Maria Isabel Barreno de Faria Martins
GOIH (10 July 1939 – 3 September 2016) was a Portuguese writer, essayist, journalist and sculptor. She was one of the authors of the book ''
Novas Cartas Portugesas'' (''New Portuguese Letters''), together with
Maria Teresa Horta and
Maria Velho da Costa
Maria de Fátima de Bivar Velho da Costa (26 June 1938 – 23 May 2020) was a Portuguese writer who was awarded the Camões Prize in 2002. She took part in the Portuguese Feminist Movement, and became one of the authors of the book '' Novas Carta ...
. The authors, known as the "Three Marias," were arrested, jailed and prosecuted under Portuguese censorship laws in
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
, during the last years of the
Estado Novo dictatorship.
The book and their trial inspired protests in Portugal and attracted international attention from European and American women's liberation groups in the years leading up to the
Carnation Revolution.
Biography
Born in
Lisbon in the
freguesia
''Freguesia'' (), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Por ...
of
Socorro, her parents moved to
Areeiro, where she spent her childhood and adolescence. She studied College of Letters at the
Universidade de Lisboa, where she graduated in
Historico-
Philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
Sciences.
After graduation, she took a job working for the Instituto de Investigação Industrial. She dedicated herself to the cause of
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, taking part in the Portuguese
feminist movement together with the writers
Maria Teresa Horta and
Maria Velho da Costa
Maria de Fátima de Bivar Velho da Costa (26 June 1938 – 23 May 2020) was a Portuguese writer who was awarded the Camões Prize in 2002. She took part in the Portuguese Feminist Movement, and became one of the authors of the book '' Novas Carta ...
, the "Three Marias" (''Três Marias'').
On 8 March 2004, she was made a Grand Official in the
Ordem do Infante D. Henrique
The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...
.
Barreno died on 3 September 2016 at the age of 77.
The sketch shown here is not a portrait of Barreno but of Maria Fatima Velho da Costa. A 1975 photo of the Three Marias published in The Economist shows Isabel Barreno on the right.
A late-life photo of her appears with her obituary on a Portuguese government site, cig.gov.pt.
Works
*''Adaptação do Trabalhador de Origem Rural ao Meio Industrial Urbano'' (1966)
*''A Condição da Mulher Portuguesa'' (1968) (collaboration)
*''De Noite as Árvores São Negras'' (1968)
*''Os Outros Legítimos Superiores'' (1970)
*''
Novas Cartas Portuguesas'' (1971) (co-authored with
Maria Teresa Horta and
Maria Velho da Costa
Maria de Fátima de Bivar Velho da Costa (26 June 1938 – 23 May 2020) was a Portuguese writer who was awarded the Camões Prize in 2002. She took part in the Portuguese Feminist Movement, and became one of the authors of the book '' Novas Carta ...
)
*''A Morte da Mãe'' (1972)
*''A Imagem da Mulher na Imprensa'' (1976)
*''Inventário de Ana'' (1982)
*''Contos Analógicos'' (1983)
*''Sinos do Universo'' (1984)
*''Contos'' (1985)
*''Célia e Celina'' (1985)
*''O Outro Desbotado'' (1986)
*''O Falso Neutro'' (1989)
*''O Direito ao Presente'' (1990)
*''Crónica do Tempo'' (1991) – winner of the Fernando Namora Prize
*''O enviado'' (1991)
*''O Chão Salgado'' (1992)
*''Os Sensos Incomuns'' (1993) – winner of the
Prémio P.E.N. Clube Português de Ficção, and the
Grande Prémio de Conto Camilo Castelo Branco
*''O Senhor das Ilhas'' (1994)
*''As Vésperas Esquecidas'' (1999)
References
1939 births
2016 deaths
21st-century Portuguese women writers
20th-century Portuguese women writers
People from Lisbon
Portuguese women novelists
20th-century novelists
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