04/08/2024 – 5:36
Considered a heroine in both Brazil and Italy, the revolutionary died 175 years ago. Her prominent role was revived after the Republic. On August 4, 1849, pregnant with her fifth child, the Brazilian revolutionary Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro, better known as Anita Garibaldi, died from complications arising from typhoid fever when, alongside her husband Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), they were fleeing through the Italian boot, pursued by 40,000 French, Spanish and Neapolitan soldiers and stalked by 15,000 men from the Austrian army.
At that time, about to turn 28, the Santa Catarina native had already participated in struggles in Brazil, Uruguay and Italy. First, she was a protagonist of the so-called Farroupilha Revolution, a conflict between gauchos and the imperial government that resulted in the temporary creation of the Rio Grande do Sul Republic.
In 1842, when she was exiled in Montevideo and her husband fought in the war between Uruguay and Argentina, she participated in the conflicts as a nurse.
Five years later, she went to the Italian peninsula, her husband’s homeland. There they took part in the conflicts of the so-called Risorgimento, the movement to unify the various small Italian states into a single homeland, Italy.
For this reason, both Anita and Giuseppe are recognized as “heroes of both worlds”. She is buried in a monument dedicated to her life on the Janiculum hill in Rome.
Symbol of female protagonism
For experts, her historical legacy is unquestionable — and becomes even more important given the patriarchal context in which few women stood out.
“She was a woman who actively worked to demand territorial autonomy in both Brazil and Italy, taking into account the specific contexts of each region. We can therefore say that the history of these territories is directly linked to Anita’s role in the conflicts that occurred in each of these places,” says historian Giovanna Trevelin, a researcher at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
The historian highlights that Anita’s importance “lies in the fact that she represents the possibility of women occupying active spaces in history and building not only their own paths, but also starring in great moments in the history of a country”.
“It is true that its relevance in the contexts of the Farroupilha Revolution and the Unification of Italy was decisive not only as a unique force directly in the clashes, being essential both in encouraging the confrontations and in the confrontations themselves, but it is even more important for the history of women”, points out Trevelin.
“Being able to study our history and find, among countless male characters, a woman so confident, fearless and courageous, is basically a revolution within what is normally understood as history, and this has a very unique role in expanding representation.”
Historian Vitor Soares, who runs the podcast História em Meia Hora, believes that Anita’s importance “goes far beyond her role in the Farroupilha Revolution or the Unification of Italy”, as “she is an icon of female emancipation in Brazil, for having subverted the traditional gender roles of her time”.
The third of 10 children of a cattle driver and a descendant of Azorean people from the Lages region, Anita had a poor childhood, living in a mud-brick house in Morrinhos, where today is the Anita Garibaldi neighborhood, in the municipality of Tubarão. Her father died when she was a teenager and her mother went to work as a maid.
The republican ideals she fought for in life were reportedly learned from a paternal uncle, who used to lecture at her home about the need for a change to this regime. At the age of 14, Anita married a shoemaker — but the marriage did not last long.
Four years later, she met Giuseppe, when he commanded Farroupilha troops in Santa Catarina. It was love at first sight and, from that moment on, she would follow the Italian revolutionary.
Republican rescue
In a time when women were erased from history, she not only became a warrior but ended up being valued by her husband — and researchers attest that this was fundamental to ensuring that her name was not forgotten or undervalued.
“At a time when women were often relegated to subordinate roles, Anita stood out as a fighter and leader, showing that female participation is crucial in all aspects of social and political life,” says Soares. “Her trajectory inspires countless women to engage in the fight for rights and social justice.”
“According to reports found mainly in diaries from the time, it is clear that she was recognized in her time for her courage and bravery in the face of the conflicts she faced,” says Trevelin, recalling that she was seen by both her companions and adversaries as “a very strong and fearless woman.”
But the historical sedimentation of Anita’s recognition was not automatic. “She lived in the 19th century, a period that preserved a very patriarchal imaginary […]. It was extremely strange to think of women taking an active part in wars and revolutions. […] This does not mean that because it was not socially accepted, women never took the lead in conflicts”, says the historian.
This, according to Trevelin, made Giuseppe stand out as a hero “at first”. The rescue of Anita’s role would happen years later, after the Proclamation of the Republic, “in the eagerness to build a national and Brazilian identity, at the beginning of the 20th century”, explains the historian.
And, for this, there was a very big contribution from Giuseppe himself. He kept a diary of memories and, in the late 1860s, he gave long testimonies to the writer Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), who wrote Memoirs of Garibaldi.
In fact, Giuseppe drafted the text in 1849, when he was exiled in Tangier, Morocco. He entrusted the material to the American writer Theodore Dwight, who first published the story in English in the United States. Later, Giuseppe asked his friend Dumas to write a new version, enriching it with more information.
“Anita was little remembered in her time. No one would dare to present her as an indomitable heroine in two worlds. This occurred from the Memoirs of Garibaldi, outlined after Anita’s death, certainly not free from the author’s subjectivism […]”, wrote historian Hilda Agnes Hübner Flores in the work Anita Garibaldi: The Creation of the Myth, published in 2007.
A third version of these memoirs would eventually be published by the German Elpis Melena (1818-1899), who would also become close to Giuseppe Garibaldi.
A story from Giuseppe’s point of view
Thus, Anita’s story ended up being documented from Giuseppe’s point of view. “In his writings, Giuseppe did not hold back on adjectives about her. He said that from the first moment of conflict she was not intimidated, putting herself at the forefront of the fight, encouraging her colleagues, leading. He characterized her as a woman soldier,” says Trevelin.
For the historian, in Giuseppe’s diaries, Anita was constructed “as a heroine from the very first lines”. “And this underpinned much of what was written about her later, whether in history or literature”, she explains.
“Therefore, at first, his protagonism was silenced by the context in which he lived. However, it was reaffirmed years later in the words of his already renowned companion. And, later, it was nourished by historical research based on this first source”, he explains.
“If in the male sphere Ensign Tiradentes, traitor to the empire, came to be seen as an example of patriotism for the new generations, Anita Garibaldi, the ‘heroine of both worlds’, came to be presented as a female model of civic virtue”, says Flores.
She recalls that “Italian fascism conveyed the name Anita to patriotic interests”, between the 1930s and 1940s, “integralism in Brazil gave its name to several political groups and the communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes [(1898-1990)] he named his daughter Anita.”
“In her homeland, Santa Catarina, she is the name of two municipalities: Anita Garibaldi and Anitápolis,” the historian highlights. In Brazil, in 2012, Anita Garibaldi had her name inscribed in the Book of Heroes and Heroines of the Nation.
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