Dorvalina Martins Ribas

She was born in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) on 12 August 1900. While still a student she became a follower of Francisco Ferrer and adept in secular education. She became an anarchist and set about teaching workers’ children. After training at the Porto Alegre Complementary School, by 1919 she was charge of the Modern School set up in 1915 by Polidoro Santos, Cecilio Vilar, Zenon de Almeida, Djalma Fetterman and other activists.

According to the newspaper O Sindicalista in 1924: “That school was in operation for some years, delivering an education which, if not entirely rationalist, was a lot more rational that that delivered by today’s schools which are awash with nonsensical and utterly irrational preconceptions. The school came to have four hundred pupils of both sexes.”

The school operated out of 197, Rua Ramiro Barcelos in what was known then as the Colonia Africana, a sort of black ghetto located where the Bom Fim district stands today. The 3 May 1919 edition of O Correio do Povo reports that a workers’ procession marking the 1st of May passed by the Modern School and was hailed by its pupils with a singing of the anthem ‘Porvir’ (Future). The workers - again according to the same source - responded with the anthem ‘Filhos do Povo’ (Sons of the People). The pupils were led by their teacher Dorvalina Ribas.

In 1921 Dorvalina married the Spanish activist Jesús Ribas and moved with him to Erechim. There they opened a small school, but the conservative climate in the area put paid to that plan and the couple returned to Porto Alegre after two years. Dorvalina carried on educating workers’ children and Jesús Ribas found work as an electrician and was active with the Rio Grande do Sul Labour Federation (FORGS). Harried by employers, he switched to working at the clearance of stones from Santo Antonio hill. Dorvalina and Jesús both belonged to the International Anarchist Group in 1928 when she staged a well-attended exhibition for the FORGS by way of a tribute to Francisco Ferrer’s memory. The exhibition took place in the Rua Jerónimo Coelho.

From the 1930s on Dorvalna and her husband remained committed to children’s schooling, building the Institute for Children’s Protection and Assistance right beside Santo Antonio hill. The idea had come to them after reports reached them of a Catholic group housing some children in a filthy barrack, feeding them on food scraps from bourgeois restaurants. Jesus and some friends raided the premises with a pistol at the ready and announced that the children were henceforth his responsibility. They founded the Institute to house the children, spending the couple’s meagre savings and showing great commitment and with the support of the community.

Dorvalinda died of cancer in March 1944, aged 43.