Alsácia Fontes Machado

Although self-taught, she early on revealed unusual gifts for Letters, standing out as an internationally renowned promoter of Esperanto. A defender of pacifism and the fight against the economic and social discrimination exerted against Portuguese women, she was an above-average lecturer and translator. A poet and short story writer of a naturalistic stamp, many of her productions, which almost foreshadow neo-realism, are scattered across various national and foreign periodicals, sometimes under the pseudonyms Cristina Alvor and Elsa Vaz, among which the following stand out: Coração e Cérebro (until its demise in 1935), Portugal Feminino (1931), Pensamento (1935-1938), Revista Transtagana, Século Ilustrado, Natura, Diário do Alentejo, O Diabo, República, Diário de Lisboa, A Vida Social and Notícias (from Lourenço Marques). She belonged to the Fernando Lopes Graça Folk Choir Group. She was distinguished in 1938 with the translation prize in an international contest held in Oslo and, in 1949, with the Noble Dame «Cross of Honour» Defenders of Civilisation diploma.