Abstract: Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império”, by Rosa Symanski, seeks to illustrate the life of Maria Quiteria as a woman and warrior. The work mixes fictional narrative with historical facts, but faces criticism for the lack of clarity between fiction and reality and the scarcity of post-independence details.
Keywords: Maria Quiteria, biography, and woman.
Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império is the book that describes the life of one of Brazil’s builders. Written by Rosa Symanski, in 2021, and published by the publisher polyography, the work presents the following question: Who was Maria Quiteria as a woman and as a warrior? The preface, signed by Gabriella Esmeralda Aquino Silva, graduated in philosophy and descendant of Maria Quiteria, describes the book as “a beautiful and sweet journey” (p. 2) for the intimate knowledge of Maria Quiteria’s biography, which must interest everyone Those involved in the feminist struggle, historians and fiction readers.
Rosa Symanski, a journalist specializing in economics and finances with more than 25 years of career, worked in vehicles such as Jornal do Brasil, Gazeta Mercantil and Agência Estado. Since 2017, he gives lectures in São Paulo on the impact of fake news. The author research extensively on great characters in the country, as shown in this historical novel. The book is organized in 14 chapters, as well as preface, epilogue and bibliographic references, distributed over 215 pages. The narrative strategy includes the bibliographic review of Maria Quiteria’s actions. It also includes interviews with professionals from history, archeology, anthropology, philosophy, music and literature.
In the first two chapters, the author presents the adolescence of Maria Quiteria on her father’s farm in the Bahian Recôncavo. Set in 1820, the chapter portrays Maria Quiteria’s relationship with her friend Maria de Lurdes and her conflicts with stepmother Maria Rosa, who charged her a more feminine stance. It also shows Maria Quiteria’s troubled relationship with her stepmother, Maria Rosa, bothered by the independence of Maria Quiteria and her disinterest in the household chores. Quiteria would rather spend his time hunting and riding, which gave him practice in the management of firearms. The author also highlights the beauty of Maria Quiteria and her wild temperament.
In the third chapter, the author transition from the adolescent to adulthood, in which Maria Quiteria became more attractive, arousing the attention of Antonio, her first love. It describes the first love relationships of Maria Quiteria, judged outside the standards of the time. Following (fourth chapter), portrays the return of Maria Quiteria’s first love to Coimbra, to finish his studies in law after three months of romance. The chapter shows, in detail, the couple’s farewell route.
In the fifth chapter, the author tells the protagonist’s daily life in the life of the farm, the hunting, the horse riding and the grazing of cattle, along with her friend Maria de Lourdes and the longing for her love Antonio. The author also reports Maria de Lourdes’s concern that Maria Quiteria was no longer a virgin, noting that, at that time, a girl losing her virginity before marriage had harsh consequences to women.
In the next chapter (the sixth), the author introduces an important character to the cultural and religious formation of Maria Quiteria. It was a highly requested slave in the region due to its healing gifts and the practice of vodum, a belief worshiped in its city of origin, Daomé, Africa. These practices and the assent of their supporters were disapproved by Maria Rosa.
In the seventh chapter, the author tells Maria Quiteria’s growing attachment by her lover. While Antonio did not return to the arms of Maria Quiteria, she was courted by Luis, son of a region’s farmer, during the masses on weekends. Luís found in Gonçalo, the young woman’s father, the encouragement to result in their marriage. However, he would rather leave his daughter the decision to date the boy, since he did not share the predominant thinking of the time, that daughters marry someone indicated by his father as a way to increase possessions. Maria Quiteria, however, did not make a commitment to young Luis, as he still had the hope of seeing him again, although he was promised to a bride from Salvador.
In the eighth chapter, the author tells the wait of Maria Quiteria for her love, Antonio de Coimbra, while resisting the attempts of her father, Gonçalo, to introduce her to other suitors. It also describes the loving mismatch between Antonio and Maria Quiteria, because this one, upon returning from Coimbra, was destined by his uncle to be a husband of Camila, a thin and educated girl with great possessions.
