User:Xanafurtado/Maria Firmina dos Reis

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Intro

Maria Firmina dos Reis (CHECK birthdate and google doodle) was a Brazilian author. She is considered Brazil~s first black female novelist. In 1859, she published her first book Úrsula, which is considered the first Brazilian abolitionist novel. The book tells the story of a love triangle, in which the three black protagonists question the system of slavery.

Childhood and Family

Maria Firmina dos Reis was born on the island of São Luís, Maranhão, on March 11, 1822, but was baptized on December 21, 1825, due to an illness that she fought during her first few years of life. According to her baptismal record, Maria was baptized in the "Parish of Our Lady of Victory" in São Luís. Her godparents were claimed as the captain of the militia, João Nogueira de Souza, and "Our lady of Medicine". The record did not state her date of birth of parents. On June 25th 1847, After enrolling in the public contest for the Primary Education course in the village of São José de Guimarães, which was only possible for those 25 years old or older, Maria Firmina requested a new baptismal justification certificate, in which she informed that her date of birth was March 11, 1822 and that her mother was Leonor Felipa. Leonor had been the slave of Commander Caetano José Teixeira, who died in 1819, a great merchant and landowner in the village of São José de Guimarães, owner of a commercial company with large transactions at the end of the colonial period and at the beginning of the Empire.

Both the baptismal record and the 1847 certificate omit the name of Maria Firmina's father, which was only declared on her death certificate, dated November 17, 1917, with the name João Pedro Esteves. João Pedro Esteves, a wealthy man, was a partner of the former owner of Maria Firmina's mother, the slave Leonor Felipa, in his trading company.

According to some sources, she is the cousin of the Maranhão writer Francisco Sotero dos Reis on her mother's side, although it is not known on what basis and to what degree.

In 1830, Maria moved with her family to the village of São José de Guimarães, on the mainland. She lived part of her life in the house of a better-off maternal aunt. In 1847, she ran for the chair of Primary Instruction and being approved, she exercised her profession there as a teacher of Elementary school from 1847 to 1881. Maria Firmina dos Reis never married.

Career

In 1859, she published the novel Úrsula, which is considered the first novel published by a Brazilian woman. In 1887, she published her short story “A escrava” (the slave) in the Revista maranhense. This short story follows an active participant of the abolitionist movement.]

At 54 years old and after working 34 years as a professor, Maria Firmina founded, in Marcarico, a few kilometers from Guimaraes, a free and mixed school for students who could not pay. She taught classes in a shack on a plantation, and drove to the lesson every morning in a driven cart. There, she taught the plantation owner’s daughters, students she took with her, and others that joined the class. Norma Telles, an academic, called Maria Firmina’s initiative “a bold experiment for the time period”. This innovative action lasted until the first meeting of the lutas das feministas brasileiras (the fights of the brazilian feminists) near the end of the 19th century, which advocated for equality in the education available to young women in Brasil.[7]

Maria Firma dos Reis was very active in the intellectual community of Maranhao: she worked with local press, published books, participated in various anthologies, was a musician and songwriter, and abolitionist. When she received her position as professor, at 22 years old, her mother wanted her to take a carriage carried by enslaved people to the ceremony, but she decided to walk, saying: Black people are not an animal to ride upon. She also wrote the hymn of abolition "no longer slaves".

In 1863, she described herself as “shy and have a weak complexion”, and, because of this “could not help but be a fragile, timid, and by consequence, a melancholy creature”. At 85 years old, those who knew her would describe her as small, mixed race, round faced, dark eyes, with curly grey hair. A student of hers described her as an energetic professor that spoke quietly and wouldn’t punish students harshly, often preferring to counsel than scold. She was reserved, but willing to be open with those around her. She was held in high esteem by her students and by those that lived in the village: every parade in Guimaraes made a stop at her door to cheer, to which she would give an impromptu speech.

Death

Maria firmina dos reis died, blind and poor, at the age of 95, in the house of a previously enslaved woman: Mariazinha, who had fostered one of dos Reis' children.

Tributes

Maria Firmina dos Reis was honored in a Google Doodle on the 11th of October in 2019, on what was thought of as her birthdate, but was later proven to be her baptismal date.

She is the only woman represented among the busts of important writers from Maranhão at the Praça do Pantheon (Pantheon Square) in São Luís. .

Obra

Conceição Evaristo defines “escrevivência”, or what can best be described in English as writing from personal experience, in three components: the writing of the body, of a condition and of a black experience in Brazil. The first element that composes writing, the body, refers to the subjective dimension of black existence, being an archive of impressions throughout life, marked on the skin and in the constant struggle for the affirmation and reversal of stereotypes.[15] The condition of the black woman, the second element, highlights several problems inherited from the colonial situation, since, through slavery, women were subjugated in different areas.[16] The writing experience of Maria Firmina dos Reis, a black writer, can also be perceived in the representation of her black characters, as the history of literature directly influences nationality and, consequently, also in the construction of the image of genres, a means used to consolidate the male power.[16]

Maria Firmina presents black people in her novels, giving them human dimensions and gives a position as a subject of discourse, which can reveal an intimate identification with the enslaved black person, presenting a solidarity that, in the words of Eduardo de Assis Duarte, “is born from a perspective another, through which the writer, sister to the captives and their descendants, expresses, through fiction, her belonging to this universe of culture”.[17]

List of Works

This selection was acquired from the book Escritores brasileiras do século XIX: Antologia (Brazilian writers frm the 19th century: an anthology).

• Úsula. Novel 1859
• Gupeva, Novel, 1861;1862 (O jardim dos Maranhenses) and 1863 (Porta Livre e Eco da Juventude)
• Poems in: Parnase maranhense, 1861
• A escrava (The enslaved woman). Short story, 1887 ( A Revista Maranhense n° 3)
• Cantos à beira-mar. Poems, 1871.
• Hino da libertação dos escravos. 1888.
• Poems in: A Imprensa, Publicador Maranhense; A Verdadeira Marmota; Almanaque de Lembranças Brasileiras; Eco da Juventude; Semanário Maranhense; O Jardim dos Maranhenses; Porto Livre; O Domingo; O País; A Revista Maranhense; Diário do Maranhão; Pacotilha; Federalista.
• Musical compositions: Auto de bumba-meu-boi (music and lyrics); Valsa (lyrics written by Gonçalves Dias and music written by Maria Firmina dos Reis); Hino à Mocidade (music and lyrics); Hino à liberdade dos escravos (music and lyrics); Rosinha, valsa (music and lyrics); Pastor estrela do oriente (music and lyrics); Canto de recordação (“à Praia de Cumã”; music and lyrics).

See also

História da educação no Brasil

Maria de Lima das Mercês