Zélia Gattai

• Name — Zélia Gattai • Birthplace — São Paulo, Brazil • Place of death — Salvador, Bahia, Brazil • Alma Mater — University of Sorbonne (BA) • Children — 3 • Awards — See "Awards and honours" section

Zélia 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 that sought to create an anarchist community in the Brazilian jungle. Her father was arrested in 1938 due to political oppression under the Vargas Estado Novo regime. Gattai lived in Paraíso, São Paulo for her entire adolescence. 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, Luís Carlos Veiga, with him. Their marriage ended after eight years and Gattai ended up falling in love with writer and communist Jorge Amado. The new couple decided to live together in 1945 and had their first child together, João Jorge Amado, in 1946.

Due to political condemnation by the Vargas regime, Gattai and her family were forced to leave Brazil and decided to relocate to Europe. The family spent the first part of the five-year exile in Paris where Gattai used the opportunity to get a degree in French Civilization, Phonetics, and Language at the university of Sorbonne in 1949. They later relocated to Prague where they lived from 1950 to 1952. It is in Prague that their third child, Paloma Jorge Amado, was born and Gattai discovered her passion for photography.

The family returned to Brazil in 1952 and moved into Gattai's parents house in Rio de Janeiro for the next eleven years. In 1963, the family moved to Salvador in the state of Bahia and would remain there for the remainder of Gattai's life. While living in Salvador, Gattai began to focus on her literary career. Zélia Gattai died in Salvador on May 17, 2008, at the age of 91.

Gattai began her literary career in 1979 with an autobiography about her early life and the reality of Italian immigrants in Brazil, titled Anarquistas, Graças a Deus ("Anarchists, Thanks to God"). This memoir quickly became a bestseller and it was dramatized as a miniseries directed by Walter Avancini and created by the Globo Television Network in 1984 which allowed it to capture a large audience. Throughout her career, Gattai explored many genres including memoirs, children's literature, and romance novels. Many of her publications also included photography taken by Gattai that allowed her to create photo-biographies to further her story. In total, Gattai wrote 14 works including three successful children's books, ten memoirs and one romance novel. On the death of Amado in 2001, Gattai was elected to the vacant 23rd seat in the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

In her lifetime, Gattai was also awarded the following titles: • Placa “As dez mulheres mais bem sucedidas do Brasil” pela Mac Keen (Named in "The ten most successful women in Brazil" by Mac Keen) - 1980 • Título de Sócia Benemérita do Clube Baiano da Trova (Title of Meritorious Partner by the Club of Baiano da Trova) - 1981 • Título de Cidadã Honorária da Cidade de Salvador, Bahia (Title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Salvador, Bahia) - 1984 • Título de Cidadã Honorária da Cidade de Mirabeau (Title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Mirabeau) - 1985 • Título no grau de Grande Oficial da Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique, concedido pelo governo português (Title in the rank of Great Officer of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique, given by the Portuguese government) - 1986 • Eleita A Mulher do Ano pelo Conselho Nacional da Mulher (Elected Woman of the Year by the National Council of Women) - 1989

The authorities additionally record the heading Zelia Gattai. Her recorded languages were Portuguese, French and Brazilian Portuguese. She married Jorge Amado.