WELCOME TO NOIVA do CORDEIRO: BRAZILIAN ALL-WOMAN VILLAGE DESPERATE FOR MEN

Noiva do Cordeiro community is nestled in Belo Vale, which translates as “beautiful valley”, all its residents are women!  It was learnt that the community was founded by , Maria Senhorinha de Lima, who settled in the town when she was branded an adulterous and exiled from her own church and home in 1891.

The valley is dotted with groves of thick-skinned, sweet tangerines, banana plants, and ipe trees covered with bright yellow flowers.
But it is not just this beautiful scenery that catches the eye; it is the inhabitants. That is ‘beautiful’ women, whom many are single and in search of love.


Nelma Fernandes, 23, had pleaded: “Here, the only men we single girls meet are either married or related to us; everyone is a cousin. I haven’t kissed a man for a long time. We all dream of falling in love and getting married.”

Noelie Fernandes Pereira, 42, is tilling the vegetables, fruit and rice that the village grows both to feed itself and make money. She is one of 80 agricultural workers, nearly all of whom are women, wearing wide-brimmed straw hats to keep off the fierce midday sun. “This place is special because of the love of everyone,” she says.
So why has she not married? “I just have not found the right man.”
Could I be that man? “The heart, she has to choose. And you have to get to know the person.” It’s not the most encouraging answer to my proposal.

Marcia Fernandes, 33, a part-time folk singer and one of the village’s most glamorous women, says: “It’s marvellous having all the women working together here. We share every moment and even when we are working at our hardest, life is good because we are always with friends and we are always looking after each other.”

“We were totally isolated because of the prejudice we faced as a result,” says Rosalee Fernandes, 49, who is a fourth-generation member of the village and has been fighting a campaign to ensure that the authorities do not continue to sideline the community.

She says that the skewed female/male ratio in the village is not as bad as it seems — there are men who live here, but they spend the week away, working either as miners or in the nearest big city, Belo Horizonte.
She adds: “We miss the men a lot. We always look forward to the weekend when they return.”

The women of Noiva do Cordeiro acknowledge that they are an unusual group in rural Brazil. But things are changing fast in this country.
Brazil has a female president, Dilma Rousseff, and the boss of Petrobras, Maria das Graças Foster, is the only female head of a big oil company worldwide. Grant Thornton, a consultancy, reports that women make up 27 per cent of the senior managers of Brazil’s leading companies, compared with Britain’s 20 per cent.

Kaila Fernandes, 28, is the sister of Marcia, and when she is not tilling the fields, she dresses up as Lady Gaga and produces rather risque videos.
“I never worry about this side of life. I don’t think about marriage. I am sure love will happen independent of the place. My love will arrive at the right time,” she says.

Culled: The Telegraph