5 Brazilian Women Who Changed History

Have you ever heard of Dandara, the Afro-Brazilian warrior who was a leader in the fight against slavery? Or of Maria Quitéria , the ‘Brazilian Joan of Arc ’? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Like her, so many incredible women in Brazilian history have been erased from the historical narrative for centuries, whether they were soldiers, artists, or writers. Luckily, that has been changing, thanks to the work of Brazilian historians, but also of activists. Still, many of these women are largely unknown outside of Brazil, and much of the scholarship about them exists only in Portuguese, which is really a shame. So, in this text, I thought I’d introduce you to some of them; I chose one woman per century, since the 16th century and the start of the Portuguese colonisation, to the 20th. It was very difficult to narrow the list down, but here it is: 5 Women Who Changed Brazilian History.

1) Catarina Paraguaçu (1503-1583) – Tupinambá Indian and Visionary

Catarina Paraguaçu , also known as Catarina of Brazil, was born in what today is Bahia, the daughter of the chief of the Tupinambá tribe, Taparica. Her story has been mythologised pretty much from the start, and so we have to read primary sources with a grain of salt. But to sum it up, her life changed when her father promised her as a wife to a Portuguese sailor who had survived a shipwreck, Diogo Álvares Correia, also known as Caramuru. Talk about an unexpected match, right? Shipwreck survivor marries tribal chief’s daughter. Sounds like the plot of an epic historical novel or poem, doesn’t it? And indeed an epic poem was written about this, and it became a foundational story in our history.

So, in 1528, the couple sailed to France, where Catarina was baptised (she wasn’t called Catarina before that, of course) – and she was probably named Catarina either after the queen of Portugal or of France, who both shared this name – and she converted to Catholicism. The couple got married in Saint-Malo, and had four daughters together. Imagine the culture shock, from the shores of Bahia to the streets of Saint-Malo. Catarina’s journey was nothing short of a blockbuster movie script. Catarina, Caramuru, and their children are usually referred to as the first Brazilian Christian family, but their marriage is also a foundational myth in our national identity and the idea of the harmonic coexistence and integration of different peoples.

Catarina was praised for speaking Portuguese exceptionally well – which she learnt from a ‘Portuguese slave’ according to contemporary sources -, but also for her beauty, and, even though she was an indigenous woman, she was described as ‘pale as snow’, so you can already see the racism and racial tensions that existed from the beginning in Brazil . It is said that, together with her husband, Caramuru, she helped start the construction of the city of Salvador, Brazil’s first capital city. Contemporary accounts, by Portuguese writers, praise her in helping the Portuguese to dominate indigenous peoples.

More than that though, she was known for her dreams and visions. She was said to dream of starving castaways found on the shore, including a woman carrying a baby, who was interpreted by those around her to be the Virgin Mary. Her husband believed her visions and so, ordered the beaches to be searched for castaways and many people were indeed found, which is perhaps not surprising given that this was a time in which many ships from Europe were arriving on the shores of Brazil. In another of these visions, the same woman asked Catarina to build her a house and legend has it that a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Baby Jesus was discovered soon afterwards. And, sidenote, you can still see this miraculous statue at the Igreja da Graça, in Salvador.

In Catarina’s case, history is very much mixed with legend, for better or for worse, and primary sources get sometimes obscured by literary retellings of the story. We do know, however, that when Catarina died, in 1583, she left all of her possessions to the Benedictine order. Her remains are still in the same church where the Virgin Mary’s statue that I mentioned is, in Salvador. Today, Catarina Paraguaçu is known as the ‘Mother of Brazil’, as a historical and mythical ancestor who was key in the foundation of Brazil.

2) Dandara dos Palmares (?-1694) – Afro-Brazilian Warrior and Leader

It’s hard to overstate just how central Brazil was in the slave trade, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It’s estimated that nearly 5 million people from Africa have been forcibly taken to Brazil to work as slaves. Of course, black people fought against slavery. The Quilombo dos Palmares is perhaps the best example. Quilombos were settlements, communities of people who had fled slavery, and Palmares was situated in the area of Pernambuco, in the North-East of Brazil, and it existed from around 1605 to 1694. But Quilombo dos Palmares wasn’t just a settlement; it was a beacon of hope and resistance. Imagine creating a whole community out of the sheer will to be free. Quite the legacy, wouldn’t you say? Unfortunately for historians, there aren’t many primary sources about Dandara’s life. We don’t really know when or where she was born. What we do know is that she joined the community as a young girl, and eventually became the partner of its last leader or king, Zumbi dos Palmares , and they had three children together.

