An exploration of women's involvement in the Latin American Wars of Independence

Maria Francisca Ferreira Duarte

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
Maria Francisca Ferreira Duarte was reputed to have been the lover of the Republican General David Canabarro, in the Farroupilha War of Rio Grande do Sul (1835-45). Unlike most of the camp followers and soldiers’ women (known as chinas) in the Farroupilha campaigns who were Indian or mulata, Maria Francisca Duarte was white. Born in Santo Antônio de Patrulha, she had married an apothecary from Rio de Janeiro called João Ferreira Duarte, who acted as surgeon for Canabarro’s forces. Ferreira Duarte was known as Dr Gaiola or Dr Cage because he habitually carried a caged parrot around with him. Since his wife was openly betraying him with the General she came to be known as the Papagaia or the “she-parrot” (H Flores, 32). She has been made into a scape goat: said to have distracted Canabarro from military matters and causing him to be caught out by the Monarchist leader Francisco Pedro de Abreu, in a surprise attack at Porongos in 1844 which decimated Farroupilha forces (Silveira, 73). Husband and wife were both captured in this battle but were later released and returned to their home town of Taquari where they died in respectable old age, with Maria Francisca’s earliest history being tactfully omitted from her obituary (H Flores, 32).

References:

Flores, Hilda A. Hübner (1989) Sociedade, Preconceitos e Conquistas
Flores, Moacyr (2002) República Rio-Grandense: Realidade e Utopia
Osório filho, Fernando (1935) Mulheres Farroupilhas
Silveira, Maria Dutra da Silveira, Diva Ione (editor). (1985) A Mulher na Revolução Farroupilha