Baron de Araújo’s tournament

Joaquim then explained the opportunity that could change everything. The baron had a daughter, Eduarda, aged twenty-two. Unlike other women in her community, she loved riding horses, hunting, fighting and betting.

Every year, she organized a tournament on her father’s property. Fighters from all over the region came to compete: boxing, freestyle wrestling and other forms of combat. The winner won 100 contos of reis.

This sum would be enough to pay Joaquim’s debt, restore the quinta and allow him to hold on for years.

But Joaquim didn’t know how to fight. He was old, weakened, with no real luck.

He then told Benedita what he had seen in her: not a useless woman, but a fighter. A force that no one had been able to understand, because no one had ever given her the opportunity to use it for herself.