_{Otelo and José Afonso. Presidential election campaign. Setúbal, July 1976. Full of symbolism, this photo was Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho’s last donation to the CD25April} 
 

Otelo, one of the major figures of the 25th of April 1974 passed away on July 25, 2021.
 

With the death of Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho a central part of the lived memory and experience of the April revolutionary struggle disappears. With his projects, his fearlessness, his convictions, and, at times, also his naivety and romanticism, Otelo was decisive in defeating the old regime that fell on the 25th of April and in the difficult struggles of the revolutionary phase that followed. Not always properly understood, especially by those who never accepted that he had not surrendered to the retreat from utopia and the model of representative democracy  that prevailed on November 25, 1975, he is, nevertheless, a nuclear and founding figure of our democratic regime, someone to whom democracy much owes. His example of unflagging commitment to citizenship shall live on. The 25th of April Documentation Centre, to which Otelo was a friend and an important donor - initially through the contact of its founder and first director, Boaventura de Sousa Santos - pays homage to him by releasing, in collaboration with CES / Centre for Social Studies, some of the many documents, of his authorship or related to his activity, which are kept on file and are now made available to the public. | Rui Bebiano (Director of the 25th of April Documentation Centre)

«If there are personalities who are forever defined by their capacity to rise to the challenges that a decisive moment demanded of them, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho is undoubtedly one of them. Nothing especially predestined him for the key role he played in the establishment of democracy in Portugal; but having accepted this mission, he assumed it in full and thus became fully master of his circumstance. His decisive role in the democratic revolution would have easily projected him into the realm of myth. However, he himself - human, all too human - deliberately avoided this destiny through his actions and omissions. At the moment of his physical disappearance, it is important, amidst the babble of ill-informed or ill-founded polemic, to work toward the rigorous construction of a full-body portrait of an unusual man. In collaboration with the 25th of April Documentation Centre of the University of Coimbra, CES thus publishes this brief dossier of documents crucial to understanding his role.» | António Sousa Ribeiro (Director of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)
 

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Otelo in the April 25th Documentation Centre collections

Otelo was a donor of CD25April from the very first moment. The inventory of documentation donated and incorporated over the years is available online [HERE].

Other documentation online

Text:
Cérebro do 25 de abril revela o 28 de Setembro. "Século Ilustrado", 12 October,1974

Audio:
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho [Registo áudio] : entrevista . - [S.l. : Paul Manuel, s.d.]. - 1 cd : 59' ; 13x14 cm . - Interview with Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho . - Original audio tape nº 375. - Paul Manuel Estate [Availabe HERE]

Video:
"Projecto de história oral: Otelo - 1ª hora". Entrevista de Manuela Cruzeiro. 1994.
Bibliografia de Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho na Biblioteca do CD25A

 
On the death of Otelo: texts in newspapers and blogs