Erased Heroines of Brazil’s Independence Return in New Book
Brazil · Life & Culture
Key Facts
—The Book. “Heroínas da Independência” is a narrative poem by Bahian author and screenwriter Manuela Dias, published through her own imprint Editora Voante.
—The Heroines. The work centres on three women central to the 1822–1823 War of Independence in Bahia: Maria Quitéria de Jesus, Maria Felipa de Oliveira, and Soror Joana Angélica de Jesus.
—The Thesis. Dias argues that Brazil’s official Independence narrative has systematically erased women, Northeasterners, and Black protagonists from the national story.
—The Launches. The book launches first in Salvador at Livraria Terra Libris on 18 July, followed by a São Paulo event at Livraria Martins Fontes on Avenida Paulista on 25 July.
—The Bigger Picture. The release is part of a broader post-bicentennial revisionist movement in Brazilian historiography, publishing, and even corporate branding, seeking to update the country’s founding myths.
A new narrative poem by acclaimed screenwriter Manuela Dias recovers the erased heroines of Brazil’s independence, challenging a national foundation story that has long privileged a single shout over a bloody, popular war fought largely by women, Black leaders, and the people of Bahia.
A War, Not a Shout: Reframing 1822
For most of the world, Brazilian independence is a single image: Dom Pedro I on the banks of the Ipiranga River, declaring “Independência ou morte!” in September 1822. Dias’s work, rooted in years of research commissioned for a film project by actor and director Antônio Pitanga, insists that the real story unfolded over seventeen brutal months in Bahia, culminating in the expulsion of Portuguese forces on 2 July 1823.
Historians estimate that around 2,000 people died in the conflicts that secured Brazil’s separation from Portugal, with Bahia as the central theatre of war. The book argues that by compressing this protracted, popular struggle into a single royal gesture, the official narrative conveniently sidelined the masses who actually fought and died.
This reframing carries a contemporary economic and cultural charge. Bahia, long marginalised in national policy-making and myth-making, is actively reclaiming its role as the birthplace of Brazil, a repositioning that influences everything from tourism branding to heritage funding and educational curricula.
The Soldier: Maria Quitéria de Jesus
Born around 1792 on a farm in Bahia’s Recôncavo region, Maria Quitéria de Jesus became the first woman to serve in the Brazilian Army. When local militia called for volunteers in 1822, she cut her hair, dressed in male clothing, and enlisted under her brother-in-law’s surname as “Soldado Medeiros.”
Her identity was eventually discovered, but her marksmanship and discipline were so exceptional that her superiors retained her as an officially accepted female combatant. She fought in battles across Maré Island, Paraguaçu Bay, Itapuã, and Pituba, and was later decorated by Emperor Dom Pedro I himself.
The institutional recognition came painfully slowly. A bronze medal bearing her likeness was issued only in 1953, a century after her death, and she was proclaimed Patron of the Women’s Corps of the Brazilian Army by presidential decree as late as 1996.
For Dias, Quitéria’s trajectory embodies both the presence and the delayed acknowledgement of women who literally fought for the nation.
The Saboteur: Maria Felipa de Oliveira
If Quitéria represents formal military service, Maria Felipa de Oliveira represents the popular, improvised front. A Black woman who had gained her freedom from enslavement, she lived on Itaparica Island and worked as a fisherwoman and shellfish gatherer, and was also remembered as a capoeirista and community leader.
According to local tradition and oral history, she led a group of around forty women known as “vedetas” in espionage, sabotage, and guerrilla operations against Portuguese forces. Accounts describe them using urticant plants to whip soldiers and setting fire to Portuguese ships anchored near the island, with some narratives claiming they destroyed up to 42 vessels.
Academic researchers caution that documentation on Maria Felipa remains fragmentary, with many episodes filtered through oral tradition rather than written archives. The recent scholarly work “Maria Felipa de Oliveira” by Eny Kleyde Vasconcelos, compiling over a decade of research, stands as the main reference for separating documented history from legend, though both forms of memory interest Dias as a storyteller.
The Martyr: Soror Joana Angélica de Jesus
The third of Dias’s recovered heroines is Soror Joana Angélica de Jesus, an abbess of the Convent of Lapa in Salvador, born in the city in 1761. In February 1822, as Portuguese troops moved to occupy strategic points in Salvador, they attempted to invade her convent.
