She was born in Rio de Janeiro as Adalgisa Maria Feliciana Noel Cancela Ferreira, the daughter of a civil servant.

In 1922 she married Ismael Nery (1900–1934),[1] a painter and poet who introduced Adalgisa to a circle of Brazilian artists and intellectuals that included Manuel Bandeira, Jorge de Lima and Murilo Mendes.

Although the poet Murilo Mendes had proposed marriage to Nery in the late 1930s, she married in 1940 Lourival Fontes (1899–1967),[1] director general of the Department of Press and Propaganda (DIP).

The success of her newspaper column helped Nery to be elected as a member of the constituent assembly for Guanabara State (now the city of Rio de Janeiro) in 1960 for the left-wing Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).

In 1969, the military junta then governing Brazil ended Nery's mandate and stripped her of the right to run for office or vote for 10 years.