On July 10, the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras — ABL) announced that it had elected the first Black woman as a member in its 128-year history. The woman who broke the ceiling to become an ‘‘immortal’’ — how members of the institution are called since their membership is perpetual — is Ana Maria Gonçalves, a 55-year-old writer born in Minas Gerais state, best known for her best-selling historical romance “Um defeito de cor” (in English, “A color defect”).
Established in 1897, shortly after Brazil became a republic, the Academy is a non-profit organization dedicated to “cultivating the national language and literature,” as stated on its website. Currently, it has 40 active members and 20 foreign associates.
Despite the fact that Brazil is a mixed-race country with a population that is more than half women and the majority self-identify as Afro-descendants (people of Black and Mixed ethnicity according to the methodology used by the national census), the seats at the institution haven’t always reflected the true composition of its people.
Only 13 women have been elected to the Academy throughout its history. The first was the writer Rachel de Queiroz, in 1977, one year after the prohibition of women members was lifted. Gonçalves is the latest addition, and she joins five other current women members. She succeeds grammarian and philologist Evanildo Bechara, who died in May this year.
In 2018, another writer from Minas Gerais, Conceição Evaristo, presented her candidacy and came close to becoming the first Black woman to gain a seat at the Academy. Filmmaker Cacá Diegues, a white man, was elected instead.
On the importance of Gonçalves’ election, ABL president, Merval Pereira, addressed the Academy, saying that her appointment helped ‘‘to demonstrate that the ABL aims to increase its representation towards gender, race and any factors that represent the Brazilian culture.’’
We want to be recognized as a cultural institution that represents Brazil, the Brazilian diversity. She increases our willingness to be present at relevant social movements.
Gonçalves said that literature was the lens that introduced her to the world and the possibility of different cultures, and remarked:
I hope that I won’t be the only Black woman [here]. More than the representation that this moment calls for, it’s important to create presence. That is what I wish to do within the ABL. I’m arriving here, learning and trying to understand how my colleagues and the Academy work. I’m fascinated by the possibility of working institutionally for books in a country where we have been loosing readers.
Writer’s work
Gonçalves is a novelist, screenwriter and playwright, and she teaches creative writing.
Her best-known work is the historical romance “Um defeito de cor,” which was selected as one of the best Brazilian books of the 21st century by a jury invited by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper in May 2025. First published in 2006, it sold over 150,000 copies and reached its 41st reprinting. In 2024, it inspired the theme of the parade of Portela, one of the main samba schools in Rio de Janeiro’s carnival.
Through 951 pages that demanded five years of researching and writing, Gonçalves tells the story of Kehinde, an African woman born in the kingdom of Dahomey (renamed Benin in 1975), who is captured at the age of eight and trafficked to Brazil to be enslaved. The book runs through her life, including disillusionment, suffering, love stories, the search for a son, her religiosity and how she turns around on this faith and gains her freedom.
The character is said to be based on a real-life historical figure, Luísa Mahin, about whom there is a lack of historical records, as reported by DW Brasil. It is believed that Mahin took part in uprisings and historical revolts of those enslaved during the colonial era in 19th-century Brazil, such as the Malês Revolt, which gathered enslaved Africans, including many Muslims, fighting for abolition in Bahia in 1835. Mahin is also believed to be the mother of Luís Gama, who would later become an important abolitionist figure in the country.
Gonçalves herself called her book a ‘‘romanced true story,’’ as told to news outlet G1:
‘‘A color defect’’ is the story of the Black struggle in Brazil embodied by a woman who faced the biggest imaginable challenges to stay alive and to preserve her inheritance and roots.
Matéria na íntegra: https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/25/a-black-woman-is-elected-to-the-brazilian-academy-of-letters-for-the-first-time-in-128-years/
28/07/2025
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