Fernanda Santos
I'm originally from Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. Bahia is also the birthplace of one of my favorite authors, Jorge Amado, whose books unveiled the beauty in the hardened lives lived by the people of the Northeast, Brazil's poorest region. I remember reading "Captains of the Sands" in middle school, a book about a gang of street children who roamed the streets of my hometown. They were fictional characters, but so vividly described that I could never look at street children the same way.
Jorge Amado developed many strong women in his books. My favorite – she is also the most admired female character I've read – is Tereza Batista, a young woman forced to prostitute herself to survive. Tereza has many men in her life, most of them awful to her. But through the horrors she endured and the twisted morals of her twisted world, she nurtured a pure, sincere love for a married fisherman, Jereba, whose sick wife dies in time for him to rescue Tereza from a marriage of convenience, adding a measure of happiness to a tortured existence.
Tereza is the quintessential strong woman: She organized a strike among prostitutes to demand for better treatment against disease – and to demand respect. Jereba's strength is in forgiving Tereza for all her sins and in his resolve to reignite a romance interrupted by his loyalty to his ailing wife.
Jorge Amado developed many strong women in his books. My favorite – she is also the most admired female character I've read – is Tereza Batista, a young woman forced to prostitute herself to survive. Tereza has many men in her life, most of them awful to her. But through the horrors she endured and the twisted morals of her twisted world, she nurtured a pure, sincere love for a married fisherman, Jereba, whose sick wife dies in time for him to rescue Tereza from a marriage of convenience, adding a measure of happiness to a tortured existence.
Tereza is the quintessential strong woman: She organized a strike among prostitutes to demand for better treatment against disease – and to demand respect. Jereba's strength is in forgiving Tereza for all her sins and in his resolve to reignite a romance interrupted by his loyalty to his ailing wife.
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