restaurant as usual. It is expected to be a special day, the restaurant is celebrating the first anniversary of its opening. It wasn’t just on a special album that the leader came up. The tables should also be decorated with beef on this day and all guests should be allowed to take meat home with them.

Indeed, this April 25 will be a special day – not only for the restaurant, but for the whole country. The head of Caeiro had been listening to news since early morning on a radio station that was broadcasting beyond the government’s censorship. He says to his employee: “Something is going on. We are closing.” She should take the meat home with her. “We don’t want them to go to waste.” And so, on this morning of April 25, 1974, Celeste Caeiro is standing on the street in downtown Lisbon with a bucket of red meat.

And indeed something is going on that day. At midnight, the song “Grândola”, which was included in the program of the Renascença radio station and which celebrates the home of brotherhood, gave the starting signal for the revolution against the Portuguese dictatorship near on 50 years. A broad alliance of middle and lower officers has formed within the army, the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA). The officers have had enough of the hardships and insensitivity of the colonial wars with which Portugal wants to control its overseas territories, from Angola to Mozambique to Cape Verde. Many, especially poor Portuguese families, lost their sons, brothers and fathers.

The MFA planned the revolution for two years. In the morning hours, convoys from several parts of the country will arrive in the capital. And Celeste Caeiro is standing with her bucket of meat, watching tanks roll through the center of town followed by soldiers in personnel carriers. Then one of the soldiers stopped next to him and asked for a cigarette. But Celeste, who doesn’t smoke, can’t give him anything. Instead, she voluntarily offers him meat. The soldier puts it in the barrel of his gun. Celeste gives him the remaining flowers – for his companions. In fact, other soldiers are now putting the beef in their rifle barrels. The revolution is almost bloodless – and ends with a 48-year dictatorship. Portugal became a democracy in 1974.

In 1975, the country had to fend off two coup attempts from the left and the right, but Portugal became a stable democracy after the Carnatic Revolution. And Celeste Caeiro, who has become nationally known for her meat? She is a member of the Communist Party and still lives a small life. Trouble hit her in 1988: the house in Lisbon where she lives with her daughter burns down, she loses everything she has and has to move to a social facility. She is also increasingly suffering from her congenital lung disease.

Fifty years since the revolution last April, people remember the woman who gave her name to the upheaval in Portugal with her spontaneous movement. The Lisbon City Council presented her with a medal and a documentary film about her debut at the same time.

Celeste Caeiro died in a hospital in the Portuguese city of Leiria.

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