Bôtto was born at Alvega, in Abrantes, provincial Portugal but soon moved with his family to pictoresque working-class district of Lisbon known as the Alfama. His increasingly obvious homosexuality led to difficulties with his family. Despite his humble background, a job in a bookshop brought him into contact with the writers and intellectual of the day, including Fernando Pessoa who became a close friend. Love, and particuarly gay love, forms the subject of much of his work from the 1920s to early 1930s.

Bôtto then got a job in the civil service and was posted to Angola where he did a two years stint as a senior government official. Back to Lisbon in 1926, he affected the pse of an elegant dandy. Bôtto was highly sociable and was well known for his Bhemian life-style, his taste for sailors and his wicked tongue, which made him many enemies.

In 1942, Bôtto was dismissed from his government post by the increasingly repressive and moralistic Salazar regime, and from then on led a precarious existence, beset by financial difficulties and ill health. During this time, despite his open homosexuality, he married and his wife, Carminad, stood by him to the end. In 1947 he decided to rebuild his fortunes by emigrating to Brazil. After some initial sucess he appers to have fallen on hard times. He died after a traffic accident in 1959 and in 1965 his remains were returned to Portugal.