Born: 13 February 1928, Portugal
Died: 19 May 1954
Country most active: Portugal
Also known as: NA
Portuguese farm worker Catarina Eufémia became a martyr when she was murdered by a National Republican Guard lieutenant who shot her three times at close range in the back. She had been leading a protest of workers demanding better conditions and higher wages, when the owner called in the Guard. She also may have been a member of the Communist Party and reputedly distributed underground newspapers protesting the Estado Novo dictatorial regime.
The daughter of farm workers, she could not attend school because she was busy working, and was illiterate. She married at 17 and had three children, one of them still an infant, at the time of her death at age 26. She became a symbol of resistance, and her funeral turned into a protest that the Guard violently suppressed, including arresting several people who were later sentenced to around two years in prison. Her body was buried away from her home town to avoid it becoming a site of demonstrations, and only returned after the Revolution of April 25 1974. Her murderer was brought to trial but acquitted.