[1] Maria da Conceição Rodrigues de Matos was born in 1936 in São Pedro do Sul in the Viseu District of Portugal.
Three years later, her family moved to the industrial area of Barreiro on the left bank of the Tagus river, to the immediate south of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, living in what she has described as a "wooden shack".
Because of this event, she joined the anti-government cause, starting her political activity with the youth wing of the Movement of Democratic Unity (Movimento de Unidade Democrática or MUD).
During this clandestine existence, Matos distributed the PCP newspaper Avante!, wrote propaganda materials, and looked after the houses where she and Abrantes lived in Amora, Costa da Caparica and Montijo, all in the Setúbal District.
The couple returned to Lisbon, on the same plane as the PCP leader Álvaro Cunhal, the composer, Luís Cília, who wrote the PCP's anthem Avante camarada (Forward comrade), and the singer-songwriter, José Mário Branco, an opponent of Portugal's colonial wars, on what became known as the "freedom plane".