She was an active part of the resistence against slavery; not only was she a warrior who fought in multiple battles, but she knew capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art which was created and practised by enslaved people to the sound of music, to make it seem closer to a dance or game. She would also hunt and help grow vegetables for the community. But she would also participate in discussions about strategy, and she was completely against negotiating with the government, mainly because none of the deals proposed to the quilombolas involved abolishing slavery altogether; even if the Portuguese offered freedom to those in the community, they would have to agree not to protect any new people who might have fled their enslavement. It is said that Dandara believed, rightly so, that that just wasn’t good enough. Fighting, farming, strategizing – Dandara did it all. But arguably, it was her unflinching commitment to freedom and fighting oppression that is the most remarkable thing about her. 

Sadly, when she was captured in 1694, it is said that she decided to take her own life rather than returning to the life of a slave. Today, she is considered a hero, a symbol of the fight for the freedom of Afro-Brazilians, along with Zumbi.

3) Maria Quitéria (1792-1853) – Military Officer

We got to our ‘Brazilian Joan of Arc ’, as it were – but with a happier ending, I promise. And honestly, if her story doesn’t scream ‘movie adaptation waiting to happen’, I don’t know what does. Maria Quiteria was born in a farm in Bahia, and, at ten years old, her mother died, leaving Maria Quiteria’s responsible for helping her father raise her siblings, not to mention taking care of the house. She didn’t attend school, although she loved hunting, horse-riding, and learning about firearms. So, when the fight for independence from Portugal broke out, most able-bodied men considered old enough were called to fight. And Maria Quiteria wanted to join them.

Her father wouldn’t let her enlist and join the Prince -Regent’s regiment, so she ran away from home in 1822, and went to ask for her half-sister’s help. Together, the two transformed Maria Quiteria, cutting off her hair and dressing her as a man and so Maria Quiteria joined the artillery regiment of the army as a volunteer. Big shoutout to sibling solidarity here. Helping Maria disguise herself and join the army? That’s what I call family goals. Sidenote, Maria Quiteria borrowed her brother-in-law’s clothes, and she adopted his name, José Cordeiro de Medeiros. I just love this idea of the couple supporting Maria Quiteria in her bravery and defiance of gender roles. Now that I think about her, though, I think we should call her the Brazilian Mulan, rather than Joan of Arc . I wonder who I should talk to about that. But anyway. Maria Quiteria’s father soon found out what she had done, and he was not happy. But an army officer, who praised her discipline and skill, supported Maria Quiteria in remaining in the army. Still, her father did manage to have her transferred from the artillery to the infantry regiment, as he believed a riffle to be more appropriate for his daughter than dealing with canons! Which… Sure. Maria Quiteria started using her real name and, as the secret was out, she added a skirt to her uniform, singling her out as a female soldier – now, that is what I call style.

She was the first woman in Brazil to join the army and fight in a war; she was a hero of the Independence War , fighting in several battles against the Portuguese, who wouldn’t accept Brazil’s independence, such as the defense of the Maré Island, the Paraguaçu Bay, Itapuã and Pituba. She received the Ordem Imperial do Cruzeiro from the Prince -Regent-turned-Emperor, Dom Pedro the first. From disguising herself as a man to join the independence fight, to becoming a celebrated hero, her story is pure defiance and bravery. And, contrary to Joan of Arc , Maria Quitéria had a happy ending. After the war, forgiven by her father, she married an old flame, a farm labourer, and they had a daughter. She led a peaceful, if anonymous, life. Maria Quitéria died in Salvador, where she is buried, and today, she is remembered a brave and determined woman, and as a hero in the fight for independence.

4) Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) – Composer, Conductor, Pianist

Can you imagine composing over two thousand pieces of music?! Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga , did just that. She was the daughter of a high-ranking military man and a mixed-race woman, whose mother had been freed from slavery. As you can imagine, her father’s aristocratic family opposed this union, and they only married officially when Chiquinha was 12 years old. Still, she received a good education from a young age, and she was fascinated by music. She taught herself to play the piano and soon she was composing music. Her father forced her into marriage when she was just 16 years old with a man eight years older than her. Sadly, her husband was violent and abusive. Besides that, he was against her pursuing a career of any sort in music, and so, after having three children together, she left him, when she was 23 years old. Her family wouldn’t take her back, though, and she had to give up her children. Soon after leaving her husband, Chiquinha married once more, and had a daughter, but that relationship didn’t last either, and she also lost contact with her daughter.

People were talking about her, not only because of the scandal all this caused, but also because of her music. She knew how to give a Brazilian touch to European music; she mixed classical with popular music, so she combined the waltz, the polka, and the mazurca, with choro, maxixe and lundu. She was happy to combine orchestra instruments with acoustic guitars, for instance. Plus she created many marchinhas, carnival music that we still listen to today in Brazil. There’s much to admire in Chiquinha. Although she was advised to publish her works under a male pseudonym, she refused to do so – she was known to have a strong personality. Still, she went on to travel around the country, teaching piano, creating beautiful music, and making her own living. Chiquinha shocked society with her love affairs – which were sometimes with much younger men – and her views about women; she was a kind of proto-feminist in terms of sexual freedom and women’s rights. Besides that, she campaigned for the end of the monarchy and for the abolition of slavery. She was a real trailblazer, and yes, I hate buzz-words like this, but she was; she defied gender roles in a very sexist society; she was the first woman to ever conduct an orchestra in Brazil, in 1884, with one of her operetas. And she was highly successful in her day, writing hit after hit, as it were.

