Born in the interior of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Goulart was the daughter of Italian immigrants Dinarte Fontella and Maria Júlia Pasqualotto, who gave birth alone on an isolated road when she was 15 years old.

[4] In the city of São Borja, she lived next door to João Goulart's house, whom she met personally at the age of fourteen.

[1] According to Maria Thereza herself, she was in charge of bringing correspondence to him at the request of Dinarte Dornelles (Getúlio Vargas' maternal uncle).

[5] In Porto Alegre, at the house of her aunt América Fontella who was married to Spartacus Dornelles Vargas (Getúlio's brother), Maria Tereza met Leonel Brizola at the age of 12.

[8] Among Maria Thereza's cousins was the politician Yara Vargas,[6] who later helped found the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).

[10] In August 1961, Maria Thereza and her children were guests in a Spanish hotel owned by a friend of the Goulart family, while her husband was on a diplomatic mission in the People's Republic of China.

[12] Maria Thereza chose to wear haute couture outfits to public events, and became a fashion icon, being compared to Jacqueline Kennedy and appearing on the covers of a large number of magazines.

This is uncertain as his body was not submitted for an autopsy and the attending physician wrote only the Spanish word enfermedad (sickness) as the causa mortis on his medical chart.

[14] The government recognizes its mistakes of the past and apologizes to a man that defended the nation and its people of whom we could not have prescindedDirector Susanna Lira will make the film Vestida de Silêncio, whose production was scheduled to begin in 2021, which will examine the life story of João Goulart through the eyes of Maria Thereza.