Maria Bandeira (Rio de Janeiro, 1902-1992)
Maria Bandeira was the first female botanist at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden and a specialist in bryophytes. In the 1920s, she collected and identified more than 500 specimens of plants, fungi and lichens, but never received due recognition for not publishing her results, being ignored by male-dominated scientific circles. Bandeira explored areas that were difficult to access, corresponded with international researchers and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was on a successful scientific path when she decided to join the Discalced Carmelite Order and move to a convent in the Santa Teresa district of Rio de Janeiro, where she was completely cloistered. Experts say that this may be related to the death of his parents, the emotional break with his brother and the loss of an important scientific reference, Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus, who died in 1929. I wonder if it wasn't her brother who confined her to the convent out of jealousy of her professional success. I also speculate whether Brotherus was her great love and secret companion, whose absence she couldn't bear. I imagine Maria Bandeira living among her bryophytes, working until the end of her days in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, and I struggle day and night with artificial intelligence to make the image of a 90-year-old woman, chin up, keeping her shy smile and as charming as I see it in the few photos that recorded her.
Image: Portrait of Maria Bandeira, aged 90, created with artificial intelligence from archive images of the young scientist. 50×76 cm, 2024.
References:
Bediaga, Begonha, Ariane Luna Peixoto, and Tarciso S. Filgueiras. "Maria Bandeira: a pioneering botanist at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden." História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos 23 (January 26, 2016): 799-822. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702016005000002.
hcsm magazine. "Maria Bandeira: the first female botanist at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden opted for religious life at a young age | História, Ciências, Saúde - Manguinhos," March 2016. https://www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br/maria-bandeira-primeira-botanica-do-jardim-botanico-do-rio-de-janeiro-optou-por-vida-religiosa-ainda-jovem/.