Maria Carlota "Lota" Costallat de Macedo Soares (16 March 1910 – 25 September 1967) was a well-connected
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian woman who became a well-known landscape designer and architect. Despite not having a degree in either area, she was invited by governor
Carlos Lacerda to design and oversee the construction of
Flamengo Park
Flamengo Park, also known as ''Aterro do Flamengo'', Eduardo Gomes Park, and Aterro do Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes, is the largest public park and recreation area within the city of Rio de Janeiro, in eastern Brazil, and the largest urban park by t ...
in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
. She was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
into a prominent political family from
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
.
Biography
Lota, as she was known, had a relationship with the American poet
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...
from 1951 to 1967. Bishop dedicated her 1965 volume of poems ''Questions of Travel'' to her. Their relationship is depicted in the Brazilian film ''
Reaching for the Moon'', based on the book ''Flores Raras e Banalíssimas'' (in
English
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, ''Rare and Commonplace Flowers)'', by Carmen Lucia de Oliveira, as well as in the book ''The More I Owe You'', by American author
Michael Sledge.
In 1967, Soares joined Bishop in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
after a period of extensive hospitalization for a nervous breakdown. The same day she arrived in New York, 19 September 1967, Soares took an overdose of
tranquilizer
A tranquilizer is a drug that is designed for the treatment of anxiety, fear, tension, agitation, and disturbances of the mind, specifically to reduce states of anxiety and tension.
Etymology
Tranquilizer, as a term, was first used by F.F. Yonk ...
s. It is believed the problems with her work and her failing relationship with Bishop were what led to her
suicide. She died several days later.
Tribute
On March 16, 2017,
Google
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celebrated her 107th birthday with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
.
See also
*
Flamengo Park
Flamengo Park, also known as ''Aterro do Flamengo'', Eduardo Gomes Park, and Aterro do Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes, is the largest public park and recreation area within the city of Rio de Janeiro, in eastern Brazil, and the largest urban park by t ...
*
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...
References
Further reading
* Lloyd Schwartz, "Elizabeth Bishop and Brazil,"
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
, September 30, 1991
* Brett Millier,
Elizabeth Bishop: Life and the Memory of It, University of California Press, 1995
* Elizabeth Bishop, ''One Art: Letters.'' Ed. Robert Giroux (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994).
* Carmen L. Oliveira, ''Rare and Commonplace Flowers: The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares,'' translated by Neil K. Besner, (Rutgers University Press, 2002); reviewed by Emily Nussbau
* Schuma Schumacher and Érico Vital Brasil, eds. ''Dicionário Mulheres do Brasil'' (Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editora, 2000), pp. 335–336.
* Michael Sledge, "The More I Owe You." (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2010).
1910 births
1967 deaths
French people of Brazilian descent
People from Rio de Janeiro (city)
Brazilian architects
Brazilian women architects
Brazilian LGBT people
LGBT architects
1967 suicides
20th-century LGBT people
Brazilian expatriates in France
Brazilian expatriates in the United States
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