Bento de Jesus Caraça, GCSE, GOL (April 18, 1901 – June 25, 1948) was an influential Portuguese mathematician, economist and statistician. Caraça was also a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and so, he became one of the most famous personalities in the resistance against the Fascist regime led by António Oliveira Salazar.
Caraça was born in Vila Viçosa, Évora District, in the south of Portugal. He was the son of two peasants, João António Caraça and Domingas da Conceição Espadinha. He lived his first years in the family's farm and he managed to learn how to read with another peasant, José Percheiro.
The great easiness in learning new things that Caraça demonstrated made the spouse of the owner of the farm where he lived to take care of his education and, in 1911, Caraça finished the first studies and left his hometown in order to study in Lisbon. After finishing high school with top grades, Caraça joined the Superior Institute of Economic and Financial Sciences (Portuguese: Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Financeiras or ISCEF, later known as ISEG)
On November 1, 1919, being a 2nd year student, Caraça was nominated 2nd assistant by his teacher Mira Fernandes. He graduated in 1923.
On December 13, 1924, he was nominated 1st assistant and, on October 14, 1927 he was nominated professor. On December 28, 1929 he was nominated cathedratic professor, teaching algebra and infinitesimal calculus.
Meanwhile, Caraça had participated in the foundation of the Portuguese Popular University, an institution created to give working class people the chance to study. Caraça became a member of the Administration Council when he was still a student and in 1928 he became President of the University. He carried out organizing the University's library and several conferences about Mathematics, Art, History and several other topics.