In the ninth chapter, we are told the marriage between Antonio and Camila. Despite all the pomp of aristocratic marriage, Antonio was unhappy with the imposed marriage, as Maria Quiteria still lived in her thoughts. During the wedding party, the bride’s father discusses his discontent with the Porto Revolution, which claimed the return of the court to Portugal. Nuno, on the other hand, affirms his loyalty to the Crown, declaring not to find any absurdity of the requirement of the revolutionaries.
The tenth chapter deals with the loving disappointment of Maria Quiteria with Antonio. It was after the disappointment and visit of Tadeu, soldier sent by the Military Junta to recruit combatants for the war against the Portuguese, that Maria Quiteria began to be interested in military enlistment. Faced with Gonçalo’s negative to contribute to the war effort, Maria Quiteria felt the desire to fight Portuguese exploitation in Brazil. Our character was attracted to the cause not only by admiration to Dom Pedro I, but also to his wife, Maria Antonieta, who was directly involved with the independence of Brazil. With the help of Sister Teresa, Maria Quiteria managed to enlist in the army disguised as a man.
In chapter 11, after summarizing the events that triggered the war against the Lusos, the author describes Maria Quiteria’s first mission as a soldier. She was displaced to defend the Maré Island, a strategic point for the supply of food. It is also narrated one of the most notable conflicts that occurred in the War for Independence, outside Salvador – BA, which had the courageous participation of Maria Quiteria in the defense of Brazil.
In chapters 12 and 13, the author tells the relationship assumed by Maria Quiteria and Antonio, during the period in which they served the army. She stresses the manumission of the slaves who fought in favor of Dom Pedro I for the consolidation of the independence of Brazil, highlighting the liberation of the slave Joaquim, the one who served as a healer at Gonçalo’s farm.
In chapter 14, the composition of the forces of Dom Pedro I. Maria Quiteria was detailed to the Volunteer Battalion, along with Antonio and 150 others boring in the army of Dom Pedro I. The chapter is marked by the death of Antonio, the death Love of Maria Quiteria and Camila. In the epilogue, finally, the coronation of Maria Quiteria is described with the laurels made by the nuns of the Soledade Convent, in return for performance and bravery in the decisive battles.
Despite the investment in research and writing, the work presents some inconsistencies. The events lack references to the sources, to which they are quite scarce and are limited to some events of the Brazil Independence Movement.
For the reader who wants to make use of the book as a testimony of the story, it is not possible to separate the fictional and the testimonial in the history of Maria Quiteria. This difficulty we find, especially, in the reproduction of dialogues between the characters.
Detail of the portrait of Maria Quiteria de Jesus Medeiros | Domenico Failutti (1920)/Wikipédia
Other negative points of the work are, for example: the absence of the description of what happened to Maria Quiteria after Brazil’s independence, the impacts that women’s participation in war generated on society at the time. From the book, we do not know if it was possible, at least for Maria Quiteria, to have a different destination from the girls of the time, which were traditionally intended for marriage, motherhood and household chores.
As positive points, we highlight that the author can show the woman Maria Quiteria, without explicit prejudice, as well as telling a little of the history of Brazil, through the trajectory of a person. She tells events of the War for Independence of Brazil, in which hundreds of women contributed, most of them relegated to the anonymity of the story, but represented in the character of Maria Quiteria.
Moreover, it is an intimate narration, bringing the reader closer to the character, fleeing the mere narration of historical facts valued by themselves. This attitude enables the reader to understand the key points that formed the mindset of women who did not accept the imposition of the limiting rules on women’s participation in society and was both sweet and affectionate, with his father and beloved Antonio.
In short, the author is successful in presenting us with a light and inspiring story of a woman who broke paradigms, gaining the recognition of Emperor Dom Pedro I himself and the whole royal court. For this reason, the author fully fulfills the objective explicit in the book, by showing Maria Quiteria in the simplest and human way possible.
