Pátria Ramos was born in Manaus, Brazil, on the 19th of December of 1891. At the age of 36, following her widowhood and already with 4 children, she moved to Lisbon, having joined relatives of hers that lived in Portugal´s capital.
Sometime later, already fully integrated into the Portuguese society of the time, she would become the editor and director of A Bandeira (The Flag), the first newspaper in the city of Setúbal exclusively written and coordinated by women. The elevation of the values and ideology of the then recently implemented Republican regime, in addition to its iconography (as is attested in the title of the newspaper itself), was the driving force behind this team of four young women. In fact, inspired by the winds of change carried by the Republic, these youngsters would shamelessly assume her female identity throughout every edition of the newspaper, thus seeking to stir a professional field overwhelmingly dominated by men. A Bandeira, however, could not be characterized as a feminist paper or one that approached such issues, given that Pátria Ramos – who signed the editorials and contributed with the most diverse articles – and her colleagues were aiming instead to inject a caustic and bold tone to a publication whose core content was fundamentally news-oriented and critically-guided, in such a way satirizing the habits and personalities of the city of Setúbal.
Following the departure of two of its writers, the newspaper would eventually extinguish itself, at the same time that the male newspaper O Pau (The Stick) emerged, allegedly created with the sole assumed purpose of overthrowing A Bandeira. To this end, it launched rude critics towards the four young women, condemning their irreverence, sagacity and sharp critical wit.
Pátria Ramos died in Lisbon, on the 26th of December of 1975.
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