Maria Evelina de Sousa

Maria Evelina de Sousa (1 January 1879 – 12 February 1946) was a Micaelense educator and journalist who flourished during the early 20th century in Portugal. An active feminist, she participated in the struggles for equal rights for women and was a co-founder of the first animal rights organization in the Azores. Early biographies ignored that she was an open lesbian. In 2017, she was posthumously honored by the government with the Azorean Insignia of Recognition.

Maria Evelina de Sousa
Born(1879-01-01)1 January 1879
Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel Island of the Azores, in the Kingdom of Portugal
Died12 February 1946(1946-02-12) (aged 67)
Ponta Delgada, Second Portuguese Republic
NationalityPortuguese
Other namesEvelina de Sousa
Occupationteacher, journalist
Known forco-founding the first animal rights organization in the Azores
Partner(s)Alice Moderno

Early life

Maria Evelina de Sousa, known as Evelina, was born on 1 January 1879 in Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel Island of the Azores, in the Kingdom of Portugal to Décio de Sousa. She attended the District School of Instruction for the Magisterium, passing her final examinations in seventeen subjects in 1900.[1]

Career

In 1904, de Sousa began teaching at the Santa Clara School and began writing for the newspaper, O Campeão Escolar, which was devoted to educational topics.[1] In 1906, she moved in with Maria Emília Borges de Medeiros and Alice Moderno in a house owned by Borges. Moderno and Borges were friends who had lived together since 1893.[2] De Sousa and Moderno lived openly as a lesbian couple, despite the conservative climate in Portugal at that time.[3][4] That same year, de Sousa founded the journal Revista Pedagógica, which she would operate and edit for the next decade. The magazine gained official recognition from the Azorean faculty and was influential in academic circles both locally and nationally.[1]

De Sousa was involved in numerous project to improve education on the island. Participating in the school censuses, she reported in 1911 that only a quarter of school-aged children, an average regular attendance of only 150 students, were enrolled in the four available schools and that there were insufficient numbers of trained teachers.[5] She attended conferences and agreed to teach other instructors, free of charge, the Legato-Luazes Method, which was a pedagogical program for reading and writing, developed by Amália Luazes. She also was in favor of the Republican decree which forbade teaching religious doctrine in primary and normal schools. In 1924, she was honored for her efforts to improve education by the First Feminist and Education Congress.[1]

In 1908, de Sousa created the first revolving school library on the island.[1] That same year, she and her partner, Moderno organized the Micaelense Society for the Protection of Animals (Portuguese: Sociedade Micaelense Protetora dos Animais).[6] She was a member of several feminist organizations including the Feminist Propaganda Association, the Republican League of Portuguese Women and the Women's Democratic Propaganda Association. In August 1912, while on a visit in Lisbon, de Sousa and Moderno were honored by the Republican League for their efforts in being the primary agitators for women's rights and education in the Azores.[1][7]

Beginning in 1915, de Sousa worked on the editorial staff of Folha, a journal which had been founded by Moderno in 1902.[1] She also wrote as a correspondent for the paper Correio dos Açores, publishing poetry and editorials. She retired from teaching on the 13 July 1940, from the Escola Agostinho Machado Bicudo Correia.[8] Throughout the 1940s, she and her partner Moderno, who typically dressed in men's clothing (including hat, tie and walking cane) and smoked cigars, were seen walking their dog around Ponta Delgada.[9]

Death and legacy

De Sousa died on the 12 February 1946 and was buried the following day in the Cemetery of São Joaquim.[10] Moderno lived only eight days after de Sousa's death, dying on 20 February 1946.[9] After the couple's death, biographers attempted to erase the couple's lesbian past and the oppressive political climate that had existed.[11][12][13] In 2013, the Ponta Delgada Municipal Assembly passed a decree to add de Sousa's name to the identifying plate on the crypt Moderno had built for their remains.[14] In 2017, she was posthumously honored by the government with the Azorean Insignia of Recognition.[15]

References

Citations
  1. Lopes 2016.
  2. Arquipélago 1988, p. 264.
  3. Almeida 2011, p. 20.
  4. Pryde 2014, pp. 4–6.
  5. Revista Michaelense 1921, p. 1317.
  6. Flores 2016, p. 91.
  7. Flores 2016, p. 92.
  8. Correio dos Açores 2015, p. 16.
  9. Flores 2016, p. 93.
  10. Correio dos Açores 1946.
  11. Almeida 2011, p. 21.
  12. Pryde 2014, p. 3.
  13. Klobucka 2009, p. 5.
  14. Açores Bloco de Esquerda 2013.
  15. Diário de Notícias 2017.

Bibliography
  • Almeida, São José (13 October 2011). Lesbianismo e Primeira República [Lesbianism and First Republic] (PDF) (Speech). 100 anos da Implantação da República: Grupo das Treze a 13 de Outubro (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Flores, Conceiçao (2016). "Alice Moderno o exercício das letras e da cidadania" [Alice Moderno’s exercise of literature and citizenship]. Revista de Escritoras Ibéricas (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (España); Universidade de Lisboa. 4: 75–96. doi:10.5944/rei.vol.4.2016.16988. ISSN 2340-9029. Retrieved 28 June 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Klobucka, Anna M. (12 September 2009). Summoning Portugal’s Apparitional Lesbians: A To-Do Memo (Speech). Association of British and Irish Lusitanists. Maynooth, Ireland: National University of Ireland. Retrieved 27 June 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lopes, Manuel C. (12 February 2016). "Evelina de Sousa, Professora e Educadora, faz hoje 70 anos que faleceu" [Evelina de Sousa, Teacher and Educator, has been 70 years since she died]. Ruas com História (in Portuguese). Portugal: Manuel C. Lopes. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017. Self-published but with citations to source materials.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Pryde, Dee (18 November 2014). "Lesbians in Twentieth-Century Portugal: Notes Towards History". scribd.com. Retrieved 27 June 2017. Self-published by with citations to reference material.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Açores distinguem 30 personalidades e instituições no Dia da Região" [Azores distinguishes 30 persons and institutions on the Regional Day]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 18 May 2017. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  • Arquipélago: revista do Instituto Universitário dos Açores (in Portuguese). 10. Ponta Delgada, Portugal: O Instituto Universitário dos Açores. 1988.
  • "Chronica Scientifica" [Scientific Chronicle] (in Portuguese). 4 (3). Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Açores: Artes Graphicas. September 1921: 1305–1317. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • "Instrução" [Instruction] (in Portuguese) (30589). Ponta Delgada, Portugal: Correio dos Açores. 25 March 2015.
  • "Maria Evelina de Sousa Faleceu" [Maria Evelina de Sousa Died] (in Portuguese). Ponta Delgada, Portugal: Correio dos Açores. 13 February 1946. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017 – via alicemoderno.blogspot.
  • "Por proposta do BE autarquia recupera jazigo de Alice Moderno e Maria Evelina de Sousa em homenagem ao seu legado" [By proposal of the Left Bloc the remains of Alice Moderno and Maria Evelina de Sousa are reclaimed in homage to their legacy] (in Portuguese). Ponta Delgada, Portugal: Açores Bloco de Esquerda. 28 June 2013. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
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