The history of Brazil is full of important and incredible women who marked her time. They are Indians, whites, blacks, mulattoes full of vigor who made a difference in peace and in war.
Check out a list of 20 of these extraordinary women below:
1. Paraguaçu (1495-1583) - India Tupinambá
Paraguaçu was an Indian from the Tupinambá tribe, daughter of the chief Taparica who gave its name to the island of Itaparica. Her life changed after she met the Portuguese Diogo Álvares Correia, known as Caramuru.
In 1528, the couple left for France, where she received baptism in the church of Saint-Malo. Converted to Catholicism, she would adopt the name of Catarina do Brasil or Catarina des Granges. The couple also got married in this French city and would have four daughters.
Paraguaçu helped her husband in the task of founding Salvador, opened churches and protected convents. She died in 1583 and bequeathed all her possessions to the Benedictines. The remains of Paraguaçu are in the Church and Abbey of Nossa Senhora da Graça, in Salvador.
2. Ana Pimentel (1500?-?) - Attorney and administrator
Ana Pimentel Henriques Maldonado, wife of Martim Afonso de Sousa, was a Spanish noblewoman. She met her husband when he accompanied the dowager queen Dona Leonor of Austria (1498-1558) to the Kingdom of Castile.
Martim Afonso went to Brazil in 1530 to take possession of the Captaincy of São Vicente, returning to Lisbon in 1534.
She left again on a mission, this time to India. While there, Ana Pimentel stayed in Lisbon and became her husband's attorney for business in Brazil.
Thus, it was she who decided to introduce the planting of sugar cane in Cubatão and of cattle in the Captaincy of São Vicente (São Paulo). She also revoked her husband's order prohibiting settlers from entering the Piratininga camp. With this, the interiorization of the colony occurred.
She would have six children with Martim Afonso de Souza and was completely forgotten about the history of Brazil.
3. Chica da Silva (1732-1796) - Freed slave
Francisca was born in 1732, in Arraial do Tijuco, today Diamantina (MG). Born of a slave mother and a Portuguese soldier, who abandoned them and did not grant them freedom. Later, she was a slave to a doctor and with him had a child.
However, the contractor João Fernandes (responsible for buying and selling the diamonds), buys Chica da Silva and the two fall in love. To society's scandal, they live together and free her. Both would have 13 children who were recognized by their father, something rare at the time.
Chica da Silva became a powerful and wealthy lady, but she was not fully accepted by society and was never able to enter certain churches and homes.
Likewise, she had slaves and dressed elegantly, wearing jewelry and wigs, to show off her wealth.
João Fernandes returned to Portugal in 1770 taking his male children with him while the women were under the care of their mother. She would die nine years later without ever having seen her companion again.
On his part, Chica da Silva managed the assets of João Fernandes and thus ensured good marriages for some of his daughters.
4. Maria Quitéria (1792-1853) - Military
Maria Quitéria was born on a farm near Feira de Santana (BA) and at age 10 she lost her mother. When Brazil's independence process began, all men of fighting age were called up.
Having only daughters, Maria Quitéria's father did not like it when his daughter asked him to authorize her to join the regiment of the Prince Regent.
Faced with the paternal prohibition, she runs away from home and goes to the residence of her half-sister, who helps her become a soldier Medeiros.
She excels at guns and becomes respected, but her father discovers her cover. Faced with the intervention of the major of the Batalhão dos Voluntários do Príncipe, he grants his permission for her to remain there.
With this, she becomes the first woman to join the regular forces in Brazil. Maria Quitéria participates in several battles against Portuguese troops that did not accept the independence of Brazil.
Maria Quitéria was awarded the Imperial Order of the Cruise, by the Emperor Dom Pedro I. She marries an old boyfriend and has a daughter. She died in Salvador and is buried in this city.
5. Anita Garibaldi (1821-1849) - Military leader
Anita Ribeiro de Jesus, known as Anita Garibaldi, was born in Morrinhos, currently Laguna (SC). She got married at the age of 14, but left her husband. In 1839 she met Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian fleeing a death sentence in Italy.
