Octávio Pato

Who was Octávio Pato?

Octávio Floriano Rodrigues Pato started working at 14 in a shoe factory. At the same time he also played soccer on S.L. Benfica's youth teams. Being a restless person, with an unusual working class feeling, he soon made contact with a group of intellectuals and artists of "neo-realismo", such as Soeiro Pereira Gomes and Alves Redol that developed their political work in his home town, Vila Franca de Xira. After that contact, he adhered to the Communist Youth Federation at the age of 15 and soon began his career as a revolutionary. Still a teenager, he was an active voice in the organization of the vast wave of strikes that frightened the Portuguese Fascist regime, led by Oliveira Salazar, in 1944. His brother Carlos was murdered in prison, along with Alfredo Dinis and some other top members of the Communist Party at the time.

In 1945 he plunged into clandestinity, controlling and organizing the youth and student branches of the Party. In 1947 he became responsible for the Lisbon Regional organization and for the party newspaper, "Avante!", and the clandestine typographies where the newspaper was printed. He also joined the Central Committee.