Abstract: The project aims to organize, analyze, and disseminate the correspondence exchanged between anonymous citizens and the politician Mário Soares during the Portuguese revolution and the transition to democracy, between 1974 and 1978. It seeks to fill a gap in studies on the revolution, which have mostly focused on institutions, political and military agents, and social movements. The project intends to contribute to a deeper understanding of the people's participation in the revolution by addressing the central question: What visions of a country (and for its future) are revealed in the letters written by citizens to Mário Soares?

The project seeks to explore citizen participation in the construction of democracy and to understand the relationship between citizens and politicians from a new perspective—that of the voice of the common citizen, who expresses their opinion in a letter addressed to a political decision-maker, reinforcing the sense of belonging to an “imagined community” (Anderson, 2005). To this end, a multidisciplinary team has been formed, drawing from the fields of History, Political Science, and Information and Documentation Sciences, bringing together complementary knowledge and skills that enable a theoretical and methodological cross-analysis.

Starting with a universe of 7,200 inventoried letters in the Mário Soares archive, we will seek to select a set of around 1,500 that are representative of the types of people who wrote to Mário Soares, the themes addressed, the language used, and the intentions behind the letters. These letters cover the period in which Mário Soares was Secretary-General of the Socialist Party, Minister, and Prime Minister.

The major issues that marked the country during this period are present in these letters. Just as people began, after the fall of the dictatorship, to speak directly with politicians in the streets, letters were also used by citizens as a means of being heard and participating in the process of building democracy. They were a form of personal expression and civic engagement after decades of repression. Today, they represent the memory of a time whose struggles, achievements, hopes, expectations, frustrations, and transformations can be recovered through these writings. Listening to these multiple voices offers a different way of understanding reality and provides fertile ground for new insights, considering the plurality of these representations and the uses of written language (Chartier, 1991).

Citizens wrote to the politician about essential civic rights, demanding their achievement and explaining their significance in their lives. Among these issues were divorce, access to healthcare and education, better housing conditions, and the right to a pension system. Unemployed men and women requested jobs and social support. Women revealed their perception of the female condition. Emigrants described their difficult lives, their longing for home, and also asked for the right to vote. Industrial and service workers demanded more rights and social protection. Those who had returned from the former Portuguese colonies complained about their situation and discussed the decolonization process. Prisoners appealed for amnesty. Citizens also wrote to advise the politician on governance, praising or criticizing his actions.

It is therefore essential to understand how citizens represented these themes, the value and impact they had on their lives, as well as how they viewed the politician to whom they wrote. Methodologically, the characterization of the letter writers will be cross-referenced with the form and content of the letters, as well as the context in which they were written. An analytical grid will be developed to classify the correspondence, considering: a) the purpose of the letter (thank you, protest, request); b) the themes addressed (social issues, electoral participation, decolonization); c) the characterization of the sender (gender, age group, profession, geographic location); and d) Mário Soares's response.

The project aims to preserve and make this correspondence available, thereby enriching the documentary heritage related to the 25th of April and enabling new research. It is an innovative and pioneering project in Portugal, comparable to international initiatives (e.g., the Cartas De Vuelta project of President Felipe González; Beyen, 2020), and aims to achieve the following outcomes: a) archival processing of 7,200 letters and analysis of 1,500; b) creation of a digital platform to present a representative selection of the correspondence; c) scientific publications and presentations at academic conferences; d) academic events.

It is also a project of cultural mediation, aiming to bring civil society closer to this heritage and to the key issues that have shaped Portuguese society over the past 50 years. Aligned with the priorities of the Portugal 2030 Agenda, it contributes to the preservation of democratic memory and empowers diverse communities.

Timetable: September 2024 - February 2026

Team: Pedro MArques Gomes (coor.), Ana Sofia Ferreira; Adolfo Cueto; Ana Mónica Fonseca; António Coelho; Catarina Augusta da Silva Santos; David Castaño; Eunice Relvas; Filipe Guimarães da Silva; Francisco Bairrão Ruivo; Hugo Filipe Guerreiro; José António Pereira Santucci; Rita Marques; Zélia Pereira