Women of the resistance
Helena Neves
b. 1945
Maria Helena Augusto das Neves Gorjão
A journalist and opposition activist, she was a prisoner in Caxias when 25 April came. The photograph of her release, with the journalist Elvira Nereu, appeared in “A Capital” on 27 April 1974.
- Born
- 17 June 1945, Lisbon
Biography
She was born in Lisbon on 17 June 1945.1 She joined the PCP at 17, while still at secondary school (liceu). At the Faculty of Letters she helped organise strikes and demonstrations, and at one of them a PIDE agent struck her with the butt of his gun. Suspended and without her grant, she went to teach at the Academia de Santo Amaro.1
In the Lisbon district she helped found a democratic women’s electoral movement, and she was on the first board of the Women’s Electoral Committee. She was active in the CDE when she was arrested, in 1969.1 Barred from teaching, she turned to journalism: she wrote for the Diário Feminino, the Diário de Lisboa, Modas e Bordados and República, where she coordinated the supplement “Presença da Mulher” (Women’s Presence).1 In 1973 she stood as a candidate on the CDE/CEUD lists and was arrested again by the PIDE/DGS.1
At the beginning of April 1974 she was a prisoner in Caxias Fort.1 She came out with the revolution: on 27 April, the newspaper A Capital published a photograph of the release, in Caxias, of the journalists Helena Neves and Elvira Nereu.2 She left the PCP in the early 1990s and was a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic for the Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda).1
Places
Dates
People
They crossed paths with her
Isabel do Carmo
b. 1940 · doctor
Maria Alda Nogueira
1923–1998 · teacher
Maria Lamas
1893–1983 · journalist
Aida Magro
1918–2011 · chemical engineer
Albina Fernandes
1928–1970 · fighter in the French Resistance
Alda do Espírito Santo
1926–2010 · poet
Videos
A documentary edited by Sofia Gomes for the exhibition “Women and Resistance – New Portuguese Letters and other struggles” (“Mulheres e Resistência – Novas Cartas Portuguesas e outras lutas”), with excerpts from the testimonies the Aljube Museum has been recording since 2015: sixteen women talk about resistance to the dictatorship and the struggle for women’s rights. This version has Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) interpretation; the version without LGP is on the same channel (XmUbNbnHgKg, 2022).
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial do Museu do Aljube
Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
Testimony of the journalist Helena Neves, recorded by the Aljube Museum on 13 March 2019. Going by the museum’s keywords, it covers her family, the Catholics, the local cultural and recreational associations, the Democratic Women’s Movement, imprisonment, interrogation and torture.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial do Museu do Aljube
Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
In other archives
These can only be viewed on each archive’s own website.
Notes on the sources1
- O dia da libertação: 25 de abril (Museu do Aljube; Memória Comum: «restituída à liberdade pelo Movimento das Forças Armadas a 25 de Abril») ou a madrugada de 27, quando saíram os presos de Caxias (imprensa da época citada pelo Esquerda.net).
Do you know more, or do you have a document? Tell us.
Sources5
- 1Helena Neves (testemunho). Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2Álvaro Arranja, «A libertação dos presos políticos na revolução de Abril». Esquerda.net — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3Helena Neves (Q17496463). Wikidata — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 4Biografia — Helena Neves (BE). Assembleia da República — consulted on 4 October 2026Maria Helena Augusto das Neves Gorjão, deputada do BE pelo círculo de Lisboa na VIII Legislatura.
- 5Maria Helena Augusto das Neves Gorjão. Memória Comum – Memorial aos Presos e Perseguidos Políticos — consulted on 4 October 2026Presa de novo nos primeiros dias de abril de 1974 e libertada pelo MFA a 25 de Abril; como independente, foi a primeira deputada do Bloco de Esquerda à Assembleia da República (2001/2002).