A song and a flower give the signal for some young officers of the Portuguese Armed Forces to take action, managing to overthrow a 48-year dictatorship without a drop of blood. The world is stunned. Just a year before, fascist generals sowing terror and death have ended the dreams of Popular Unity and the life of Salvador Allende in Chile. In Europe, this Portuguese revolution widened the path of progressive ideas. Spanish republican exiles hope that the infamous Franco dictatorship will disappear once and for all. But as if to remind us of his “here, I'm in charge,” Franco and his military court—just a month before what happened in Portugal—sentence Salvador Puig Antich to death by garrote. That sad day, Joan Miró, in homage to the young Catalan anarchist, puts an end to his triptych 'The hope of the man condemned to death'. Six months have passed since the Carnation Revolution. I'm 22 years old. I'm a photographer. The magazine 'l'Humanité Dimanche' wants a report on the new socio-political situation in Portugal. One day in November 1974, the journalist Martine Monod and I arrived in Lisbon. I don't know the country. In five days we will see the shanties of Curraleira, we will enter schools, factories, we will attend rallies, we will discover the plains of Alentejo in which day laborers continue under the yoke of landowners. Lisbon is so beautiful… I get lost in its heights, in its hills, in the narrow streets of Alfama. I'm going with two Nikon Fs, one with 24mm, the other with 135mm. In the glances exchanged with the people of Lisbon I notice many doubts, joy, hope, dignity… Fifty years already…
![An attendee at the Communist Party rally at the Lisbon Sports Palace, on November 14, 1974.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/i8Jom8qSfYJNMs1U_serZ9EKCno=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/XRBRZ5ZNZZF3VGPYXUXTCY3OUI.jpg)
![More than 7,000 people collapsed the Lisbon pavilion in a rally that was historic after almost half a century of dictatorship.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/GbTUCCaengX1_U9d65O6vbpLSWc=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/WH3LCIXJV5GHBNJAO3RGRTH3RQ.jpg)
![A passerby walks down a street in the popular Chiado neighborhood, on the characteristic cobblestones (calçada) of Lisbon.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/uGCwpxPxvjge5PwaopmQu-htCR4=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/QVKB4T54U5H63GWHFL2A45TQBA.jpg)
![A girl collects water in the Curraleira shantytown, in the Portuguese capital.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/Vwz0cGirbgA4txfaHEq24vHGHCE=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/GEN7ROMGWRBKNLFREZR4LBX6UA.jpg)
![Blocks of buildings in the Lisbon neighborhood of Olivais.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/3ZVzuEStW6P-bKFk7aXkLQ-g4c4=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/5CHBGY7NLVEO5KNPY2NOYB2R4E.jpg)
![The fishmongers display their goods in stalls in the Alfama neighborhood, in the center of the city, under a poster of the Portuguese Communist Party.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/DIlvNYvmC6PUzde2e6TuF3VptH8=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/667AA6SPJZBVZETUOFNXATLI6Y.jpg)
![A worker from the Cometna metallurgical company, with a carnation and a Communist Party pin on his work jacket.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/UortIQf50Bi3uV_r_p6GcWyJklk=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/P4SXYQEEUNDQ5COCEM7EQND6FE.jpg)
![A farm laborer poses for the photographer in the town of Évora, in the Alentejo region.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/QlyO4Hl1rgFsXgzoCXpFF4AzaCs=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/BHS53EW4WJA2DIALVIDUAQSXXA.jpg)
![Landscape with oak trees in Alentejo.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/pDLNrHKuInISA1WdAcWhl8BydCM=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/JUV25W6AXZBTFAU37M42IR43AE.jpg)
![A girl, in the middle of the Curraleira shantytown, in Lisbon, now missing and which once housed 560 families.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/rDrNpPUVkRGjVpnXuX7l7b6Zutk=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ZKLND2WNAZBJRAH6Z5MKQYCM3Q.jpg)
![Intergenerational image in the Bairro Alto of Lisbon, in November 1974. Seven months had passed since the outbreak of the Carnation Revolution.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/gT2lShil1HmkV4GrlijdGIGRsPs=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/DDMJUSY44JC67CSNP4XVISBQBA.jpg)
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