Álvaro Cunhal

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Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal, (Sé Nova, Coimbra, 10 November 1913 at 03:45pm–13 June 2005), was a Portuguese politician, secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) from 1961 to 1992.

Cunhal was the third child of Avelino Henriques da Costa Cunhal and Mercedes Barreirinhas. His father was a lawyer in Coimbra and Seia, and later on in Lisbon. He also studied Law at the University of Lisbon, where he joined the PCP, then an illegal organization, in 1931.

Cunhal visited the USSR for the first time in 1935 to attend the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow. He joined the Central Committee of the PCP for the first time in 1936 at the age of 22. His first arrest occurred in 1937.

While in jail, he submitted his final thesis on the topic abortion and obtained his Law degree (the jury included Marcello Caetano). He then taught for some months at Colégio Moderno, in Lisbon. Among his pupils was the future Portuguese President Mário Soares, who would be one of his great political rivals after the Carnation Revolution.

From 1941 to 1949 Cunhal was underground and became de facto the leader of the PCP. Arrested in 1949, he remained in jail until he made a spectacular escape from Peniche's prison in 1960. This escape had a wide impact. The authoritarian government, hurt in its own pride, claimed that a Soviet submarine was near the Peniche coast waiting for Cunhal.

In 1961, he was elected secretary-general of the PCP, the first one after Bento Gonçalves' (the former leader) death in the concentration camp for political prisoners of Tarrafal in Cape Verde. Cunhal lived in exile in Moscow and Paris until the Carnation Revolution in 1974.

Back in Portugal, he led the PCP through the revolution, was minister without portfolio in several of the provisional governments which followed the revolution, and was successively elected for Parliament in all elections until 1987, although he never occupied the place.

Cunhal left his office in 1992, being succeeded by Carlos Carvalhas. Nevertheless, his voice remained important in the following years, and has consistently sided with the most orthodox wing of the PCP. He also revealed that used the pseudonym Manuel Tiago, a writer of neo-realistic novels wich for many years had an unknown identity.Meanwhile a considerable number of drawings made while in prision were printed and published revealing his sensibilty for the arts, as the traduction of King Lear by Shakespear made in his final years can subscribe it (and maybe can be seen as an allegory of himself).

Álvaro Cunhal died in Lisbon, at 06:00 AM on June 13 2005, after several years away from public eye.

His funeral, in June 15 of 2005 took place in Lisbon and was attended by about 250.000 people.

Works

• IV Congresso do Partido Comunista Português - O Caminho Para o Derrubamento do Fascismo
• Duas intervenções numa reunião de quadros
• Rumo à Vitória - As Tarefas do Partido na Revolução Democrática e Nacional
• A Verdade e a Mentira sobre a Revolução de Abril
• Acção Revolucionária, Capitulação e Aventura
• O Partido Com Paredes de Vidro
• A Revolução Portuguesa - O Passado e o Futuro
• Fracasso e Derrota do Governo de Direita do PSD/Cavaco Silva
• O 1º Governo PSD e a Resistência Democrática
• Falência da Política de Direita do PS (1983-1985)
• Os Chamados Governos de Iniciativa Presidencial

Manuel Tiago

Cunhal was also a fiction writer, with several novels under the pseudonym Manuel Tiago, which he recognized as his own only in 1995. He also made the drawings for the original edition of Soeiro Pereira Gomes' book Esteiros. He published the following books under the pseudonym of Manuel Tiago:

• Até Amanhã, Camaradas (adapted to television series in 2005)
• Cinco Dias, Cinco Noites (adapted to film in 1996)
• A Estrela de Seis Pontas
• A Casa de Eulália
• Lutas e Vidas. Um conto
• Os Corrécios e outros Contos
• Um Risco na Areia
• Fronteiras

Further reading

• José Pacheco Pereira, Álvaro Cunhal — Uma biografia política, Temas & Debates, Lisbon, 1999, ISBN 972-759-150-7
• The Guardian - Obituaryde:Álvaro Cunhal

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