Discover the history of the ‘city of beauties’ founded after adultery

This is a story that begins with machismo, goes through religious fanaticism and ends with the hard and united work of women who decided to make their world a better place to live. Noiva do Cordeiro is a village about 100km from Belo Horizonte, which was founded and isolated from society for more than a century because the founder betrayed her husband.

Shocked? So did I.

Why is it the “City of Beautiful Women?”

In a Google search, there are several mentions of Noiva do Cordeiro as a community formed only by beautiful women in search of husbands. This has created harassment that is sometimes misguided and sexist. The only truth is that they are beautiful. As for men, it is clear that many were born and raised in Noiva do Cordeiro. There are still those who came from outside and married women from there.

The vast majority of them, however, work in the capital and only return at the weekend. Hence the rumor that there were only women in Noiva do Cordeiro, which also caused a lot of talk about them, always more vulnerable to discrimination.

Episode 1: The Adultery That Started It All

More than 115 years ago, Roças Novas, the region where Noiva do Cordeiro is located, was a village lost in the world, where the Catholic faith determined all the rules of behavior. It took a lot of courage for Maria Senhorinha de Lima to leave her husband, a Frenchman named Artur Pierre, and start living with Francisco Fernandes, her love. Disgusted by the adultery, his family tried to spread the couple’s story and the outraged inhabitants of Roças Novas cut off any contact.

Still, isolated, Maria Senhorinha and Francisco had twelve children and raised them in a big house – which is still there today – built on the land they managed to buy. Most of these children left. Those who stayed are, even today, a character in this plot.

Episode 2: the marriage with the evangelical pastor who worsened the isolation

In the 50s, the curse of isolation in the village, already called Noiva do Cordeiro, began to show signs of truce. But, this time, the controversy was the marriage of Dona Delina (granddaughter of Maria Senhorinha), with a shepherd from the region, aged 43, while she had not even turned 17. Very strict, with time Seu Anísio Pereira became a leader local and even imposed two days of fasting in the name of religion. The prayers were daily and sometimes more than once a day.

The news of the new habits soon spread and the local society, Catholic, was bothered by the cults. It was said that the residents of Noiva do Cordeiro used religion as an excuse for not working and the community experienced poverty firsthand.

Episode 3: Change Began in the 90s

It started with Rosalee Fernandes, 50, one of Dona Delina’s daughters, Noiva do Cordeiro’s break with the past. In the early 1990s, she explained to her father that she would no longer follow the dogma. “I studied ours and the other religions a lot and concluded that ours was not better than any of them, as he said”. Already sick and very old, Seu Anísio did not resist.

Life without religious rigidity was the first step to get out of misery. With more work, there was more money. As for the stigmata, it was more difficult to get rid of. They even said that Noiva do Cordeiro was a brothel or the house of the devil.

Episode 4: The granddaughter who covers Lady Gaga

“Until three years ago, I didn’t know anyone around here,” says Keila Fernandes, 29, Rosalee’s sister and Dona Delina’s youngest daughter. Despite this, she is probably the community’s strongest symbol of liberation.

In addition to farming, Keila invests in her singing career, working as a cover for Lady Gaga. She performs in other cities, has participated in a TV show and was an attraction in the halls of São Paulo Fashion Week dressed in an outfit made from balloons. Nobody believed that that uninhibited woman was also a simple farmer from the interior of Minas. Keila has even recorded a clip with the help of community staff.

The elders encourage and are proud. “We were so repressed and discriminated against that not blaming anyone is our dogma today”, says Rosalee, who is now a kind of village leader.

How do these women live today?

In a way, everyone there continues to live somewhat apart from the rest of society. The community has its own social and economic system. About 35 people live in the main house, where everyone in the community has meals and shares leisure time, whether it’s a card game, a mid-afternoon coffee or a manicure session (one does the other’s nails).

Sixty houses were built – with everyone’s help – around the plant. The cars, the food, the houses belong to the community. At the time the documentary about the city (Noivas do Cordeiro, by director Alfredo Alves, 2008) was released, the main connection of the inhabitants of Noiva do Cordeiro with the world was the TV and a pay phone.

Today, the new generation posts photos on Facebook and watches videos on their cell phones, while deciding whether to study abroad or stay in the fields. They know about their family’s past because they know the history, but they were born free and powerful. Freedom and empowerment are, in fact, ideals that have become sacred in Noiva do Cordeiro. As Flavia Emediato, one of the farmers, says, “it’s very difficult to change a mentality, but when that happens it’s much harder to go back”.