Born: 8 March 1848, Brazil
Died: 9 October 1867
Country most active: Brazil
Also known as: Antonia Alves Feitosa
Antonia Alves “Jovita” Feitosa was a Brazilian military heroine and a symbol for the war against sexism.
At age 17, she enlisted in the military to fight in the Paraguayan War. She dressed as a man, cut her hair in a military style, wrapped her breasts, and wore a leather hat in an attempt to look provincial. Though she managed to enlist, her feminine traits and earring holes in her ears gave her away and she was exposed.
Taken to the police for questioning, she sobbed uncontrollably and said she wanted to fight in the trenches. Though she was offered the chance an auxiliary nurse, she declined, saying she wanted to avenge the “humiliation passed by his countrymen at the hands of heartless Paraguayans.” When her case was brought to the attention of Franklin Dória, then president of the Province of Piauí, she was allowed to join the National Army as a second sergeant. She received uniforms and left for Parnaíba with the other volunteers.
The ship arrived in Rio de Janeiro on September 9, 1865, where word of her had reached the public of her, and everyone wanted to meet the woman from Piauí who would go to war. In November, the Minister of War Visconde de Cairú, issued a letter refusing permission for Feitosa to join the battlefront. There are different stories surrounding her death. One theory is that she committed suicide with a dagger in the heart in 1867, at the age of 19; another is that she died in the Battle of Acosta Ñu in 1869.
Jovita Feitosa Square in Fortaleza is named in her honor.