Alice Pestana or Maria Evelina Pestana Coelho (7 April 1860 – 24 December 1929) was a prolific Portuguese writer. She was the first president of the pacifist organisation '' Portuguese League for Peace'' that was founded in 1899.

Life

Pestana was born in the city of Santarém in central Portugal on 7 April 1860. Her parents were Eduardo Augusto Villar Coelho and Matilde Soares Pestana. She was educated well and she studied languages at the National High School of Lisbon where she was taught by women teachers. She learnt about natural history, chemistry and physics and read classic and modern literature. She studied French, Portuguese and English and her first published writing was in English. She used a which was usually Caiel. Pestana was publishing radical ideas about women's education and their rights under a in the newspaper ''Vanguardia''. She founded the Portuguese League for Peace on 18 May 1899 and she was the first president of the pacifist organisation. The organisation was formed as a daughter organisation of the Altruism Society which she was a member. That society's motto was "Truth, Justice and Righteousness". She wrote short stories, novels and plays. Memorial to Alice Pestana, Pedro Blanco Suárez and Amelia Núñez Rico She was one of the first women in Portugal who were concerned with women's subordinate status and in particular about improving the educational opportunities for Women in Portugal together with

Francisca Wood Francisca de Assis Martins Wood or Francisca Wood (1802–1900) was a Portuguese writer and editor. Her four-page ''A Voz Feminina'' caused international comment with its advocacy of increased women's rights and ''O Progresso'' was said to be the f ...

, Maria Carvalho,

Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos, born Karoline Michaelis (15 March 1851 – 18 November 1925) was a German-Portuguese romanist. Early life, education and private life Michaelis was born in Berlin as the last of five children of Gustav Michae ...

Alice Moderno Alice Moderno (11 August 1867 – 20 February 1946) was a Portuguese writer, feminist and animal welfare activist. An active campaigner for women's rights, she also founded the first association dedicated to animal welfare in the Azores. Early bio ...

Angelina Vidal Angelina Vidal (1847 – 1917) was a Portugal, Portuguese writer, editor noted for her support of the republic, women's rights and education for women. Life Vidal was born in São José (Lisbon), São José in 1847. Her parents were Joaquim Casim ...

Antónia Pusich Antónia Gertrudes Pusich (1 October 1805 – 6 October 1883) was a Portuguese poet, dramaturgist, journalist, pianist and composer. Biography She was born on the Island of São Nicolau, which used to be part of Portuguese Cape Verde. Daughter ...

and

Guiomar Torrezão Guiomar de Noronha or Guiomar Delphina Torrezão (26 November 1844 – 22 October 1898) was a leading Portuguese writer and editor. She created the magazine ''Almanach das Senhoras'' and she was the only woman to be a founding member of the ''Assoc ...

. She wrote for the Lisbon newspaper, '. She married a Spaniard and moved to Spain in 1901. She translated Spanish works into Portuguese and published her own novel ''Desgarrada'' in 1902. Pestana died on Christmas Eve 1929 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. She is buried in the Civil Cemetery in Madrid.

The Portuguese feminist generation

Alice Pestana fits in the panorama of intellectual women in Portugal, among whom we have Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos (1851-1925), Adelaide Cabete (1867-1935), Maria Clara Correia Alves (1869-1948), Beatriz Paes Pinheiro de Lemos (1872-1922), Ana de Castro Osório (1872-1935), Albertina Paraíso (1874-1954), Carolina Beatriz Ângelo (1877-1911), Maria Olga Morais Sarmento da Silveira (1881-1948), Virgínia Guerra Quaresma (1882-1973). These and others are part of a vast list of women with a markedly feminist, republican, and socialist profile.

Private life

She married a teacher, Pedro Blanco Suárez, in Lisbon in 1901.

Works

* ''O Que Deve Ser a Ecucação Secundária da Mulher?'' (1892) * ''Desgarrada'' (1902).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pestana, Alice 1860 births 1929 deaths People from Santarém, Portugal Portuguese women novelists Portuguese women short story writers Portuguese pacifists 19th-century Portuguese dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Portuguese novelists 19th-century Portuguese women writers 19th-century Portuguese writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers Portuguese women dramatists and playwrights