It is with great pleasure that I write this brief Editorial, on behalf of the Portuguese Geotechnical Society (SPG), at the invitation of the President of the Brazilian Association for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ABMS), Alexandre Gusmao, and of the President of the Commemorative Committee of the ABMS 70th anniversary, Waldemar Hachich. The commemorative program of the 70 years of ABMS has been wide ranging and ambitious and now it includes this special issue of Soils and Rocks, with a number of papers by distinguished academics and professionals. This "celebration" of the 70th anniversary is in alignment with previous commemorations of special dates that past leaders of ABMS have carefully organized. This respect, I should even say this loving care, for its History and for their most honorable, reveals the great self-esteem of ABMS, and this is undoubtedly inherent to the great institutions. The involvement of young people in setting up this "celebration" is also in due correspondence with the events promoted by ABMS, and in particular the COBRAMSEG, congresses with enormous impact, where the strength and youth of the Brazilian geotechnical community can be felt. From their inception, ABMS and SPG have developed collaboration links, which have attained a degree and produced results that I consider outstanding, amidst the diverse technical and scientific associations of our two countries. We owe this to our "founding fathers", Milton Vargas, Manuel Rocha, Antonio José da Costa Nunes, Victor de Mello and many others (to name but a few). But in the two past decades these links have been further strengthened by the joint organization of our congresses, of the Victor de Mello Lesson and with the joint management of the Geotecnia and Soils and Rocks journals. For such intense collaboration were determinant the Presidents of ABMS Waldemar Hachich and Alberto Sayao, to whom I express my heartfelt recognition and homage. In the person of Alexandre Gusmao, I affectionately salute the whole Brazilian geotechnical community, in this very special and emotional date!