Bárbara Pereira de Alencar (February 11, 1760 – August 18, 1832) was a Brazilian merchant and revolutionary, who was a major figure in the
Pernambucan revolt. She was briefly the president of the Republic of Crato, which was set up in revolt against the Brazilian government. Within 8 days she was captured and tortured by the monarchy, making her the first political prisoner in the history of Brazil.
Biography
De Alencar was born on February 11, 1760, in
Exu, Pernambuco
Exu is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The population in 2007, according with IBGE was 31,766 and the area is 1337 km².
Exu is the birthplace of the famous Luiz Gonzaga (1912/1989) which was a very prominent Brazilian folk si ...
, then a rural part of Pernambuco, and as a teenager she moved to
Crato (then a village) in
Ceará
Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...
. There she married the Portuguese trader José Gonçalves do Santos,
and the two established properties where they profited from the work of
enslaved people.
De Alencar was an important figure during the Pernambucan revolt, based in Crato. She was the head of the provisional government that was established by the revolutionaries, serving as the president of the Republic of Crato for 8 days.
[ However, she was quickly captured, and was held and tortured in the fortress Fortaleza de Nossa Senhora da Assunção.][ This made her the first political prisoner in the history of Brazil.]Piauí
Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP.
Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...
.
In addition to being a revolutionary herself, Bárbara de Alencar was the mother of the revolutionaries José Martiniano Pereira de Alencar and Tristão Gonçalves ( pt), the grandmother of the writer José de Alencar
José Martiniano de Alencar (May 1, 1829 – December 12, 1877) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is considered to be one of the most famous and influential Brazilian Romantic novelists of the 19th century, ...
, and an ancestor of the author Paulo Coelho.
Impact
*The Centro Cultural Bárbara de Alencar (Bárbara de Alencar Cultural Center) awards the Bárbara de Alencar Medal every year to three women who act in ways that improve society
*The administrative center of the Government of Ceará is called the Bárbara de Alencar Administrative Center
*A statue of Bárbara de Alencar stands in Fortaleza
Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...
*de Alencar's name is inscribed in the book of Brazilian national heroes in the federal cenotaph Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom
*de Alencar was the subject of an epic poem by the writer Caetano Ximenes de Aragão ( pt)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Alencar, Bárbara
1760 births
1832 deaths
People from Pernambuco
Brazilian revolutionaries
19th-century Brazilian businesspeople
19th-century businesswomen
18th-century Brazilian women
18th-century Brazilian people