Summary ofMaria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império
Prefácio
A caçadora
A madrasta
Maria Quitéria… mulher!
De volta a Coimbra
Maria Quitéria na labuta
O escravo Joaquim
A volta de Antônio
Lucas da Feira
O casamento
Maria Quitéria Guerreira
Salvador, cidade sitiada
Romance no quartel
Portugueses marotos na mira
A Batalha da Foz do Paraguaçu
Epílogo
Homenagens e mais homenagens
Referências bibliográficas
Reviewer
Diogeano Marcelo de Lima specializes in Law (UFCG), Civil Procedural Law (LFG) and Medical Law (FCERS), militant lawyer in the social security area and professor at Faculdade Pitágoras. Among other works, he published: A evolução histórica do direito fundamental a propriedade nas constituições brasileiras frente à limitação de sua função social e Do fornecimento de medicamentos off-label via Poder Judiciário à luz da Bioética Principialista. Redes sociais: @prof. Diogeano Marcelo; ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3136883553927889; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-8394 ; E-mail: adv.diogeanomarcelo@gmail.com
To cite this review
SYAMANSKI, Rosa. Maria Quitéria, a soldada que conquistou o Império. Cotia. Poligrafia Editora, 2021. 215p. Review by: LIMA, Diogeano Marcelo de. Empoderada. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.14, Nov/Dec, 2023. Available at <Empower – Diogeano Marcelo de Lima’s (FP) review of“Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império”, by Rosa Symanski – Crítica Historiografica (criticahistoriografica.com.br)>.
Abstract: Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império”, by Rosa Symanski, seeks to illustrate the life of Maria Quiteria as a woman and warrior. The work mixes fictional narrative with historical facts, but faces criticism for the lack of clarity between fiction and reality and the scarcity of post-independence details.
Keywords: Maria Quiteria, biography, and woman.
Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império is the book that describes the life of one of Brazil’s builders. Written by Rosa Symanski, in 2021, and published by the publisher polyography, the work presents the following question: Who was Maria Quiteria as a woman and as a warrior? The preface, signed by Gabriella Esmeralda Aquino Silva, graduated in philosophy and descendant of Maria Quiteria, describes the book as “a beautiful and sweet journey” (p. 2) for the intimate knowledge of Maria Quiteria’s biography, which must interest everyone Those involved in the feminist struggle, historians and fiction readers.
Rosa Symanski, a journalist specializing in economics and finances with more than 25 years of career, worked in vehicles such as Jornal do Brasil, Gazeta Mercantil and Agência Estado. Since 2017, he gives lectures in São Paulo on the impact of fake news. The author research extensively on great characters in the country, as shown in this historical novel. The book is organized in 14 chapters, as well as preface, epilogue and bibliographic references, distributed over 215 pages. The narrative strategy includes the bibliographic review of Maria Quiteria’s actions. It also includes interviews with professionals from history, archeology, anthropology, philosophy, music and literature.
In the first two chapters, the author presents the adolescence of Maria Quiteria on her father’s farm in the Bahian Recôncavo. Set in 1820, the chapter portrays Maria Quiteria’s relationship with her friend Maria de Lurdes and her conflicts with stepmother Maria Rosa, who charged her a more feminine stance. It also shows Maria Quiteria’s troubled relationship with her stepmother, Maria Rosa, bothered by the independence of Maria Quiteria and her disinterest in the household chores. Quiteria would rather spend his time hunting and riding, which gave him practice in the management of firearms. The author also highlights the beauty of Maria Quiteria and her wild temperament.
In the third chapter, the author transition from the adolescent to adulthood, in which Maria Quiteria became more attractive, arousing the attention of Antonio, her first love. It describes the first love relationships of Maria Quiteria, judged outside the standards of the time. Following (fourth chapter), portrays the return of Maria Quiteria’s first love to Coimbra, to finish his studies in law after three months of romance. The chapter shows, in detail, the couple’s farewell route.