A merchant seaman, Garibaldi's knowledge was fundamental for the rebels from Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina who were at war against the imperial government. This episode went down in history as Farroupilha Revolution or War of the Rags.
Anita Garibaldi joined Giuseppe, with him she fought for the implantation of the Republic of Rio Grande and they had their first child. Later, they would go to Uruguay where they would fight Argentine dictator Juan Manuel Rosas. In Montevideo, they would get married and three more children would be born to the couple.
In 1847, Anita Garibaldi goes to Italy to find out if her husband could return to the country and with that, they both get together in 1848.
The couple would fight for italian unification, trying to expel the Austrians from the Lombardy region. During the campaign, however, Anita falls ill and dies.
For her participation in wars on both continents, Anita Garibaldi is called the “Heroine of both Worlds”
6. Maria Tomásia Figueira Lima (1826-1902) - Abolitionist
Maria Tomásia Figueira Lima came from a wealthy family, born in the city of Sobral (CE).
Married on a second marriage to the abolitionist Francisco de Paula de Oliveira Lima, she founded, in 1882, the Sociedade Abolicionista das Senhoras Libertadoras, a section of the Sociedade Libertadora Cearense.
The institution's objective was to free slaves, pressure the government to abolish slavery and make the greatest number of people aware of this fact.
On the day of his inauguration as president of the society, 83 letters of enfranchisement were delivered to slaves
He had the help of Maria Correia do Amaral and Elvira Pinho, and José do Patrocínio himself praised the work of those ladies from Ceará.
In 1884, after debates, strikes and social pressure, the provincial Legislative Assembly decreed the end of slavery in Ceará, the first to do so in the country.
She died in 1902 (or 1903) in Recife.
7. Princess Isabel (1846-1921) - Imperial Princess of Brazil
Princess Dona Isabel of Brazil was the second daughter of the emperor Dom Pedro II and the empress Dona Tereza Cristina. After the death of her brothers she was declared heir to the Brazilian throne and at the age of 14 she swore to the imperial constitution.
She married in 1864 the French Prince Gaston of Orleans, Count d'Eu, and with him would have three children.
In order to prepare her for her future functions, Dom Pedro II left her as regent three times. On that occasion, she would sign laws aimed at favoring the abolition of slavery in Brazil.
In 1888, after intense political struggle, the princess signed the Golden Law that would put an end to slave labor in the country.
However, the agrarian elite and the Brazilian army would not forgive the gesture. On November 15, 1889, a coup d'état proclaim the republic and the Brazilian imperial family is expelled from Brazil and exiled to France.
Princess Dona Isabel would never return to Brazil alive, having died in France.
8. Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) - Composer, pianist and conductor
Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, known as Chiquinha Gonzaga, was born in Rio de Janeiro and was the granddaughter of slaves. Her father married her when she was 16 years old, but she rebelled against her husband's mistreatment and abandoned him.
A self-taught pianist, she started composing works and attracted the attention of producers at the time. In 1884, she premiered the operetta "A Corte na Roça", under her direction, and this made her the first Brazilian conductor.
Likewise, she engages in the fight against slavery, copyright and women's rights. She refuses to publish her scores under a male pseudonym and scandalizes society with her love life shocking by the standards of the time.
Chiquinha Gonzaga knew how to give a Brazilian touch to the European rhythms that were heard and danced like the waltz, polka and mazurka.
She will be the precursor of the carnival marchinhas with the themes "Lua Branca" and "Ó, Abre-Alas" until today a mandatory presence in the carnival repertoire.
She left more than two thousand compositions, among which "O Corta-Jaca" and "Atraente" stand out, in addition to those already mentioned.
The day of her birth, October 17th, was declared the National Day of Brazilian Popular Music in 2012.
9. Narcisa Amália de Campos (1856-1924) - Journalist and poet
Narcisa Amália de Campos was born in São João da Barra and is considered the first professional journalist in Brazil. She founded a newspaper aimed at women, "Gazetinha", where it dealt with women's issues, but also with the abolition of slavery and nationalism.
