Antónia Gertrudes Pusich, October 1805–October 1883, was a renowned Portuguese poet, playwright, journalist, and newspaper editor. She challenged the societal expectations placed upon women during her era and pioneered the new journalism crusade.
“Salve Estefânia! a fronte laureada,
Embora tinta em sangue dos espinhos,
(De lusos vates a divisa infausta…)
Ante a virtude respeitosa inclino;
E a homenagem Te off’reço de meus votos;
De minhas affeições – puros incensos.
Hail Stephanie! Lady of the laurelled brow,
Even so painted in the blood of thorns,
(Of Portuguese bards the final token…)
I reverently bow to virtue;
And I vow to honour You;
With all my affection – pure incense.”
Born on the island of São Nicolau, part of colonial Cape Verde, and daughter of the Croatian-born António Vicko Pusich and Portuguese Ana Maria Isabel Nunes, Antónia prevailed over Lisbon in the mid-19th century despite the overwhelming gender odds. She married three times, was widowed two times, and had eleven children. Antónia’s life was not easy; she had to face multiple challenges every day.
Nonetheless, her character was not one to surrender to misfortunes. Refusing to accept the submissive destiny assigned to a woman of her social standing, she made the press her tribune, becoming the first woman to found, own and run newspapers in Portugal. She established and edited three influential publications: A Cruzada, A Beneficência and A Assembleia Literária, the latter being a platform for emerging Portuguese writers and thinkers. Antónia then served as a mediator in women’s education and empowerment disputes, and she participated in major national and international conferences.
In her elegant Romantic poetical works, Antónia Pusich displayed emotional richness, showing interest in themes like love, grief and the reality of humankind. These themes were exemplified beautifully in A Sua Magestade A Rainha de Portugal Dona Estephania Homenagem (Homage to Her Majesty Dona Stephanie, Queen of Portugal), from which I selected a few lines above. Queen Stephanie of Portugal passed away in Lisbon at the age of 22, after one year of marriage with King Pedro V.
Although Antónia’s plays are lesser-known, they reveal her storytelling skills and her capacity to create engaging characters. The one-act comedy O Regedor da Paróquia (The Parish Regent) and the three-act drama Constança ou o Amor Maternal (Constance of the Maternal Love) are her two most renowned stage plays, performed when the theatres proved to be very popular at the turn of the century. Dona Antónia mastered several foreign languages perfectly (especially French, English and Italian) and acquired an excellent knowledge of music, which helped her immensely in her subsequent work as a pianist and composer.
I need to mention here the political unrest and, later, the cruel Portuguese Civil War and the Portuguese Colonial War that forever marked the life and work of this progressive writer. Antónia Gertrudes Pusich’s groundbreaking contributions also laid the foundation for future generations of female writers and journalists, establishing her as a lasting symbol of women’s empowerment and intellectual curiosity.
The impact of Senhora Pusich’s life transcends her literary achievements. She is considered to be one of the founding figures of modern feminism, a devoted proponent of women’s education and empowerment who worked relentlessly to make women’s lives better and easier in Portugal and Europe. She managed to arouse, in 19th-century Portuguese and Cabo Verdean women, the civic sense that would be a reality in the following centuries.
The parish of Alvalade in Lisbon has 194 streets administered by the city council, one of which is Rua Antónia Pusich. It is named after the famous heroine who was the first woman in Portugal who dared not to hide behind a male pseudonym and displayed her own name on the mastheads of the newspapers she ran and on the covers of the books she published.
Translation of words/verses: Dan Costinhas
Photos © Public domain, via Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira
