Enedina Alves Marques

Biography

Enedina Marques was born in Curitiba, Paraná, to Paulo Marques and Virgília Alves Marques, who established in the city in the 1910 decade, from unknown procedence. According to sources the family established at the Ahú or Portão neighbourhoods, where Dona Duca, as Virgilia was known, worked as a washerwoman.

In the 1920s, Dona Duca worked for the family of police officer and major Domingos Nascimento Sobrinho, who had a daughter, Isabel, of the same age as Enedina. He paid Enedina's education in private schools. Between 1925 and 1926, Marques is alphabetized. The following year she enters the Normal School, where she graduated between 1932 and 1935. Together with Isabel, Enedina worked as a teacher in several cities of the state of Paraná, such as Rio Negro, São Mateus do Sul, Cerro Azul, Campo Largo.

Between 1935 and 1937, Marques came back to Curitiba to study Madureza (a preparatory course for teachers) at the Novo Ateneu. She taught classes in a school at the Juvevê neighborhood.

In 1940, she entered the University of Paraná's School of Engineering, where she graduates in 1945, becoming the first female engineer of Paraná and the first black woman engineer in Brazil, with 32 years old. Before her, two black people graduated in Engineering at the institution – Otávio Alencar (1918) and Nelson José da Rocha (1938).

In 1946, Marques left teaching, and became engineering assistant at the State Secretary of Transport and Public Works. The following year she was transferred by governor Moisés Lupion, to the State Department of Water and Electric Power. She was employed in the state's Hydroelectric Plan and worked on the harnessing the waters of rivers Capivari, Cachoeira and Iguaçu.She was also an instructor at the Colégio Estadual do Paraná and the CEU – Casa do Estudante Universitário de Curitiba.

In 1958, major Domingos Nascimento Sobrinho died, leaving Enedina as one of his beneficiaries in his will.

In 1961, the sociologist Octávio Ianni interviews Marques for the Unesco-funded research "Metamorfoses do escravo". In 1962, she retired as a civil servant and was acknowledged by governor Ney Braga, that by decree guaranteed her a retirement income equivalent to the salary of a judge.

In 1981, Marques died of a heart attack at the Lido Building, in downtown Curitiba. She died with no immediate family and her body took much time to be found. Diário Popular, a city's tabloid, depicted her as if she were a complete unknown, causing outrage of the faculty and students of Instituto de Engenharia do Paraná. After the case, the press published various articles highlighting her achievements.

In 1988, a street was named after her in Vila Oficinas, at the Cajuru neighbourhood and her name was added to the Memorial à Mulher Pioneira, a place built by the Soroptimists – an international human rights organization of which she was member.

In 2006, the Instituto de Mulheres Negras Enedina Alves Marques, in Maringá, is founded.