She published a book of poetry entitled "Nebulosas", in 1872, which received praise from Machado de Assis and in the Rio newspaper "A Reforma", the writer João Peçanha Póvoa called her "Princesa das Letras"
However, Narcissa had to face the accusations that she was not the author of those poems and put up with the rumors that her ex-husband spread about her in Resende (RJ). She left this city and remarries, which also ends in divorce.
Although she was recognized in life, Narcissa Amália's poetic career was short because she had no interest in editing female authors in that century. She died in Rio de Janeiro, in 1924, completely forgotten.
10. Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) - Painter and draughtsman
Tarsila do Amaral was born in the city of Capivari, in São Paulo. From a wealthy family that owns coffee farms, she studied in Barcelona as a teenager.
In 1920, she goes to Paris where she attended the Julien Academy. A friend of the painter Anitta Malfatti, the two corresponded and discussed the new directions that art was taking in Brazil and in the world.
Upon returning to Brazil, Anita Malfatti introduces her to the group that brought together the great names of the Brazilian modernism: Oswald de Andrade, Mario de Andrade and Menotti del Picchia.
Dating Oswald de Andrade and in 1928 he dedicated his best-known canvas and most expensive work by a Brazilian artist to him: Abaporu. She held her first solo exhibition in Rio in 1929.
She was honored with retrospectives in the 60s at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo and at the Venice Biennale.
Tarsila's painting absorbs European modernist trends such as the cubism. Her works portray the changes brought about by industrialization in Brazil, the Brazilian legends and festivals such as the carnival.
11. Bertha Lutz (1894-1976) - Botany, lawyer and feminist activist
Bertha Lutz was born in Rio de Janeiro and received a thorough education. She studied at the Sorbonne, at the Faculty of Science and there in Paris came into contact with feminist ideas.
She returns to Brazil in 1918 and works as a translator at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute with her father, zoologist Adolfo Lutz.
She becomes the second woman to take a public examination in Brazil, but her application would only be accepted after a court battle. She is approved and enters as secretary of the National Museum, of which, years later, she would be the director.
Bertha Lutz also developed a remarkable work as an educator. She founded the League for the Intellectual Emancipation of Women and participates in the Brazilian Association of Education, which defended public, secular and mixed education, and secondary education for all.
Along with several women, she manages to get Colégio Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro, to accept the admission of girls.
In 1928, she entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Brazil to understand the place of women in Brazilian legislation.
During the fight for the achievement of female vote, she participates in the campaign for mayor of Alzira Soriano Teixeira, in Lages (RN).
In 1935, she was elected as an alternate deputy, a position she assumed in 1936 and ended with the 1937 coup d'état. In this way, she returned to dedicating herself to science, organizing her father's collection at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.
Bertha Lutz names several schools and streets across the country. In 2001, the Diploma Mulher Cidadã Bertha Lutz was instituted by the Brazilian Senate. This award aims to annually honor five women who have stood out in the fight for women's rights in Brazil.
12. Carlota Pereira de Queirós (1892-1982) - Physician and Deputy
Carlota Pereira de Queirós was born in São Paulo into a traditional São Paulo family. She was a professor, but disillusioned with the profession, she decided to become a doctor and graduated in Medicine at USP, in 1926. In this field, she would excel as a hematologist.
During the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 she assisted the wounded by organizing a group of 700 women.
The taste for the democratic struggle led her to run for the Single Plate for São Paulo in the 1933 legislative elections. Her candidacy was supported by around 14 women's associations in São Paulo.
Victorious, she would be Brazil's first federal deputy. She would integrate the health and education commissions and was the author of the amendment that created the Casa do Jornaleiro and the Child Biology laboratory.
She participated in the Constituent Assembly that would elaborate the new Magna Carta, but the 1937 coup ended her political trajectory. During the new state she would fight for democratization of Brazil.
