Maria Teresinha Gomes
Encyclopedia
Maria Teresinha Gomes also known as a generala was a Portuguese
woman notable for spending nearly 20 years successfully pretending to be a male army general
.
Gomes was born on the Portuguese island of Madeira
and ran away from home at the age of 16. Her parents gave her up for dead while Teresinha made her way to Lisbon
.
Gomes' general's uniform was a costume made by a Lisbon tailor for the 1974 carnival. She used the name General Tito Anibal da Paixao Gomes, the name of a brother of her, who died as a baby.
Gomes was revealed to be biologically a woman in 1992. She had used her invented position of authority to persuade neighbours to hand over part of their savings for investment. High returns were promised, but never forthcoming.
The resulting trial also revealed that Teresinha had posed to others as a lawyer and an employee at the US embassy. Teresinha was eventually given a suspended three-year sentence. She retreated to a village near Alenquer
where she died, too poor to pay for her own funeral, in 2007.
A nurse called Joaquina "Quininha" Costa became Gomes' companion, sharing a house with her for 15 years. At Gomes' trial, Costa claimed that they never shared a bedroom, and that she never suspected that Gomes may have been a woman.
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
woman notable for spending nearly 20 years successfully pretending to be a male army general
Army General
For the army rank of General, as opposed to the specific rank of Army General, see General officer.Army General is a title used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an army in the field...
.
Gomes was born on the Portuguese island of Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and ran away from home at the age of 16. Her parents gave her up for dead while Teresinha made her way to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
.
Gomes' general's uniform was a costume made by a Lisbon tailor for the 1974 carnival. She used the name General Tito Anibal da Paixao Gomes, the name of a brother of her, who died as a baby.
Gomes was revealed to be biologically a woman in 1992. She had used her invented position of authority to persuade neighbours to hand over part of their savings for investment. High returns were promised, but never forthcoming.
The resulting trial also revealed that Teresinha had posed to others as a lawyer and an employee at the US embassy. Teresinha was eventually given a suspended three-year sentence. She retreated to a village near Alenquer
Alenquer
Alenquer is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 304.2 km² and a total population of 42,932 inhabitants. The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in the District of Lisbon....
where she died, too poor to pay for her own funeral, in 2007.
A nurse called Joaquina "Quininha" Costa became Gomes' companion, sharing a house with her for 15 years. At Gomes' trial, Costa claimed that they never shared a bedroom, and that she never suspected that Gomes may have been a woman.