Antonieta de Barros

 BIOGRAPHY

Birth

From July 11, 1901

Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Death

From March 28, 1952 (50 years)

Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

(Unknown cause)

 She was one of the first women elected in Brazil and the first Brazilian black woman to assume a popular mandate, having been a pioneer and inspirer of the black movement, despite a great erasure of its history, which has been gradually retaken.

Heritage and cultural representations

Antonieta remained until 2012 as the only black woman to assume a mandate in the parliament of Santa Catarina. According to former senator Ideli Salvatti, Antoinette had gone through a historic process of erasure: the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina did not even have photographs of her Ideli to begin a search for her own term in late 1990. Currently, the Assembly pays tribute to Antonieta giving its name to the Antonieta de Barros Program, which invests in the training of young apprentices from needy communities, and the Antonieta de Barros Deputy Auditorium, which is located in the Palácio Barriga Verde, the seat of parliament, in addition to having posted his photo in the women's gallery. Antonieta is considered an inspiration for the black movement and her story is gradually spreading outside of Florianopolis.

In addition to teaching, she worked as a journalist and writer, standing out for the courage to express her ideas within a historical context that did not allow women to express themselves freely.

Antonieta actively participated in the cultural life of her state. She founded and directed the newspaper A Semana between 1922 and 1927 and is considered the first black woman to work in the Santa Catarina press. During this period, through her chronicles, she transmitted her ideas, especially those related to education, political excesses, the feminine condition and prejudices.

He also edited the fortnightly magazine Vida Ilhoa, in 1930, and wrote articles for local newspapers. Under the pseudonym Maria da Ilha, in 1937 she wrote Farrapos de Ideias, the first book published by a black woman in Santa Catarina. It was through him that Antoinette entered the path of politics. She exchanged correspondence with the Brazilian Federation for Women's Progress and its founder, Bertha Lutz. He was part of the Deliberative Council of the Santa Catarina Press Association, since 1938.

According to researcher Luciana Fontão, Antonieta's literature "presents texts with thematic characteristics based on social criticism, tending towards provincial proselytism of an urban nature and marked by a language of strong didactic and religious appeal, in the cult of humanist and Christian values . resistance of female writing and presence of female writers in the literature produced on the Island of Santa Catarina "

During her life, Antonieta was a serious, committed and assertive woman, but also energetic and humane. She was respected and admired for her spirit of justice. She never married and was quite religious, being a devotee of Our Lord of the Steps. Despite his religiosity, he preached female emancipation, mainly through education, which provokes a certain rejection of the more conservative wings of the Catholic Church. He also suffered from racism: in an episode in 1951, historian Oswaldo Rodrigues Cabral called his political and educational ideas "cheap slavery intrigue." She reacted by assuming her status as a black woman and educator, having responded in a newspaper report.

 

Heritage and cultural representations

Antonieta remained until 2012 as the only black woman to assume a mandate in the parliament of Santa Catarina. According to former senator Ideli Salvatti, Antoinette had gone through a historic process of erasure: the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina did not even have photographs of her Ideli to begin a search for her own term in late 1990. Currently, the Assembly pays tribute to Antonieta giving its name to the Antonieta de Barros Program, which invests in the training of young apprentices from needy communities, and the Antonieta de Barros Deputy Auditorium, which is located in the Palácio Barriga Verde, the seat of parliament, in addition to having posted his photo in the women's gallery. Antonieta is considered an inspiration for the black movement and her story is gradually spreading outside of Florianopolis. A bill by federal deputy Alessandro Molon seeks to place Antonieta in Livro de Aço as a heroine of the Brazilian homeland for her fight for education, already approved by the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.

Antonieta also lends her name to the Association of Black Women Antonieta de Barros and a praise from the Municipality of Florianópolis, the Antonieta de Barros Medal, which is awarded annually to women with relevant services in defense of the rights of the women of Santa Catarina. In 2016, the Federal Government's Secretariat for Social Equality created an award called the Antonieta de Barros Award for Young Black and Black Communicators. The name of Antonieta de Barros is also found in some places in Florianópolis such as the Via Expressa Sul tunnel and a street in the Canto district, in addition to the Colegio Antonieta de Barros, in the center of Florianópolis, whose building at that time was the Colégio Estadual Dias Velho, in which Antonieta herself worked.