Lélia Gonzalez was a Brazilian intellectual, politician, professor and anthropologist.

The daughter of a black railroad worker and an indigenous maid, she was the second youngest of eighteen siblings, including footballer Jaime de Almeida, who played for Flamengo. Born in Belo Horizonte, she moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1942.

She graduated with a degree in history and philosophy, then worked as a public school teacher. She did her master's degree in media, and her doctorate in political anthropology. She then began to devote herself to research on the relationship between gender and ethnicity. She taught Brazilian Culture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, where she headed the department of sociology and politics.

As a secondary school teacher at CAp-UERJ (part of Rio de Janeiro State University) during the dictatorship of the sixties, she made her philosophy classes a space of resistance and sociopolitical critique, which influenced the thought and action of her students.

She helped found institutions such as the Black Movement of Brazil, Research Institute of Black Cultures (Instituto de Pesquisas das Culturas Negras, IPCN), the Black Women's Collective, N'Zinga, and the group Olodum. Her activism in defense of black women carried it to the National Council on Women's Rights, where she worked from 1985 to 1989. She was a federal legislative candidate for the Workers' Party, being chosen as the first alternate. In the next election, in 1986, she ran for state representative for the Democratic Labour Party, being chosen again as a substitute.

Read more about Lelia.

Selected work in English:

1979

Racism and its Effects in Brazilian Society, in Human Rights. Women’s Conference on Human Rights and Mission, World Council of Churches. Veneza / Genebra. World Council of Churches Document.

The Role of Black Woman in Brazilian Society: an Economic and Political Approach. [O Papel da Mulher Negra na Sociedade Brasileira]. in Spring Symposium The Political Economy of the Black World. Center for Afro- American Studies. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Los Angeles(Califórnia-USA). Mimeo.

Brazilian Black Youth and Unemployment. [Juventude Negra Brasileira e a Questão do Desemprego] Annual Meeting of the African Heritage Studies Association, Pittsburgh. Mimeo.

1980

The Unified Black Movement. in Symposium on Race and Class in Brazil: New Issues and Approaches Center for Afro-American Studies. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Los Angeles (Califórnia - USA).

1983

The Brazilian Support to the Namibian Cause: Difficulties and Possibilities. Afrodiáspora. São Paulo. Ano I, no 2, May/Setember.

1984

The Black Woman’s Place in the Brazilian Society. in National Conference, African-American Political Caucus/Morgan Sate University, Baltimore. (mimeo)

1988

A socio-historic study of South American Christianity: The Brazilian case. in First Pan-African Christian churches conference, International Theological Center, Atlanta.

1995

The black woman in Brazil. in Carlos Moore (org.), African presence in the American 9, NEW Jersey, African World Press, pp. 313-328.