At the entrance of the Copacabana Fort, there is an arc with a Latin inscription that means “if you want peace, get ready for war” [no original, “si vis pacem, para bellum”]. In August 2024, the writer and screenwriter, 71, entered the military base for the second time to take a brunch in the company of her daughter Eleonora, 31, at one of the local coffee shops.
The first time Eugenia crossed that bow had been 60 years ago in 1964 in the company of her mother, who will have her life portrayed in a film.
At that time, the reason was a visit to General Euryale de Jesus Zerbini, father of Eugenia and husband of Therezinha, who was detained in Fort for opposing that year. By his position, he had his political rights revoked and was placed in the reserve.
“What did you come to do here?” Asked the then Colonel César Montagna to his mother, he remembers Eugenia. “And in a very calm voice, he replied, ‘I came to visit my husband.’ She told me after I had already turned the ring on the finger and, if he made any cute, would slap his face,” he says.
Social worker, lawyer and pioneer in the struggle for the freedom of political prisoners, Therezinha founded, in 1975, the. Before that, in 1970, she herself had been arrested by the military regime for helping the organization of the, held at the site of a family friend in Ibiúna, interior of São Paulo.
Now, ten years after her death, she will have her life told by a documentary based on the script written by Eugenia.
Prison and amnesty
The family lived in the neighborhood of Pacaembu, Na, near the Santo Alberto Magno Convent, from Dominican friars. Among them, who asked the couple for help to find a headquarters for the student meeting in October 1968.
The event was discovered by repression, and the participants, arrested.
For his involvement, Therezinha would also be arrested on February 11, 1970, sentenced based on. Eugenia says that after being released, about a year later, her mother began to live like a “beast in the cage” until she again mobilized against.
“It conspired a little here and a little there. She said that her heart was full of hatred for what they did with Friar Tito,” he says. Victim of intense torture in prison, the religious developed psychological disorders and committed suicide in 1974 at the age of 28.
In 1975, Therezinha read the news that she had declared her the International Year of Women and had the idea of gathering signatures by the Amnesty Law, founding the MFPA (Women’s Movement by Amnesty). In the first year, according to the minutes of the meetings, there were about 12 thousand signatories.
“Only women, aparti, to unite the Brazilian family. My mother was very skilled. She said it was a female movement to break with the ‘dike of censorship and prejudice’. At this point, I think it was very sober,” he says.
“Nowadays you have to be careful with that word [anistia]it is not? The speech has completely changed, “says Eugenia, referring to the attempt of the base to reverse the convictions of those involved in the scammer acts of January 8, 2023.
Therezinha did not identify himself as, but, to Eugenia, the life of his mother contradicts any statement in this regard.
“Wife of a general, 20 -year -old and divorced, who continued to work. You see her independence in the way of thinking, of expressing himself in the world. A feminist Before the letter ” [à frente do seu tempo]it says.
Therezinha today
“My grandmother was the father I never had,” says granddaughter Eleonora. “She taught us to have courage. She had no option to be lazy near her,” he says.
Eugenia also remembers this attitude of Therezinha in the face of life and defines her mother as a ‘maker’: “example of determination, courage and hope. She always said that hope is a revolutionary virtue,” he says.
The daughter also sees a slightly centralizing stance in Therezinha, whose absence during the resistance period was felt by her. However, he ponders, “That’s not why she went into history.”
Susanna Lira, who has acquired the rights of a script written by Eugenia about her mother, states that this leadership image is remembered by the “Tower of Donizens” companions, the name of the Tiradentes Prison Women’s Pavilion, portrayed in one of Susanna and where Therezinha served part of the sentence.
“In all the research I did, her name appeared. Which was stuck with her, always stressed her generosity and her presence on the dictatorship resistance front,” says the filmmaker. The film is in the pre-production phase, and Susanna says she wants to portray the story in a “extremely innovative” way.
