Amélia Duarte Machado, a Viúva Machado: a esposa, a viúva e a lenda na Cidade do Natal (1900-1930)

Abstract

The research project examines representations elaborated about Amelia Duarte Machado, images that were built in a particular space: the Natal City. Amelia, one mossoroense that has a simple life, stated a luxurious life after marrying with a rich Portuguese merchant Manuel Machado, in 1904. She led a life of society lady, lived in a sumptuous residence, traveled to Europe, attending the Theatre the city and took care of the social image of her husband, opening the doors of your home to promote dinners and receptions. Experienced the changes occurring in Natal in the first three decades of the twentieth century, when the initiative of a political and intellectual elite of the city began to incorporate bourgeois values and to provide a technical framework focused on the improvements brought by the Industrial Revolution. In 1934, with her husband's death, took over the family business. Besides the widow, also became an enterprising woman. The widow Amelia Machado also became the target of suspicion of the population, rumors about his life. From there emerges a frightening figure in Natal, a being that captured and ate the liver of children, the papa-figo of Natal City, the Widow Machado. In this research, we relate different images that circulated about this woman, who was society lady, dashing widow and papa-figo, articulating these representations with the discourse on female circulating in Natal from 1900 to 1930 yet will raise hypotheses about the creation of the Legend of the Widow Machado