15 Facts About Aida Paula

Aida Paula was a Portuguese communist who opposed the authoritarian Estado Novo government, was arrested on three occasions, and spent many years as a political prisoner.

Aida da Conceicao Paula was born on 9 December 1918 in the Campo de Ourique area of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

Aida Paula's father was Carlos Luis Paula and her mother Luisa da Conceicao Paula who, like many in Portugal at that time, was illiterate and only learned to read and write while in hiding, at the age of 46.

When Paula was still at primary school, she began to work with a footwear manufacturer, supporting her father, a building painter, and her mother, a weaver.

Aida Paula was kept incommunicado in a cell, being questioned by police agents who told her that mother was very sick and suffering and saying that if Paula cooperated with them, they would help her mother.

In June 1939, Aida Paula was transferred to an all-women prison at Tires, where she joined her mother, and where they shared a cell, isolated from other prisoners.

Aida Paula learned French with a comrade and translated articles that were distributed to Communist Party members.

Aida Paula was held in isolation at Caxias Prison near Lisbon for eight days and was eventually tried in April 1960 for being a member of the Communist Party.

Aida Paula was then sentenced to two and a half years in prison, but this was extended and she ended up spending six consecutive years in prison.

Aida Paula was the author of one of 13 letters in a manifesto addressed to women and democratic organizations all over the world, smuggled out of Caxias prison in May 1961, denouncing the tortures and the conditions in which the political prisoners were kept.

Aida Paula was always fighting against the prison regime and the inhumane conditions, leading to her being punished six times.

On her release Aida Paula came out of hiding to take care of her seriously ill mother.

Aida Paula was arrested again in 1967, when she suffered 18 days in isolation at Campolide police station, followed by sleep deprivation for six days and six nights.

Aida Paula's health deteriorated rapidly until her release in May 1968 when she was acquitted at her trial.

Aida Paula later worked in the office of an anti-colonialist doctor, Julieta Gandra, who she had got to know in Caxias prison when they shared the same cell.