In the fifth chapter, the author tells the protagonist’s daily life in the life of the farm, the hunting, the horse riding and the grazing of cattle, along with her friend Maria de Lourdes and the longing for her love Antonio. The author also reports Maria de Lourdes’s concern that Maria Quiteria was no longer a virgin, noting that, at that time, a girl losing her virginity before marriage had harsh consequences to women.
In the next chapter (the sixth), the author introduces an important character to the cultural and religious formation of Maria Quiteria. It was a highly requested slave in the region due to its healing gifts and the practice of vodum, a belief worshiped in its city of origin, Daomé, Africa. These practices and the assent of their supporters were disapproved by Maria Rosa.
In the seventh chapter, the author tells Maria Quiteria’s growing attachment by her lover. While Antonio did not return to the arms of Maria Quiteria, she was courted by Luis, son of a region’s farmer, during the masses on weekends. Luís found in Gonçalo, the young woman’s father, the encouragement to result in their marriage. However, he would rather leave his daughter the decision to date the boy, since he did not share the predominant thinking of the time, that daughters marry someone indicated by his father as a way to increase possessions. Maria Quiteria, however, did not make a commitment to young Luis, as he still had the hope of seeing him again, although he was promised to a bride from Salvador.
In the eighth chapter, the author tells the wait of Maria Quiteria for her love, Antonio de Coimbra, while resisting the attempts of her father, Gonçalo, to introduce her to other suitors. It also describes the loving mismatch between Antonio and Maria Quiteria, because this one, upon returning from Coimbra, was destined by his uncle to be a husband of Camila, a thin and educated girl with great possessions.
In the ninth chapter, we are told the marriage between Antonio and Camila. Despite all the pomp of aristocratic marriage, Antonio was unhappy with the imposed marriage, as Maria Quiteria still lived in her thoughts. During the wedding party, the bride’s father discusses his discontent with the Porto Revolution, which claimed the return of the court to Portugal. Nuno, on the other hand, affirms his loyalty to the Crown, declaring not to find any absurdity of the requirement of the revolutionaries.
The tenth chapter deals with the loving disappointment of Maria Quiteria with Antonio. It was after the disappointment and visit of Tadeu, soldier sent by the Military Junta to recruit combatants for the war against the Portuguese, that Maria Quiteria began to be interested in military enlistment. Faced with Gonçalo’s negative to contribute to the war effort, Maria Quiteria felt the desire to fight Portuguese exploitation in Brazil. Our character was attracted to the cause not only by admiration to Dom Pedro I, but also to his wife, Maria Antonieta, who was directly involved with the independence of Brazil. With the help of Sister Teresa, Maria Quiteria managed to enlist in the army disguised as a man.
In chapter 11, after summarizing the events that triggered the war against the Lusos, the author describes Maria Quiteria’s first mission as a soldier. She was displaced to defend the Maré Island, a strategic point for the supply of food. It is also narrated one of the most notable conflicts that occurred in the War for Independence, outside Salvador – BA, which had the courageous participation of Maria Quiteria in the defense of Brazil.
In chapters 12 and 13, the author tells the relationship assumed by Maria Quiteria and Antonio, during the period in which they served the army. She stresses the manumission of the slaves who fought in favor of Dom Pedro I for the consolidation of the independence of Brazil, highlighting the liberation of the slave Joaquim, the one who served as a healer at Gonçalo’s farm.
In chapter 14, the composition of the forces of Dom Pedro I. Maria Quiteria was detailed to the Volunteer Battalion, along with Antonio and 150 others boring in the army of Dom Pedro I. The chapter is marked by the death of Antonio, the death Love of Maria Quiteria and Camila. In the epilogue, finally, the coronation of Maria Quiteria is described with the laurels made by the nuns of the Soledade Convent, in return for performance and bravery in the decisive battles.
