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U.Porto Memory

Teachers and students of the first Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto

Eugénio Rodrigues Aresta

	1891-1956 Army Officer and High School Teacher

The son of Manuel Aresta Jorge and Inácia Rodrigues Aresta, he was born in Moura, Beja district, on 23 May 1891. He decided to pursue a military career, completed his studies at the Military School, and was promoted in Infantry: first as Private (1909), then Second-Lieutenant (1914) and later Lieutenant (1917); he was also nominated Instructor Officer of heavy machine-guns and deputy of the Technical Committee of Infantry. Under the command of General Pereira da Eça, he joined the Expeditionary Corps to Angola in 1915, and distinguished himself in the campaign to occupy the Cuanhama region.

With the outburst of the First World War and subsequent participation of Portugal, he was called up to join the Portuguese Expeditionary Corp and was sent to the battle front in Flanders. His military action earned him the War Cross and the following fourragères: the Medal of Military Valour and the Order of the Tower and the Sword.

Back in Portugal, after the signing of the Armistice, alongside his military life he entered into politics and joined the Republican Union Party, led by Brito Camacho. Therefore, in addition to the collaboration in the newspaper "A Lucta", he was elected MP for the Beja constituency between 1921 and1922, and between 1922 and 1925. Placed in a military unit in Porto, where he would raise his family, he decided to resume his university studies, enrolling in the First Faculty of Arts of Porto in Philosophical Sciences.

As a member of the Masonic Lodge Progredior, he was awarded the degree of Master Mason in 1926, joined the opposition after the triumph of the Military Dictatorship, and was one of the plotters of the failed uprising called Revolta de 3 de Fevereiro de 1927, in Porto, the first of the "reviralhistas" coups. He was arrested and tried for taking part in these uprisings, and was sentenced to be dismissed from the Army and deported for one year to S. Tomé e Príncipe. He completed his degree in Philosophical Sciences on 19 July 1928, after his return to Porto, defending a thesis on the philosophical method of Bergson, for which he received full marks.

In 1933, he was reinstated in the Army as Captain of the Headquarters of the 1^st Military Region; however, he refused the rank of Colonel because of his political ideas. Four years later, he applied for the reserves, and chose to teach in private high schools, such as Almeida Garrett and João de Deus High Schools, both in Porto. His connections to the New State opposers barred him from the official high schools and university institutions, for which he had been recommended by Professor Aarão de Lacerda. This, however, did not prevent him from publishing Philosophy manuals for high school through the Marânus Publishers.

He died on 20 August 1956 in Porto, after a prolonged illness as a result of the gassing he sustained during the First World War.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2008)