Ze Manuel Almeida Costa

Ze Almeida was in the army in Portugal, his country. He would say his training was in artillery. There are a lot of things about him to know. He was in the wars of Portugal in Africa twice. When he was called for a third turn he felt he was going to be killed and that he had already did his duty and refused to go. This was under president dictator Salazar who was a fascist. They punished Ze sending him to a psychiatric hospital and giving him psychotropic treatments. They would go every month and ask Ze if he was ready to go to Africa again. He would refuse. This lasted until the Carnations’ Revolution of 1974 ended the dictatorship. He studied Psychology and started a new life. He was among the founders of the Sociedad Portugesa de TF..

Marcelo Pakman: In 2012 the Portuguese Society of Family Therapy paid tribute to Ze Manuel Almeida Costa, dear friend who left us a few days ago (February 2024). This is what I said on that occasion (thanks Manuel Peixoto for the transcription):
“Hi Ze. Once, visiting together a flea market in one of the small towns around here in New England, we stopped at a stall where they were selling old family photographs. You said then: this is my chance to get an honorable family and put my story back together again; fathers, brothers, uncles, grandmothers, you name it, they are available here and with only a small investment. With that same sudden lucidity, and a deep understanding of the chiaroscuros of life, always with humor and sometimes with some irritability, with a good head and a big heart, you have helped many people, taught many students and supervised many colleagues who love and respect you, and always from a lateral position, even underground, in which you have always felt more comfortable than in front of the big lights of the stage. I cannot imagine then a more deserved tribute to a true master, and I join in it with pleasure. In my case, you have also given me the gift of a friendship that has enriched my life enormously and which has been going on for more than twenty years of non-stop laughing, and in which I have always been able to count on you unconditionally. Congratulations and best wishes”.

Maria Jesus (Chus) Arrojo: Almeida, irreverent and respectful, nostalgic and vital. Real, truthful, and at the same time fanciful. Sharp and dreamy look and overflowing imagination. Of easy joke and often indecipherable or bitter.
You told that your mother let you choose your father at will after you wondered which of those who visited her would be your father and postulated that someone could form his own family with old photos bought at a flea market. Knowledgeable about the need to embrace all possibilities.
Those of us who knew you in all these facets will miss your presence in the world.
You lit up life and we hope that death does not extinguish your torch.
Farewell Almeida. Farewell.