2025 Hello , The women shot to global fame in 1972, known at the Three Marias. Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar had them arrested and charged with indecency, attack on public morals and libel against the authoritarian government. This, for writing Novas Cartas Portuguesas (The New Portuguese Letters). Their work homage to a classic 17th century book, Letters of a Portuguese Nun, a collection of fictional missives written by a young woman to her lover after he left her cloistered in a convent. The Three Marias identified with the nun's frustration and stifled yearning. Their book published letters they wrote to one another, pouring out the challenges of life under under a conservative dictator, including their suppressed rage and feelings about the strictures on their sexuality. The last
living of the three authors, Maria Teresa Horta, died this past week.The current Portuguese prime minister called her “an important example of freedom and the struggle to recognize the place of women.” Growing up with a stern and misogynist father, Maria Teresa Horta read forbidden books under her bed with a flashlight and left home at 18, already a published
journalist.
The Three Marias Prosecuted for
writing Pornography
Maria Teresa Horta was born in 1937, under Portugal's Estado Novo (New State), a conservative, authoritarian regime, bent on defending the Catholic Church and bringing "stability and civilization" to its
colonial conquests in Africa and Asia. "I was born in a fascist country, a country that stole liberty, a country of cruelty, prisons, torture." She told an Italian interviewer in 2018, "I understood very early on that I couldn't stand for this....Without freedom, you're nobody. If we accept fear, there is nothing to do. We are a rag. We're what they want, some ghosts, some puppets
in their hands."
Maria Teresa Horta courtesy Enric Vives-Rubio When Maria Teresa published her breakthrough book of poetry 1967, she realized there would be a price to pay. First came the threatening phone calls, calling her debasing names. Then the secret police hounded
her. She said her book Minha Senhora de Mim (My Lady of Me) "challenged something deeply rooted in this country, the silencing
of female sexuality...."In the 50s, 60s what caused scandal in Portugal was me starting to talk about what is done in bed....To be me, the woman, saying 'I want you, man, to do this to me because that is what gives me joy' did not go down well."
Portuguese writer Maria Teresa Horta in an undated photograph, courtesy Jorge da Silva Horta One night Maria Teresa went out to catch a taxi in neighborhood where she lived with her husband and seven-year-old son. She wasn't suspicious as she left her house and headlights of a car flashed on. But the car followed her through the narrow streets and tried to run her down. Only a lamp post saved her.Then the car stopped and two men got out. "They pushed me to the ground and started hitting my head on the ground; giving me beating me everywhere. I thought it was supposed to rob me, but then I realized it wasn't. There was one who told me, 'This is for you to learn not to write as you write.'" Maria Teresa continued to write the truth of her experiences because, she said, she didn't want to be ashamed to look at herself in the mirror. In 1971, she met for lunch with two other women authors, Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria
Velho da Costa.
The three discussed their unhappiness as thirty-something women, expected to confine themselves to raising children and keeping house. They shared their feelings in letters and poems, which eventually became The New Portuguese Letters. One of the letters read, “They wanted the three of us to sit in parlors, patiently embroidering our days with the many silences, the many soft words and gestures that custom dictates. But... we have refused to be cloistered, we are quietly, or brazenly, stripping ourselves of our habits all of
a sudden.” The book was seized by authorities three days after it came out in May 1972 and sent to the police department in Lisbon. State censors banned it
for its denunciation of fascism, women's oppression and Portuguese colonial war in Africa. The following month, all three women were arrested, jailed and charged
with indecency and abuse of freedom of the press. “...The police action against the Portuguese women in June 1972 was an outrage that slowly became the focus of an international protest movement,” Time magazine wrote. The National Organization for Women voted to make the case its first international feminist cause. Renown women authors including Simone de Beauvoir and Doris Lessing rallied to support the three Marias. Out on bail, the authors led protests in the streets.
The writers Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta carried posters with slogans such as "Women a political force", "The junta is sexist", "We want: thirst". Together,
along with Maria Velho da Costa, were acquitted in the court case known as “The Three Marys” and led the Demonstration of the Women’s Liberation Movement [Photography: DN Archive] When the authors’ trial opened in 1973, the crowd was so great that the judge ordered the courtroom cleared, though American television camera were allowed in. Due to postponements, the women were still on trial the following April when a military coup toppled the Estado Novo government. Often called the Carnation Revolution or the 25 April produced major social, economic and political changes, resulting in the Portugal's transition to democracy and ending Portuguese Colonial War. Two weeks after the coup, the Three Marias were acquitted of all charges. The judge on the case having a sudden change of mind. "[The book is] neither pornographic nor immoral. On the contrary,” he said, “it is a work of art
of high level, following other works of art produced by the same authors.”
Maria Teresa Horta's body of work, 40 titles, includes poetry, fiction and essays. Her writing broke taboos and championed freedom, often at personal
cost. It's difficult to find her work translated into English but I found this title Point of Honour: Selected Poems of Maria Teresa Horta. Maria Teresa won most of her country’s top literary prizes, but she remained committed to justice, refusing to accept an award in 2011 from Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho because she disagreed
with his right-leaning politics. The journalist, feminist poet and political activist died in Lisbon, February 4th, at the age of 87. A piece of history has died," says her biographer Patrícia Reis. "Perhaps these times that we are living in will force us to look at the legacy of people like Maria Teresa, to honor them." Recently, the BBC voted
her one of the 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world. The last of the Three Marias remains alive in her writing, a voice of provocation and inspiration. Like
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Sources https://portuguese-american-journal.com/in-memoriam-maria-teresa-horta-a-life-of-poetry-and-defiance-portugal/
It's cold here. Two below zero the last two nights. But it's been sunny and I had a beautiful walk this morning.
Look for the light! A great source of information on what's happening in the US government is The Brennan Center. Tuesday the center reported Donald Trump’s lawbreaking spree has now been met with an unprecedented series of judicial rebuke, just Monday, five federal courts blocked some of his administration’s moves. Join the Movement President's Day rallies and political action scheduled across the nation, February 17. To find your local information click here and scroll down looking for your state or nearest city. Yes, there is one in Idaho. And Texas, too. President's Day events are sponsored by the grassroots groups 50501 Movement and Political Revolution, saying they oppose Trump policies because they undermine democracy and civil rights, including what they
perceive as a conservative-driven agenda under Project 2025, a framework backed by some of Trump's allies to overhaul the federal government. I am still working with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Please join me in our next training. Protect & Resist: The First 100
Days In the midst of the Trump induced chaos, we'll continue grounding together to keep learning, building, and organizing.
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