Carlina Fortes Pereira (c. 1926 – 11 December 2011) was a Cape Verdean activist, politician, and prominent figure within the country's independence movement during the Portuguese colonial era. Following independence, she became country's inaugural First Lady of Cape Verde during the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

of her husband, Aristides Pereira. Pereira married Aristides Pereira, the future President of Cape Verde. During the 1960s, she moved from

Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde was discovered in 1444 by Dom Prin ...

to Conakry, Guinea, where her husband, a fellow member of the pro-independence African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was already living in exile. Carlina Pereira became the first First Lady of Cape Verde in 1975 upon independence from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. She was also elected honorary president of the Organization of Cape Verdean Women (OMCV) during the same period. Pereira held the position of First Lady from 1975 until 1991 when President Pereira left office. She was succeeded in the role by Cape Verde's second first lady,

Tuna Mascarenhas Antonina Mascarenhas Monteiro, more popularly known as Tuna Mascarenhas, (13 June 1944 – 9 September 2009) was a Cape Verdean activist and medical laboratory scientist. She served as the First Lady of Cape Verde from 1991 until 2001 during the ...

. Both Carlina and Aristides Pereira suffered from declining health during their later years. Carlina Pereira became sick with a long-term illness beginning in 2009. In 2010, she was flown to Portugal for medical treatment. She returned to Cape Verde in June 2011, as she reportedly wished to spend her remaining life at her home in the Prainha neighborhood of Praia. Former President Aristides Pereira died in Portugal on 22 September 2011, following complications of diabetes and surgery to repair a broken femur. Carila Pereira, who had been in declining health, died just three months later on 11 December 2011 in Praia, Cape Verde, at the age of 85. She was survived by her two daughters, Estela Maria Pereira and Manuela Pereira.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Carlina 2011 deaths First Ladies of Cape Verde Cape Verdean women in politics African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde politicians People from Praia Year of birth uncertain