José Dias Coelho (1923 in Pinhel – 1961 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

) was a Portuguese painter and sculptor, an anti-fascist and an important member of the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

. In his youth, José Dias Coelho joined the Antifascist Academic Front. Later on, as a student of the Art Academy of

, he was a member of the Juvenile MUD. In 1947 he participated in a great number of student demonstrations and actively pressed for the creation of an Academic Association in the Art Academy and against the 1952

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

meeting in Lisbon. As a consequence of this action, he was expelled from the Art Academy, prohibited to enroll in any other faculty of the country and dismissed from his teaching position in the technical section of the educational system. He joined the Portuguese Communist Party in his early twenties and soon became an important member of the party's clandestine net that struggled against the Fascists. He died as a secret worker of the party when he was assassinated by

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

, the political police of the Estado Novo regime, on 19 December 1961 on da Creche street in Lisbon, (now José Dias Coelho street). In 1972,

Zeca Afonso Zeca may refer to: * José Afonso (1929–1987), Portuguese folk and political musician also known mononymously as Zeca * Zeca (footballer, born 1946), full name Jose Luiz Ferreira Rodrigues, Brazilian football manager known mononymously as Zeca ...

released a song titled ''A Morte Saiu à Rua'' (Death is out on the Streets), a homage to Dias Coelho.

References

External links

Localização da Rua José Dias Coelho (Google Maps)
1923 births 1961 deaths People from Guarda District Portuguese anti-fascists Portuguese Communist Party politicians 20th-century Portuguese painters 20th-century Portuguese male artists Portuguese male painters {{Portugal-painter-stub