Felipa de Souza

Felipa de Souza (1556, Portugal – 1600, Brazil) was a woman who had romantic relationships with other women during the Brazilian colonial era.^[1][2]

Felipa was born in Tavira, Portugal, but eventually came to live in Brazil, in the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia.^[1][3] She was married, then widowed, then remarried; her second husband was a day labourer, and she was a seamstress.^[1] Felipa was attracted to women, passionately, and had many relationships with women, including Paula de Siqueira. Both Felipa and Paula wrote literature, and Felipa wrote her many letters of love, in addition to sharing kisses and caresses, from 1588 to 1589.^[4] In 1589, the pair physically consummated their relationship.^[1]

In 1591, when Felipa was around age 35, officials of the Catholic Portuguese Inquisition came to Brazil.^[1][2] Her letters to Paula de Siqueira were taken into evidence, and she was accused of so-called 'female sodomy', with not only Paula, but at least six other women.^[2][4] Felipa told the Inquisition that she had "great love and carnal affection" for women.^[1] She was sentenced to being publicly whipped, and exiled from Bahia.^[5][6][1]

The life of Felipa de Souza was brought to modern attention by the research of Dr. Luiz Mott, a queer Brazilian historian and anthropologist.^[7] Felipa's name was adopted by the OutRight Action International (formerly known as International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission^[8]) to name its annual human rights prize.^[9]

Sources

Notes

1. Tortorici, Zeb (2016-02-09). Sexuality and the Unnatural in Colonial Latin America. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-96318-4.
2. Ferreira-Pinto, Cristina (2004-02-01). Gender, Discourse, and Desire in Twentieth-Century Brazilian Women's Literature. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-61249-885-0.
3. DK (2023-05-09). The LGBTQ + History Book. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-7440-8765-9.
4. Rezzutti, Paulo (2018-01-01). Mulheres do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). BOD GmbH DE. ISBN 978-85-441-0705-8.
5. Solinger, Rickie; Nakachi, Mie (2016). Reproductive States: Global Perspectives on the Invention and Implementation of Population Policy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-931108-8.
6. Mott, Luiz Roberto de Barros (1996). Epidemic of Hate: Violations of the Human Rights of Gay Men, Lesbians, and Transvestites in Brazil. International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. ISBN 978-1-884955-04-4.
7. Norton, Rictor (2016-10-06). Myth of the Modern Homosexual: Queer History and the Search for Cultural Unity. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-8692-3.
8. Lavers, Michael K (2015-09-28). "Exclusive: IGLHRC to change its name". Washington Blade. Archived from the original on 2019-07-01. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
9. Corrêa, Sonia; Petchesky, Rosalind; Parker, Richard (2008-08-18). Sexuality, Health and Human Rights. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-26667-8.

References

• Luiz Mott: O Lesbianismo no Brasil, Mercado Aberto (Brazil), 1987, ISBN 85-280-0022-2

External links

• The Felipa de Souza Award Winners