No matter how much time passes, even after 52 years of living in Freedom, this is how we remain: never complacent, never comfortable, and always mindful of the fragility of this legacy left to us by those who experienced the dictatorship firsthand.

This is a scar of the kind that remains, of the kind that tells the story of a country, of the places that saw it grow, of the people who lived through it when it was still an open wound. And that scar is a constant reminder of how much things can change and of the ever-present possibility of internal bleeding, which we only realize after it has broken through, tearing through the entire body and contaminating everything around it, when there is nothing left to do to stop it.

Despite our constant vigilance and this diligence that is almost inherent to being Portuguese, we live in the joy of those who know that they exist in Freedom, of those who know that Democracy is the only possible path to the future. Of those who know by heart the words that suture the wound: “O Povo em quem mais Ordena”, (The people are the ones who truly rule) and who are awake to the reality that it is principles such as Representation, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity that allow the Democratic Process to take shape and continue to defend this only way of life: Freedom.

The primary focus of our work at Casa do Impacto is the future, the future of those who were here before us, of our contemporaries, and of those who will come after us. We feel a responsibility to protect these principles and to uphold and apply them every day.

We believe that together we go further and that everyone counts, everyone contributes. Without barriers, rules, or blue pencils that limit thoughts, actions, and motivations. It is in the possibility of coming together, of thinking collectively, and of designing the future with pencils of every color that we protect the legacy left to us. It is in the possibility of being together in the same room that we build instead of destroying, that we unite instead of dividing, that we come together instead of isolating ourselves within what we can only think, without ever expressing it outwardly.

Freedom begins with each of us. We who defend and protect it, who pass it on by word of mouth, from generation to generation. We who live for it because so many others could not. This is their legacy, one we carry with us until we die, doing everything so that those who come after us may be made of the same stuff: this legacy that defines and guides us.