Freedom Swallow

Editorial illustration

 

The 25th of April is the anniversary of the revolution that took Portugal out of a dictatorship.

Every day you can feel we’re closer and closer to those times when one person could not speak what they thought, could not be who they were, or love who they wanted. Memory is a funny thing, and it fades so easily. This memory of repression is being lost, and we are closer to being poorer in mind and in spirit.

For those reading from other parts of the world: the red carnation was the flower from the revolution that started on the 25th of April, and the swallow is a symbol of Portugal.

Curiously enough, swallows usually migrate when the weather is colder, and that seems like a beautiful metaphor for all the fuss about migrants here in Portugal but also around the world. May this carnation-bird a symbol of hope and connection between all people.