Joana Angélica placed herself physically at the entrance to bar their access and was killed by bayonet blows. Her death transformed her into a martyr of the Bahian independence struggle, and some scholars describe her as the first heroine of the entire independence process.
Dias frames Joana Angélica as the religious and moral face of resistance, a figure whose sacrifice underscores that independence involved civilian victimisation and institutional violence, not merely political decree. Like the others, she has had limited representation in national symbols, currency, and mainstream textbooks outside Bahia.
A Post-Bicentennial Market for Revised History
Dias’s book does not arrive in a vacuum. The 2022 bicentennial of independence triggered a wave of cultural production explicitly aimed at contesting the traditional founding myth, from collective volumes like “Independência do Brasil: As mulheres que estavam lá” to museum projects and public campaigns.
Large institutions have moved to align their branding with this new memory politics. Banco do Brasil financed a “lost faces of Brazilian history” campaign that digitally reconstructed the faces of Tereza de Benguela, Luiza Mahin, and Maria Felipa, signalling that corporate Brazil sees value in associating with a more diverse national narrative.
For investors and professionals watching Brazil’s cultural economy, this represents a sustained market appetite for content connecting historical revision with identity and diversity agendas. Dias’s book stands out because it translates revisionist historiography into an accessible, poetic format aimed at children, youth, and adults, bridging popular and academic history in a single commercial product.
From Page to Screen: The Audiovisual Angle
The book grew out of research commissioned by Antônio Pitanga for a cinematographic project on Bahia’s Independence, creating a direct pipeline from print to potential screen adaptation. With Brazilian streaming platforms actively seeking period dramas with diversity-focused narratives, “Heroínas da Independência” provides ready-made intellectual property.
The story offers a vivid, character-driven narrative of war, race, and gender that can migrate to series, documentaries, and educational content. For a global audience increasingly drawn to stories that challenge monolithic national myths, the material has clear international crossover potential, particularly given the universal themes of erasure and recovery.
No verified details on the film’s title, production company, or release schedule are yet available, and any reporting beyond the fact that the project is in development should be treated as speculative. The book, however, is concrete and arriving now.
What This Means for Expats and Observers of Brazil
For expatriates and internationally-minded professionals living in or engaging with Brazil, the book and the movement it represents offer a lens into the country’s ongoing renegotiation of its own identity. Understanding who Brazil chooses to remember—and who it has chosen to forget—provides essential context for navigating its political, corporate, and social landscapes.
The foregrounding of Black and Northeastern heroines engages directly with the regional and racial inequalities that shape Brazilian policy debates, from fiscal federalism to affirmative action. Bahia’s push to reclaim its centrality in the national story is not merely symbolic; it underpins arguments for investment, representation, and cultural tourism that have tangible economic consequences.
Dias’s accessible, literary approach also increases the likelihood of the book entering schools and public reading programmes, making it a vehicle for long-term change in historical consciousness. For anyone seeking to understand where Brazil is heading, paying attention to which stories it tells about where it came from is a sound investment of time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the three heroines featured in Manuela Dias’s new book?
The book centres on Maria Quitéria de Jesus, the first woman to serve in the Brazilian Army who fought in male disguise; Maria Felipa de Oliveira, a Black freedwoman and fisherwoman who led guerrilla operations on Itaparica Island; and Soror Joana Angélica de Jesus, an abbess killed by Portuguese troops while defending her convent in Salvador in February 1822. All three were pivotal to the War of Independence in Bahia yet remain marginal in national narratives.
Why does the book argue these women were erased from Brazilian history?
Dias and contemporary scholars contend that Brazil’s official Independence narrative was deliberately compressed into the image of Dom Pedro I’s 1822 proclamation, minimising the seventeen-month war in Bahia and the mass popular participation it involved. This framing conveniently sidelined women, Black protagonists, and Northeasterners, whose stories challenged the elite, male, and Southeastern-centric version of the nation’s founding.
Where and when is the book being launched?
“Heroínas da Independência” launches first in Salvador, Bahia, at Livraria Terra Libris in the Cine Glauber Rocha complex on Saturday 18 July, with a talk and signing session mediated by Bahian history professor Murilo Mello from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. A second launch follows in São Paulo at Livraria Martins Fontes on Avenida Paulista on Saturday 25 July.
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