Panmela Castro
N. 1981, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Vive e trabalha em Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, Brasil
Lélia Gonzalez II, da série Retratos Relatos: Revisitando a História [HerStory series: Revisiting History], 2025
oléo sobre linho
[oil on linen]
[oil on linen]
150 x 110 x 8 cm
59 x 43 1/4 x 3 1/8 in
59 x 43 1/4 x 3 1/8 in
23235
© artista [the artist]
"Our motto must be: organization now!" Lélia Gonzalez spoke these words with the strength of someone who had always understood the urgency of the fight for Black women's rights. For the intellectual and historian, these women carried the marks of economic exploitation and racial and sexual subordination as part of their stories. But it was precisely from this burden that liberation was born—a path not limited to them, but meant for everyone.
Lélia was a pioneer in connecting race and gender in her reflections. By proposing an Afro-Latin American perspective on feminism, she wove together philosophy, psychoanalysis and Candomblé to discuss Brazilian identity. Her words crossed borders: she denounced the oppression of Black people and women at international events in the United States, Africa and Latin America. It was from this movement between territories that she coined the concept of Amefricanidade, a term used for understanding the shared realities between African and Latin American countries.
Charismatic and tireless, Lélia did not just analyze society—she transformed it. She was one of the founders of the Unified Black Movement (Movimento Negro Unificado – MNU), a key organization in the fight against racism in Brazil. Her ideas and activism remain fundamental to understanding and combatting racial and gender inequalities.