Today, she is remembered as one of the most important figures in Brazilian music and, in 2012, her birthday date, 17th of October, was declared National Day of Popular Brazilian Music, which I find very cool. And I highly recommend you look up her music online – even if you can’t understand the lyrics, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

5) Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) – Artist

It would be pretty much impossible to talk about modernist art in Brazil without including Tarsila do Amaral . Born to a wealthy family of coffee growers from Sao Paulo, Tarsila was sent to study in Barcelona as a teenager. She went back to Brazil, got married, and had a child, following what it was expected a young woman like her would do. But she was anything but conventional.

She left her husband and moved to Paris, to immerse herself in the world of art. When she went back to Brazil, her friend and fellow artist Anita Malfatti introduced her to the group that was revolutinising the very idea of art; people like Oswald and Mario de Andrade and Menoti del Picchia. By 1929, she had her first solo exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. Her work was influenced by European trends in art at the time, such as Cubism, incorporating Brazilian influences, too.

She married Oswald de Andrade , and together with their friend Raul Bopp,  she goes full ‘cultural cannibalism’ with the anthropofagic movement. Sounds wild? Because it was. Devouring global influences to redefine Brazilian art. So, they founded the ‘anthropophagic movement ’, which completely changed how art and culture in Brazil were understood – yes, anthropophagic as in cannibalism. 

Anyway, art historians usually classify her work in three phases: Pau-Brazil, or ‘Brazilwood’, Anthropophagic and, lastly, the ‘social’ phase. She depicted the social change happening with industrialisation, as well as Brazilian folklore and popular festivities, such as Carnival. She dedicated what is arguably her masterpiece, Abaporu, to her husband and fellow modernist artist, Oswald. This painting, Abaporu, is the most expensive work by a Brazilian artist; it’s a masterpiece so iconic, it might as well be Brazil’s Mona Lisa. Gifted to Oswald, because nothing says love like a groundbreaking piece of modern art. Tarsila used to say she wished to be the ‘painter of Brazil’ and that she had done it. Who am I to say otherwise?!

Final Thoughts

I’m curious to know whether you had ever heard of these women; most Brazilians have, I’d say, even though we study them very briefly in school, if at all.  And feel free to drop me any questions! As always, I have included a list of recommendations and links in the description, but unfortunately, almost everything is in Portuguese, although I did manage to find one English translation. In any case, I hope you enjoyed hearing about these incredible women – I tried to make my list as diverse as I could, but also to keep the text fairly brief. There are so many interesting people to choose from though, and I didn’t even include any people who are still alive today! Nor did I include my possibly favourite writer ever, Clarice Lispector , an honorary Brazilian! I might have to make another list soon.

Further Reading:

Janaína Amado, ‘O Caramuru, e a Fundação Mítica do Brasil’, Actas dos IV Cursos Internacionais de Ikrão de Cascais – Mito e Símbolo na História de Portugal e do Brasil (1998), pp. 175-209.

Aracy Amaral, Tarsila: Sua Obra e Seu Tempo (2010).

Isabelle Anchieta, Revolucionárias: Joana d’Arc e Maria Quitéria (2024).

Jarid Arraes, As lendas de Dandara (2016).

_________, Heroínas negras em 15 cordéis (2017).

Angela Braga, Tarsila do Amaral (1998). 

Leonardo Chalub, Dandara e a Falange Feminina de Palmares, (2021).

Chiara Ciodarot, Tempos de liberdade (2022).

Edinha Diniz, Chiquinha Gonzaga: Uma história de vida (2009).

Carlos Dourado, Maria Quitéria: A primeira militar brasileira, uma guerreira também pela independência do Brasil (2023).

Santa Rita Durão, Caramuru: Poema Épico (1781).

Tasso Franco, Catarina Paraguacu: A Mae do Brasil (2001).

Nádia Battella Gotlib, Tarsila do Amaral: A Modernista (2018).

Dalva Lazaroni, Chiquinha Gonzaga: Sofri e Chorei, Tive Muito Amor (1999).

Adriano Petrosa (ed.), Tarsila Popular (2019). (English version: T**arsila do Amaral: Cannibalizing Modernism, 2019).

Sebastião da Rocha Pitta, História da América Portugueza (1880).

Shuma Schumaher (ed.), Dicionário Mulheres do Brasil de 1500 até a atualidade (2000).

Rosa Symanski, Maria Quitéria: A soldada que conquistou o Império (2021).