Biography
Maria Barroso devoted her life to human and social causes, exalting them in politics and arts. A key personality of Portuguese culture, a major figure in theatre and cinema, she loved poetry, which she recited inimitably.
A life devoted to Freedom and Democracy
Born in Fuzeta (municipality of Olhão), Maria de Jesus Barroso was born on 2 May 1925. She belonged to a family of democrats and opposition members, the daughter of Maria da Encarnação Simões Barroso, a primary school teacher, and Alfredo José Barroso. Her father, an army officer, having actively conspired against the Military Dictatorship, was discharged, imprisoned and deported following his participation in several military uprisings.
Due to her father’s political activity, Maria Barroso had to attend primary school in Lisbon and Setúbal. She graduated from secondary school, after studying at the Dona Filipa de Lencastre and Pedro Nunes high schools. Then she entered the National Conservatory, where her great artistic talent was recognised. She finished the Drama Art Course in 1943, with the highest grade.
"Education offers us a long but effective and safe path to building a society of tolerance and peace."
She excelled in poetry recitation and theatre acting and her presence in Portuguese stages was soon recognised. Her acting debut in 1943, in the play “His Excellency, the Thief” (“Sua Excelência, o Ladrão”), at Lisbon’s Teatro Ginásio. Then came other important roles, namely “Madre Alegria”, by Luis Fernández de Sevilla and Rafael Sepúlveda, which received the applause of press critics of the time.
Her call as an actress led her to join the Amélia Rey Colaço-Robles Monteiro company at the D. Maria II National Theatre, acting alongside with top figures of Portuguese theatre, namely Palmira Bastos, Maria Matos, Amélia Rey Colaço and Augusto Figueiredo. She acted in several plays, notably “Benilde ou a Virgem Mãe”, by José Régio, and “A Casa de Bernarda Alba”, by Federico Garcia Lorca. As a result of the last performance, in 1948, the regime forbade from acting.
On her comeback to theatre, she played, among other roles, “Antígona”, by Sophocles (Teatro Villaret, 1965). In 1966, at the stage of Teatro S. Luiz, she interpreted the Jean Cocteau’s monologue "The Human Voice", immediately banned by the regime. This was her last role in theatre. She equally acted in cinema, in films such as “Mudar de Vida”, by Paulo Rocha (1966), or “Benilde ou a Virgem Mãe”, by Manoel de Oliveira (1975).
Culture as Resistance
Maria Barroso was very young when she began an intense activity against Estado Novo. She used her art and her talent to fight against dictatorship, which she abhorred.
From 1947 onwards, she developed militant poetry recitals throughout Portugal, often accompanied by the choir of Fernando Lopes Graça. She recited poems by opposition poets, namely those belonging to the Novo Cancioneiro movement. As a result, the political police questioned her, accusing her of reciting poems deemed “subversive”, following a poetry recital organised by the Grupo de Ação Cultural at the Teatro Rosa Damasceno, in Santarém.
Along with theatre, Maria Barroso read Historical-Philosophical Sciences at the School of Arts and Humanities of Universidade of Lisboa, finishing the course in 1951. There she met Mário Soares, in 1945. The two eventually got married in 1949, though by proxy, as Mário Soares had been sent to prison in Aljube. Their best men and women were Joaquim Barradas de Carvalho, Ruth Arons, Bá Mendes and Manuel Mendes, the latter also being in prison. The couple had a son, João (b. 1949) and a daughter, Isabel (b. 1951).
"My friends, there are those who say that the past doesn't count: that's a lie, let me tell you. The past counts when it continues in the present and is projected into the future."
The fight for freedom and democracy led Maria Barroso to join several opposition organisations and actively participate in political campaigns that shook up the regime. She was a member of the Portuguese Women’s Association for Peace, the Democratic Unity Movement (MUD) and MUD Juvenil. She participated in the campaigns of generals Norton de Matos (1949) and Humberto Delgado (1958) to the Presidency of the Republic, mainly in the second, for her dynamic support to the candidacy of the “Fearless General”. She was also signatory of important documents against the political situation in Portugal and Estado Novo.
The Estado Novo regime prohibited her from acting and teaching, both in the public and private sector, due to her political action on behalf of freedom and democracy. She would end up taking leadership of Colégio Moderno, remaining its headmistress for many decades.
Always playing a key role in the opposition, she emerged as a central personality of the resistance against dictatorship. She was a candidate on the lists of the Electoral Commission of Democratic Unity (CEUD) to the National Parliament, in the 1969 elections, representing the district of Santarém. She was the only woman who addressed the III Congress of the Democratic Opposition in Aveiro, in April 1973. She was also the only woman present at the founding congress of the Socialist Party (PS), held in the city of Bad Münstereifel, in Germany.
Fighting for a fairer world
The end of dictatorship marked a new era in the political and civil intervention of Maria Barroso. Once the Estado Novo was overthrown, on the 25 April 1974, she immediately returned to Portugal, together with Mário Soares, Manuel Tito de Morais, Francisco Ramos da Costa and Fernando Oneto, on board of the famous “liberty train”.
In the troubled times that followed, she was strongly involved in the political strengthening of PS and its nationwide deployment, participating in rallies all over the country and in all party congresses. She ran for the Constitutional Parliament as MP candidate in 1975 and was elected member of the Assembleia da República in several legislatures, between 1976 and 1983, in which she proved to be a fierce parliamentarian. Among her parliamentary functions, she became vice-president of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, in which she played a key role in defending the right for Parent Associations to take a more active role in educational policies.
Shaped by the values of peace, solidarity and social justice, Maria Barroso embraced throughout her life many causes of social and humanitarian nature. In 1990, she helped set up the Movement for Emergency Assistance to Mozambique and, in 1991, the Association for the Study and Prevention of Violence. Committed to defend the neediest, in 1994 she created the Pro Dignitate Foundation – Foundation for Human Rights and against Violence, excelling in the prevention of violence and social exclusion as an active voice in the defence of democratic values. In 1997, she became president of the Portuguese Red Cross, keeping the office until 2003. She was also a founding partner and Chairperson of the Board of ONGD and of Foundation Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
As tribute to her persistent civic and political action, she received many awards, decorations and honorary doctorates, namely those bestowed by the University of Lesley (1994), Universidade de Aveiro (1996), Universidade de Lisboa (1999) and Universidade Lusófona (2012). She was also decorated with the Great Cross of the Order of Liberty, on the 7 March 1997, in addition to several international decorations.
She died in Lisbon, on the 7 July 2015, at 90 years old.