Birthday of Thereza Santos

Thereza Santos was a Brazilian writer, actor, playwright, professor, and activist for women's rights and for the Black Movement of Brazil. In the 1960s, Santos began to participate in the liberation movement for Portuguese-speaking African countries. She was imprisoned by the military dictatorship of Brazil in the early 1970s for her work with the Brazilian Communist Party. After her release, she chose to leave Brazil. Santos rejected invitations to move to the then-Soviet Union and instead chose to self-exile in Africa, where she stayed for around five years, working for independence movements from Portugal in Guinea Bissau and Angola. Her work ranged from guerilla fighting to establishing arts and theater schools for children orphaned by the wars of independence. Upon her return home to Brazil, she focused more on the feminist struggle and her role in the Brazilian Black Movement is overlooked. She also continued to work for international liberations, helping co-found the Cultural Association of Agostinho Neto, which was headquartered in São Paulo and had a branch in Luanda, Angola (led by his widow Eugenia Neto). She served as the Director of Solidarity and Events, and led the organization’s support of Angola as well as advocating for Africans from varying nations living in São Paulo.

You can read more about her life on Black Perspectives blog post about her by C. Darius Gordon.