Background
Jovita Feitosa was born on 8 March 1848 inTauá, Brazil. Her parents were Maximiano Bispo de Oliveira and Maria Alves Feitosa. After the death of her mother from cholera, Feitosa moved to Jaicós with her father to live with relatives.
Jovita Feitosa was born on 8 March 1848 inTauá, Brazil. Her parents were Maximiano Bispo de Oliveira and Maria Alves Feitosa. After the death of her mother from cholera, Feitosa moved to Jaicós with her father to live with relatives.
In Jaicós, Jovita Feitosa studied music.
After the Paraguayan invasion of Brazil in late 1864, a wave of patriotic indignation swept Brazil. Among the thousands who volunteered to defend their country was Jovita Alves Feitosa, who at the age of seventeen headed for Teresina, the provincial capital of Piaui. Cutting her hair, she enlisted in July 1865 in a volunteer battalion. Pierced ears quickly gave her away as a woman, and the police investigated her.
Overnight she became a local celebrity. A newspaper in Teresina published the transcript of her police interrogation and her portrait; provincial authorities eventually permitted her to remain in the battalion. She embarked with the rest of the provincial contingent for the national capital of Rio de Janeiro. Her fame increased in every port where the troop transport stopped en route. In Salvador, Bahia, she was feted by the population and provincial authorities, and a newspaper reporter declared that her patriotic example had encouraged hundreds of men to volunteer.
Despite her celebrity, Feitosa's military career came to an abrupt end on 16 September 1865 in Rio de Janeiro when the War Ministry ruled that because women could not serve in any branch of the armed forces, she should be discharged and returned home. Instead of returning home, however, Feitosa remained in Rio de Janeiro, committing suicide over a failed love affair two years later.
Physical Characteristics: Jovita Feitosa was a mulatto, who had Indian features. She was medium height.