I arrived in Lisbon by bus from still Franquista Sevilla on May 19, 1974 and spent the rest of the summer watching the Revolucao dos Cravos unfold. Watching Portuguese fascism die was one of the formative experiences of my youth. It also taught me Portuguese and to repeat seeing another fascist regime die living in Spain in 1976.

Italy celebrates the same 1945 day of liberation from fascism, il giorno dei partigiani.

Now my Russian Latvian wife and I spend three months in Porto, where we saw the anniversary celebrations today in the Praca da Liberdade. My Latvian stepdaughter and her French husband just moved here. In 1974 a mixed American-Latvian-Russian-French family living in beautiful Porto was unimaginable. Wait long enough and all dictatorships rot to the point where the previously unimaginable becomes inevitable. Next liberation party: Kyiv.