A primeira prefeita brasileira Alzira Soriano: o poder político coronelístico, Lages/RN, 1928

Abstract

This research falls within the field of the new political history. An important problem for the research is to understand how the case of Alzira Soriano, the first female mayor of Brazil in 1928 in the city of Lages-RN, is linked to the structure of coronelismo during the First Republic, period when the vote not yet extended to women. Taking as one source the Feminism section of the newspaper O paiz do Rio de Janeiro, which was written by the Brazilian Federation for Women's Progress and widely publicized the election of Alzira Soriano. Also the biography ‗Luiza Alzira Teixeira de Vasconcelos first elected mayor woman in South America‘ (1993) written by journalist and museologist Heloisa Maria Galvão Pinheiro de Souza. About Alzira Soriano, we highlight that was born on April 29, 1897 in Jardim de Angicos headquarters of the municipality at the time. The progeny of Colonel Miguel Teixeira de Vasconcelos and Dona Margarida Teixeira de Vasconcelos. On April 29, 1914 Alzira married Thomaz Soriano de Souza, her husband died of Spanish flu in 1919. Alzira had a life that did not deviate from the standards of the time, for a woman of her condition. In 1927 Governor Jose Augusto de Bezerra Medeiros sanctioned the state law of Rio Grande do Norte, Law No. 660 of October 25, 1927, which guaranteed women the right to vote and to be voted. In September 1928 the first municipal elections would be held, where women could vote and also be candidates in Rio Grande do Norte. Alzira Soriano won the elections and became the mayor of Lages. The figure of Alzira Soriano in the newspaper O paiz has always sought to remember the role of woman, mother and widow and the balance between politics and domestic affairs, not explicitly contesting patriarchal power.