Despite the investment in research and writing, the work presents some inconsistencies. The events lack references to the sources, to which they are quite scarce and are limited to some events of the Brazil Independence Movement.
For the reader who wants to make use of the book as a testimony of the story, it is not possible to separate the fictional and the testimonial in the history of Maria Quiteria. This difficulty we find, especially, in the reproduction of dialogues between the characters.
Detail of the portrait of Maria Quiteria de Jesus Medeiros | Domenico Failutti (1920)/Wikipédia
Other negative points of the work are, for example: the absence of the description of what happened to Maria Quiteria after Brazil’s independence, the impacts that women’s participation in war generated on society at the time. From the book, we do not know if it was possible, at least for Maria Quiteria, to have a different destination from the girls of the time, which were traditionally intended for marriage, motherhood and household chores.
As positive points, we highlight that the author can show the woman Maria Quiteria, without explicit prejudice, as well as telling a little of the history of Brazil, through the trajectory of a person. She tells events of the War for Independence of Brazil, in which hundreds of women contributed, most of them relegated to the anonymity of the story, but represented in the character of Maria Quiteria.
Moreover, it is an intimate narration, bringing the reader closer to the character, fleeing the mere narration of historical facts valued by themselves. This attitude enables the reader to understand the key points that formed the mindset of women who did not accept the imposition of the limiting rules on women’s participation in society and was both sweet and affectionate, with his father and beloved Antonio.
In short, the author is successful in presenting us with a light and inspiring story of a woman who broke paradigms, gaining the recognition of Emperor Dom Pedro I himself and the whole royal court. For this reason, the author fully fulfills the objective explicit in the book, by showing Maria Quiteria in the simplest and human way possible.
Summary ofMaria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império
Prefácio
A caçadora
A madrasta
Maria Quitéria… mulher!
De volta a Coimbra
Maria Quitéria na labuta
O escravo Joaquim
A volta de Antônio
Lucas da Feira
O casamento
Maria Quitéria Guerreira
Salvador, cidade sitiada
Romance no quartel
Portugueses marotos na mira
A Batalha da Foz do Paraguaçu
Epílogo
Homenagens e mais homenagens
Referências bibliográficas
Reviewer
Diogeano Marcelo de Lima specializes in Law (UFCG), Civil Procedural Law (LFG) and Medical Law (FCERS), militant lawyer in the social security area and professor at Faculdade Pitágoras. Among other works, he published: A evolução histórica do direito fundamental a propriedade nas constituições brasileiras frente à limitação de sua função social e Do fornecimento de medicamentos off-label via Poder Judiciário à luz da Bioética Principialista. Redes sociais: @prof. Diogeano Marcelo; ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3136883553927889; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-8394 ; E-mail: adv.diogeanomarcelo@gmail.com
To cite this review
SYAMANSKI, Rosa. Maria Quitéria, a soldada que conquistou o Império. Cotia. Poligrafia Editora, 2021. 215p. Review by: LIMA, Diogeano Marcelo de. Empoderada. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.14, Nov/Dec, 2023. Available at <Empower – Diogeano Marcelo de Lima’s (FP) review of“Maria Quitéria: A Soldada que Conquistou o Império”, by Rosa Symanski – Crítica Historiografica (criticahistoriografica.com.br)>.
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Diogeano Marcelo de Lima specializes in Law (UFCG), Civil Procedural Law (LFG) and Medical Law (FCERS), militant lawyer in the social security area and professor at Faculdade Pitágoras. Among other works, he published: A evolução histórica do direito fundamental a propriedade nas constituições brasileiras frente à limitação de sua função social e Do fornecimento de medicamentos off-label via Poder Judiciário à luz da Bioética Principialista. Redes sociais: @prof. Diogeano Marcelo; ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3136883553927889; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-8394 ; E-mail: adv.diogeanomarcelo@gmail.com
