Zélia Gattai

Zélia Gattai Amado de Faria (July 2, 1916 – May 17, 2008) was a Brazilian photographer, memoirist, novelist and author of children's literature, as well as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. She was married to famous Brazilian writer Jorge Amado from 1945 until his death in 2001.

Biography

Gattai was born in São Paulo city in the neighborhood of Paraíso, state of São Paulo, on July 2, 1916, to a family of Italian immigrants. Gattai's father, Ernesto Gattai, was an anarchist and came from the region of Veneto, following the social anarchist experiment called Colônia Cecília. Her father was later arrested due to political oppression under the Vargas Estado Novo regime.

In the 1930s, Zélia Gattai entered the intellectual and social circles of the modernists of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, becoming a friend of personalities such as Oswald de Andrade, Lasar Segall, Tarsila do Amaral, Mário de Andrade, Rubem Braga, Zora Seljan, Paulo Mendes de Almeida, Carlos Lacerda, Aldo Bonadei, Vinícius de Moraes and others.

At the age of 20, Zélia Gattai married Communist militant Aldo Veiga and had her first child with him . Their marriage ended after eight years and Gattai ended up falling in love with writer and communist Jorge Amado. The new couple married in 1945 and had their first child together in 1946 . Due to political condemnation by the Vargas regime, Zélia Gattai and her family were forced to leave Brazil . The family spent the five year exile in Europe where Gattai used the opportunity to get a degree in Literature at the Sorbonne in 1949.

Upon returning to Brazil, she and Amado settled in Rio de Janeiro with Gattai's parents for the next eleven years before moving to Salvador in the state of Bahia in 1963. Gattai began to focus on her literary career while living in Salvador. She resided in Salvador until her death on May 17, 2008 at the age of 91.

Literary Career

Gattai began her literary career in 1979 with an autobiography about her early life, titled Anarquistas, Graças a Deus ("Anarchists, Thanks to God") which became a bestseller when it was dramatized as a miniseries by the Globo Television Network, capturing a huge audience. She later wrote eight further sequels to her autobiography, telling her love story with Jorge Amado (A Hat for a Voyage, The Lady of the Ball, Winter Garden, A Boys' Ground, The House of Rio Vermelho, Cittá di Roma, Family Codes and Jorge Amado, a Romantic and Sensuous Baiano). She also wrote three successful books for children and a novel. On the death of Amado, Gattai was elected to the vacant 23rd seat in the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Literary Works

• Anarquistas graças a Deus - 1979 (memoirs)
• Um chapéu para viagem - 1982 (memoirs)
• Senhora dona do baile - 1984 (memoirs)
• Reportagem incompleta - 1987 (photobiography)
• Jardim de inverno - 1988 (memoirs)
• Pipistrelo das mil cores - 1989 (children's fiction)
• O segredo da rua 18 - 1991 (children's fiction)
• Chão de meninos - 1992 (memoirs)
• Crônica de uma namorada - 1995 (novel)
• A casa do Rio Vermelho - 1999 (memoirs)
• Cittá di Roma - 2000 (memoirs)
• Jonas e a sereia - 2000 (children's fiction)
• Códigos de família - 2001 (memoirs)
• Jorge Amado um baiano sensual e romântico - 2002 (memoirs)
• Vacina de Sapo e outras lembranças - 2005 (memoirs)

External links

• Zélia Gattai at IMDb