Kiterija, Maria

Maria Citeria was born in Licuriceira near Feira de Santana in the family of Gonçalou Alvis de Almeida and Citeria Maria de Jesus. The date of birth was adopted by most Brazilian historians as July 27, 1792, although there is no exact information about this. In 1803, her mother died, and her father after a few months married another woman, who also soon died. Then the father and daughter Maria got her own farm and married for the third time a woman named Maria Rosa di Brito, in a marriage with whom he had three more children. Maria's relationship with her stepmother went wrong, as she did not want to recognize the independent nature of her stepdaughter. Despite the fact that Maria received almost no formal education and was illiterate, she learned to ride well, handle firearms, and hunt, which were important skills at the time.

In July 1822, unrest against the Portuguese colonial authorities began to grow in Bahia , and Prince Pedro sent emissaries to all towns and villages to recruit soldiers for the uprising army. Maria’s father was widowed again and one raised several small children (none of the sons reached military age), so he was released from conscription to the revolutionary army. Nevertheless, Maria suddenly asked her father for permission to join the army in his stead, and, having received a refusal, fled to the home of her married stepsister, where she was helped to cut her hair. After that, disguised as a man, she went to Cachoirau and entered there under the surname Medeiros in an artillery regiment, where she stayed for two weeks until she was discovered by her father. However, with her ability to wield weapons and discipline, she surprised the military so much that Major Jose Antonio da Silva Castro, the so-called volunteer “parrot battalion” volunteer commander (the soldier was so called because of the green collar and cuffs on their uniform) stood up for her defense. allowed Mary to remain in the army, despite the protest of her father, but with the condition that she wore a Scottish kilt over her military pants.

On October 29, 1822, Maria Kiteria participated in the defense of the island of Mare, and then in several other battles. Glory brought her participation in the Battle of Pituba in February 1823, when she was entrusted with leading an attack on the enemy fortifications. In this battle, she personally captured and escorted several Portuguese soldiers to the location of her battalion (in the opinion of most modern historians, only two, although earlier were called by much higher numbers).

March 31, 1823 she was awarded the title of cadet, and on July 2, when the army of the rebels entered into Salvador with triumph and Maria was greeted by surprised and jubilant exclamations of local residents, the command gave her official permission to wear a military uniform (still with a kilt) military helmet with a feather and a sword. On August 20, 1823, in Rio de Janeiro, she was awarded the Imperial Order of the Cruzeiro and received the title of ensign (in which she retired) and personal thanks from the Emperor of Brazil for her service. During an audience with the monarch, Maria asked him to write a letter to her father asking her to forgive her for disobedience, which the emperor did.

After receiving forgiveness from her father, Maria married her childhood friend, a farmer Gabriela Pirareu de Brito, who had a daughter in marriage. Widowed in 1835, she returned to Feira de Santana and tried to get the inheritance left by her father, who died a year earlier. However, due to bureaucratic difficulties, she failed and moved with her daughter to Salvador, where she died at the age of 61, almost blinded and completely forgotten. Her remains were buried in the Church of the Holy Communion and St. Anne in the vicinity of Nazareth in Salvador ^[2] .

In the municipality of Salvador are awarded a military medal and diploma of her name. In 1920, Domenico Failutti painted her famous full-length portrait. On June 28, 1996, by decree of the President of Brazil, Maria Quiteria was declared the patroness of the administrative services of the Brazilian ground forces, which means that her portraits should now hang in all the barracks and institutions of this department.

• Biography in Portuguese.