Baltasar Rebelo de Sousa

Baltasar Leite Rebelo de Sousa, GCIH (Lisbon, Santos o Velho, April 16, 1921 – Lisbon, December 1, 2002) was a Portuguese politician and former Minister and Member of Parliament and medicine professor.

Background

He was the only son of António Joaquim Rebelo de Sousa (Cabeceiras de Basto, Pedraça, Paço de Vides, April 8, 1860 – August 7, 1927), a Landowner (already a widow of Rosa da Costa, whom he married in Angola and by whom he had five other sons António, Eduardo, Augusto, Álvaro and Óscar Rebelo de Sousa), and second wife Joaquina Leite da Silva (Guimarães, Gandarela, São Clemente, 1896? – April 16, 1975), daughter of Manuel Leite da Silva and wife and relative Deolinda Leite. His paternal grandparents were Manuel Joaquim Rebelo de Sousa, a Trader, and wife Feliciana de Jesus, daughter of José Mendes de Magalhães and wife Teresa Dias do Nascimento de Jesus, who were also the parents of Baltasar Joaquim (born in 1859), Rosalinda do Nascimento, Bernardino Joaquim, Joaquim and Valentina do Nascimento Rebelo de Sousa.

Career

He was a Licentiate in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. He graduated with grades of 10 out of 20, the reason why he used to be called by his detractors "Baltazero".

He started his career as a medical doctor.

He was a Subsecretary of State for Education and a National Comissar of the Mocidade Portuguesa. He then became Secretary of State and Minister, nominately Minister of the Corporations and Health, Deputy to the National Assembly ("Assembleia Nacional"), Vice-President of the Overseas Council, Vice-President of the Acção Nacional Popular, Governor-General of Mozambique, where he allways was and still is remembered with "saudade", and finally the last Minister for the Overseas until the Carnation Revolution. In its aftermath he and the rest of the Portuguese Council of Ministers had to flee in a van from a hole made through the buildings of their Ministries in Praça do Comércio due to the close arrival of the militaries. He went to exile in Brazil.

He then became a Professor of Higher Education in São Paulo, São Paulo and the Administrator of a Company of the Pirelli Group. He also had an active role in Luso-Brazilian associacions, such as the "Associação Luso-Brasileira", of which he became the Director, also being a Member and President of the Curator Council of the Fundação "Luso-Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento dos Países de Língua Portuguesa".

Decorations

He was a Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique), Grand Cross of the Order of Public Instruction, Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil, etc.

Family

He married in Lisbon in 1942 or about, in a simple ceremony only with two of his friends as Testemonies, in an union not approved by both parents at the time, to Maria das Neves Fernandes Duarte (Covilhã, Conceição, July 30, 1920 – Lisbon, March 8, 2003), daughter of Joaquim das Neves (b. Covilhã, Erada, January 1, 1874) and wife Maria Rosa Fernandes Duarte (b. Covilhã, 1889?); paternal granddaughter of José Antunes das Neves (son of Francisco de Jesus and wife Maria Antunes) and wife Maria Florência (daughter of José Antunes Castanheira and wife Maria Florência), both born and married in Covilhã, Erada; and maternal granddaughter of Manuel Fernandes Duarte and wife Leonor Rosa; they had three children:
* Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa
* António Jorge Duarte Rebelo de Sousa
* Pedro Miguel Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (b. Lisbon, April 29, 1955), a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a lawyer, married in Braga, at the Bom Jesus do Monte, on April 16, 1977 to Ana Margarida Lobato de Faria Sacchetti (b. Évora, Sé e São Pedro, October 26, 1956), daughter of António de Vilas-Boas Romano e Vasconcelos Barreto Ferraz Sacchetti (b. February 5, 1928), son of the 3rd Viscount of a Granja, and first wife as her first husband (m. Caminha, Moledo, May 27, 1951 and divorced) Rosa Maria de Bettencourt Rodrigues Lobato de Faria (b. Lisbon, Santa Isabel, April 20, 1932), a poet, and had issue:
* Mariana Lobato de Faria Sacchetti Rebelo de Sousa (São Paulo, São Paulo, April 27, 1979), a Licentiate in Law, married on April 30, 2005 to Nuno Miguel Cadima de Oliveira
* Afonso Lobato de Faria Sacchetti Rebelo de Sousa (São Paulo, São Paulo, June 24, 1981)

References

* "Costados Alentejanos", II, António Luís de Torres Cordovil Pestana de Vasconcelos, Edição do Autor, Évora 2006, N.º 41

External links

* [http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=111793 Baltasar Leite Rebelo de Sousa's genealogy in a Portuguese genealogical site]