Maria Velho da Costa

From the archives

In other archives

These can only be viewed on each archive’s own website.

• Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa · Document · 25 October 1973«Novas Cartas Portuguesas» – Julgamento secretoA news item from the “Diário de Lisboa”: the judge declared closed the hearing in the trial of the authors and the publisher of “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (“New Portuguese Letters”), which had begun that day at the Boa-Hora. Journalists and observers from the feminist movement and from PEN Club had to leave the courtroom.Open in the archive
• Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa · Document · May 1974As Três Marias foram absolvidasThe front page and the “Diário de Lisboa” report on the acquittal of the “Three Marias”: the judge declared that the book was neither pornographic nor immoral, and the writers wore red carnations on their chests. In the courtroom people shouted “Women united will never be defeated” (“Mulheres unidas jamais serão vencidas”).Open in the archive
• RTP Arquivos · Video · broadcast on 9 May 1974 · 12 minEntrevista às “Três Marias”Fialho Gouveia interviews Maria Teresa Horta, Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Velho da Costa about the “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (“New Portuguese Letters”) case. They discuss the book as a weapon for women’s liberation, the trial, the acquittal and the difficulty of getting it to more women readers.Open in the archive
• RTP Arquivos · Video · broadcast on 27 January 1975 · 16 minMaria Velho da CostaFernando Assis Pacheco interviews Maria Velho da Costa in the series “Escrever é Lutar” (To Write Is to Fight). She talks about her first books, the collective writing of “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (“New Portuguese Letters”) and being a writer and a woman in Portugal, and reads a text of her own, “Esta força” (This strength).Open in the archive

They crossed paths with her

• MB

  Maria Isabel Barreno

  1939–2016

  A writer and researcher, one of the “Three Marias”. Tried over “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (New Portuguese Letters) and acquitted on 7 May 1974, she saw the greatest consequence of the case in the Constitution: equality for all, “without distinction of race, sex or religion”.

• MH

  Maria Teresa Horta

  1937–2025

  A poet and journalist, one of the “Three Marias”. The PIDE seized her “Minha Senhora de Mim” (My Lady of Myself) and three men beat her up in the street; with Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Velho da Costa she wrote “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (New Portuguese Letters), which took them to court — and to acquittal, on 7 May 1974.

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  Natália Correia

  1923–1993

  A poet and publisher, she was the Portuguese writer with the most works censored. Tried at the Plenary Court over the “Antologia de Poesia Portuguesa Erótica e Satírica” (Anthology of Portuguese Erotic and Satirical Poetry), she published “Novas Cartas Portuguesas” (New Portuguese Letters) and opened the Botequim in Graça, where she celebrated 25 April. She later became a deputy.

• FB

  Fernanda Botelho

  1926–2007

  A novelist, she was the only woman on the jury of the Portuguese Society of Writers that gave a prize to “Luuanda”, by Luandino Vieira, in 1965 — the prize that led to the dissolution of the society and the imprisonment of three of the jurors.

• ML

  Maria Lamas

  1893–1983

  A journalist and writer, she edited “Modas e Bordados” (Fashions and Embroidery), chaired the National Council of Portuguese Women until the regime closed it down in 1947, and responded with “As Mulheres do Meu País” (The Women of My Country). She was arrested several times and lived in exile in Paris.

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  Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo

  1930–2004

  An engineer and progressive Catholic, from 1970 she prepared what would become the Commission on the Status of Women, was Minister of Social Affairs in 1974–1975 and the only woman to have headed a government in Portugal (1979–1980).