Although she was a pioneer in politics, Carlota de Queirós' ideas were conservative and distanced herself from intellectuals like Bertha Lutz. In the 1960s, she supported the 64 coup that overthrew President João Goulart.
Anyway, she made history by breaking the male hegemony of the Brazilian legislature, being honored with an avenue and a bust in São Paulo.
13. Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) - Singer and actress
Carmen Miranda was born in Portugal, but her family moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was still a baby. She was raised in the neighborhood of Lapa, where she lived with the best of the carioca samba that was consolidating.
With her sister Aurora, she made a duo that interpreted marchinhas and sambas on the radio. Carmen Miranda quickly became a popular singer and composers began to dedicate several themes to her. His first album sold 35 thousand copies, a record for the time and consecrated the composition "Taí?", by Joubert de Carvalho.
His captivating smile, the theatrical interpretation he gave to the lyrics of the songs and his quick diction inaugurated a new era for Brazilian music. In addition, she took care of her clothes and accessories that would make her a fashion icon.
With the approximation of the United States and Brazil, due to the Good Neighbor policy, Carmen Miranda went to Hollywood, in 1939, to record films and perform shows.
Success ratings "What does the Bahian woman have?” by Dorival Caymmi and becomes the highest paid artist in the United States in the 1940s. From then on, the character of the “baiana” with her exotic costume would definitely mark her.
For this reason, her critics have not forgiven her transforming her into a caricature, where in Brazil she was a woman dressed in a profusion of tropical fruits and musicians dressed in Mexican fashion.
In any case, the public has not forgotten her. In 1955, when she died, her burial in Rio de Janeiro was a real popular commotion that paralyzed the city.
Her influence continued in cultural movements such as the Tropicalism and even today Carmen Miranda is a reference in Brazil abroad.
14. Enedina Alves Marques (1913-1981) - Civil Engineer
If it's still strange for a woman to pursue an engineering career, imagine in the 40s. Enedina Alves Marques, born in Curitiba, was a mathematics teacher. She entered the Federal University of Paraná in 1940 and had to combine work and study.
She was the first black woman in Brazil to graduate as an engineer and the first to complete the course at the university in Paraná.
His efforts were rewarded, as when he finished the course, he worked at the State Department of Water and Electric Energy of Paraná. She was also part of the team of engineers that worked on the construction of the Capivari-Cachoeira (PR) hydroelectric power plant.
She was also responsible for the construction of the Paraná University Student House and the Paraná State College, both in Curitiba.
Currently, the name of Enedina Alves Marques is the name of the Black Women Institute, in Maringá (PR).
15. Zilda Arns (1934-2010) - Founder of Pastoral da Criança
Born in Santa Catarina, Zilda Arns graduated in Medicine, specialized in Pediatrics and was also a sanitarist. She was the sister of the Archbishop of São Paulo, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, who stood out for her opposition to the military dictatorship.
She was the mother of five children and was widowed in 1978. In this way, he was able to dedicate his life to the needy through the foundation of the Pastoral da Criança and the Pastoral da Pessoa Aged.
This institution, linked to the Catholic Church, aimed to combat child malnutrition, social inequality and violence.
The Pastoral da Criança guides mothers to breastfeeding, to make homemade serum and a multi-mix. In addition, she teaches notions of hygiene and health.
The pastoral works in 43,000 municipalities in Brazil and it is estimated that more than two million children have benefited from its work.
Zilda Arns died during the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010.
16. Maria Esther Bueno (1939-2018) - Tennis Player
Maria Esther Bueno was born in São Paulo and started playing tennis at a very young age at Clube Tietê. She drew attention for her elegant style and was winning victories on the tennis world circuit such as Wimbledon and the US Open.
She holds 71 single world titles and was No. 1 in the world in 1959, 1964 and 1966. Likewise, she is the only Brazilian tennis player to bear her name in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a tribute she received in 1978.
She also stood out in the doubles tournament and won an individual gold medal and two silver in pairs at the Pan American Games in São Paulo in 1963.
Esther Bueno left the court in the 1970s and became a sports commentator on pay TV. The most recent recognition of his career was to name the center court of the Olympic Tennis Center, in Rio de Janeiro.
17. Cristina Ortiz (1950) - Pianist
Born in Bahia, Cristina Ortiz was a child prodigy on the piano. He entered the Brazilian Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro and at age 11 performed under conductor Eleazar de Carvalho.
She got a scholarship to study in Paris at the age of 15, where she was a student of the famous Brazilian pianist Magda Tagliaferro (1893-1986).
After his stay in the French capital he went to the United States to study with Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991). There she would be the first woman and the first Brazilian to win the Van Cliburn Contest, in 1969, which is held every three years. Only 30 years later would another woman win this award.
In the 80s, she was the only woman who appeared in the series "Os Pianistas" promoted by the Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra (OSB) in Rio de Janeiro.
She recorded over 30 albums as a soloist or accompanied by orchestras. she already gave master class at the Julliard School of Music in New York and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Currently, in addition to being a concert performer, she gathers young pianists every summer at her home in the south of France to share her musical experience.
18. Ana Cristina Cesar (1952-1983) - Poet and translator
Ana Cristina Cesar was born in Rio de Janeiro and was one of the most important poets of the the 70's. Raised in an intellectual environment, her father founded Paz e Terra and her mother, a teacher. At age six she dictated her first poem and at ten she organized her poetic memory.
She did an exchange in England that would mark her encounter with English-language poetry. She would study letters at PUC / RJ, at a time when this university was politically simmering with the end of the military dictatorship.
Ana Cristina's poetry is part of the movement of marginal poetry and the Mimeograph Generation. More than the muse of this group, the poet was a great creator. Ana Cristina's verses reflect her intimacy and manage to contact the reader
Intense and eager to write more and more, Ana Cristina released “A Teus Pés” and “Luvas de Pelica” in her life. She committed suicide at age 31, which only adds to the mystery of the writer's life.
The author was the second writer to be honored at the Paraty International Literary Fair.
19. Raimunda Putani Yawnawá (1980) - Pajé Yawnawá
Raimunda Putani Yawnawá is an Indian who belongs to the Yawnawá people and was born in the Indigenous Land of Rio Gregório, in Acre.
Along with her sister, Kátia, she was educated in indigenous and white culture. Both speak Portuguese easily.
They were the first women from their tribe to volunteer for the hard training of becoming shamans. They had to be isolated for a year, eating raw food and without drinking water, only a liquid based on corn.
In this way, they were able to swear an oath to the plant Rarê Muká, considered sacred in this culture because it opens the mind to knowledge and healing. The indigenous people have become a kind of ambassadors of the Yawnawá culture.
Raimunda Putani received the recognition of the Brazilian Senate after being distinguished with the Diploma Mulher Cidadã Bertha Lutz.
20. Daiane dos Santos (1983) - Gymnast
THE artistic gymnastics in Brazil it is divided before and after Daiane dos Santos. The gymnast from Rio Grande do Sul was discovered as a child when she was playing in a city square. She began to dedicate herself with determination and was the first Brazilian athlete to win gold at the World Championships in Anaheim (United States) in 2003.
At that time, it was not conceivable for Brazilians to participate in artistic gymnastics. However, with the new generation of athletes, for the first time, Brazil managed to qualify for teams in the Athens Olympics (2004).
At the Beijing Olympics (2008), the expectation regarding the performance of Daiane Santos was immense. Brazil, for the first time, went to the final by teams and Daiane reached the final on individual soil. Unfortunately, the athlete made a mistake and finished in sixth place.
Daiane Santos achieved her best results in the solo test and there she developed choreographies to the sound of Brazilian music.
Two gymnastics movements are named after her and she paved the way for Brazilian men and women to dream of artistic gymnastics.
Currently, the gymnast is a businesswoman and participates in several projects that promote the sport.
Quiz of personalities who made history
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