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Remexido, the nickname of José Joaquim de Sousa Reis (19 October 1796 – 2 August 1838), was a civil servant and wealthy heir and land tenant who became a notorious guerrilla leader of the Algarve in
/ref> He was the son of Joaquim José dos Reis and wife Clara Maria do Carmo da Rocha, both born in Estômbar, in the municipality of Lagoa, and died before a firing squad at the Campo da Trindade (site of the present school hall of the Tomás Cabreira Secondary School) in Faro on 2 August 1838.
He served as a supporter of the absolutist status quo personified by Miguel of Portugal under General Tomás Cabreira at the Battle of Sant'Ana, during the Liberal Wars (1828–1834). After the defeat of absolutist forces and the victory of liberalism in Portugal in 1834, Remechido didn't surrender and found himself savagely persecuted. He took refuge in the mountains of the Algarve supported by some mountain people in and around São Marcos da Serra, in Silves Municipality. Resorting to guerrilla tactics, he systematically thrashed the government forces. To discover his whereabouts, the government forces publicly interrogated his wife with physical punishments and when she would not betray him, killed his 14-year-old son, two actions which made him resolve never to surrender and to punish those who had wronged him. He was, however, captured and brought for judgment before the Council of War. Even in his last days, he was the victim of injustice: although Queen Maria II of Portugal granted him a pardon, for political and personal reasons the Council of War nevertheless sent him to his death before a firing squad. biased-discuss
/ref> on January 1, 1831, due to the liberal revolution's ideals, simultaneously managing the assets of his wife's wealthy uncle. As juiz de vintena, he would personally collect the tithes of the lands of São Bartolomeu de Messines and São Marcos da Serra.
Some years later, as a guerrilla in the Serra do Caldeirão (Mountain of the Cauldron), a territory he knew very well, he became a headache for the liberal troops loyal to king Pedro V of Portugal in the Liberal Wars. Once peace was signed in the Concession of Evoramonte on 26 May 1834, a return to normality was expected. However, the imprisonment of his wife and son, as well as the reprisals and political persecutions exercised by the liberals, winners of the fratricidal war, led the guerrilla to continue his military campaign with actions of violence all over the Algarve and Baixo Alentejo. The taking of
/ref> at the time a liberal settlement, is an example of the slaughter and looting perpetrated by the antiliberal absolutist faction under the leadership of Remexido, causing about seven dozen victims among its civil population. And if the excesses of war can always be pointed out on either side of the strife, in the narrative built over time, the liberals made Remexido a bloodthirsty and "big-time guerrilla". A man - they said - who developed particular ferocity, "stabbing the prisoners, burning them alive and dragging them all on the tail of his horse." And to compose the legend, Remexido even had the honour of appearing in a collection of cordel literature, where history and fiction go hand in hand. As in all cases, however, some keep a different image of him as a romantic and idealistic hero, who sacrificed himself for the cause that seemed more just, although against the prevailing winds of liberal republican ideas that came from the French Revolution. Of him, Camilo Castelo Branco wrote: “The Remexido appears imbued with strong romantic tones, ending up exchanging a peaceful life as a farmer, for the plight of a struggle that earned him and his family, the harshest persecutions, against which he rebelled.” And the Algarve historian, Alberto Iria, extols Remexido by presenting him as “an intelligent person, endowed with a good and generous soul, with dignity and greatness at the service of his ideals.”
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