Chica da Silva, born Francisca da Silva, was a freed slave who lived in Arraial do Tijuco, in Minas Gerais.
The Chica da Silva myth grew from the 50s of the 20th century with the recovery of Minas Gerais cities. Since then, her life has yielded movies, songs and novels.
Biography
Chica da Silva was born from the union of a slave and a Portuguese, a situation not uncommon in those times. As her father did not free them, Chica da Silva was sold as a slave to a doctor with whom she would end up having a child.
With the arrival of diamond contractor João Fernandes de Oliveira, in Arraial do Tijuco (currently Diamantina/MG), he buys Chica da Silva as his slave. However, she was more than that, because they both fell in love and had thirteen children.
Chica da Silva was freed by João Fernandes and lived as a rich and important lady of those times. She hosted parties at her home and helped sponsor local churches.
After the death of João Fernandes de Oliveira's father, he returned to Portugal to dispute the inheritance with his stepmother. She took with her her three male children who studied at the University of Coimbra. She died in 1779 without seeing Chica da Silva again.
As for Chica da Silva, she continued to administer her partner's property. One of the ways to keep their income was to rent their slaves to the Real Estação dos Diamantes, a company of the Portuguese Crown, which explored the extraction of diamonds on the spot.
Thus, some of her eight daughters managed to marry well with white men or entered shelters (convents).
Contrary to the legends that circulate, Chica da Silva was not cruel to slaves, but neither was he an angel of kindness. She neither had the tongues of the young slaves cut off nor freed the captives alive or in her will.
Chica da Silva would die in 1796 and would be buried in the Church of São Francisco, reserved for whites. Her story would be published for the first time in 1868 by Joaquim Felício dos Santos, a lawyer for the former slave's heirs.
Myth
Stories about Chica da Silva remained in the oral memory of the region and were passed from generation to generation. In the 19th century, however, Chica da Silva is described as an ugly, toothless, bald and mean woman who had young people who got close to her husband to be killed out of jealousy.
From the 30's onwards, when the Baroque in Brazil starts to be revalued during the government of Getúlio Vargas, the figure is embellished. In the 1960s, with the publication of Alípio de Melo's novel, Chica da Silva is portrayed as the woman who avenges slavery.
Already in the 70s, when Brazil was under military dictatorship, Chica da Silva becomes the perfect metaphor for the oppressed fighting the oppressor. In this way, she is sexualized and sensualized to the extreme and her popularity increases with the release of the homonymous film by Cacá Diegues, in 1976.
The cinematographic work featured a song by Jorge Bem Jor that keeps this line of woman ahead of her time.
In the 90's, the biography of Chica da Silva is recovered by the extinct TV Manchete, which turns it into a soap opera. The plot appealed to sex scenes in order to win over the audience, but at least it had the merit of having the first black protagonist, actress Taís Araújo.
Therefore, Chica da Silva is currently the object of historical revisionism. Now, research seeks to place it in the slave context of the time and discovering a more "normal" facet than fiction made us used to.
read more:
- Gold Cycle
- Women who made the history of Brazil
- 20 black personalities from Brazil who marked history
