Maria Quitéria (1792 - 1853)

Maria Quitéria de Jesus Medeiros was born, probably in 1792, in the hamlet of São José de Itapororocas, in Bahia, more precisely on the Licorizeiro farm. A true girl from the backlands, she joined the troops that fought against the Portuguese, in the movement for Brazilian Independence. First she entered the Artillery Division and then the Hunters. Her nom de guerre: soldier Medeiros. At the end of 1822, she joins the Volunteer Batallion of Dom Pedro I, officially becoming the first woman to be part of a military unit in Brazil.

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• Maria Quitéria (1792 - 1853)

On 20 August 1823, Emperor Pedro I welcomed Maria Quitéria at a special meeting. She was given the post of alferes de linha(a kind of lieutenant) and also the title of Knight of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross (Ordem Imperial do Cruzeiro). Several stories of courage and boldness have been told about Maria Quitéria. One story says that she stormed an enemy trench and took some prisoners, which were taken over at gunpoint. It is also said that she used to wear a blue uniform with a skirt that she had designed herself and also a helmet with a penacho (feather ornament). In spite of all this, Maria Quitéria never forgot her femininity.

After winning the glories of a warrior woman, she wed Gabriel Pereira Brito and together they had a daughter by the name of Luísa Maria. A widow, she went to Feira de Santana to try to receive part of her father’s inheritance. Her personality caught the eye of English writer Maria Graham, who wrote the following words about her: “Maria de Jesus is illiterate, but well alive. She has clear intelligence and acute perception. I think that if someone would educate her then she would be an incredible personality. No masculine traits can be seen in her ways, both kind and lovable”.

It was not as a woman, however, that Maria Quitéria managed to enlist in the Armed Forces. It was disguised as a man that she managed to enlist as a volunteer soldier. The reason that motivated her to join the Army was a cannon attack against the city of Cachoeira. News of this incident reached Maria Quitéria through the explorers (tropeiros) who were exploring the backlands of Bahia. Two weeks after she enlisted, they discovered that she was in fact a woman. Her father, who was looking for her, tried to take her away, but Major Silva e Castro (grandfather of poet Castro Alves) did not let her be decommissioned, due to her discipline and also to the great ease she had in handling weapons.

The end of her life, however, was not coherent with her life history as a heroine, acknowledged in 1953 when the Army ordered that a portrait of the soldier woman be inaugurated in all Army quarters. Maria Quitéria died in 1853, in the city of Salvador, to where she had moved with her daughter, already almost blind and forgotten. In 1996, she became the patron of the Complementary Corps of Officials of the Brazilian Army.

Source:
100 Brazilians Book (100 Brasileiros) (2004)