Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes • Großes Verdienstkreuz • GCRB • Officier • GCIH • ComSE • GCIP • (9 July 1923 - 4 June 1998), was a Portuguese writer, poet, professor and diplomat who lived in Portugal, Brazil, France and the United States of America.

Belchior attended the all-girls school, Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho, where she became known as the “Carolina Micaelis” for her academic capacities.

The jury included Vitorino Nemésio, Orlando Ribeiro, among other distinguished figures and was headed by Professor Marcello Caetano, future Prime Minister of Portugal during the last stage of the Estado Novo regime.

[5] Three years prior, Belchior had been the guest speaker alongside Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir at the First Brazilian Congress of Critic and Literary History held in August 1960 in Recife.

[9] Alongside Malaca Casteleiro, Lindley Cintra and Fernando Cristóvão, Maria de Lourdes formed part of the Commission responsible for creating the new Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990.

[12] She rapidly chose to renounce all political appointments and went on to co-found a weekly publication, Nova Terra, signing as Director a large part of the editorials.

Maria de Lourdes for ten years led the teaching in the field of Lusophone literatures and cultures at the University of Santa Barbara, working alongside Frederick G.

[5] Seventeen years after having refused the position, Belchior finally accepted to replace José-Augusto França as Director of the Portuguese Cultural Center of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris.

[6] She was Director from 1989 to 1998,[2] during which she promoted the dissemination of Portuguese culture in France: she developed the foundation's library, promoted publications, held numerous exhibitions, subsidised the translation of Portuguese authors into French, and held events such as the tribute to the Brazilian writer and friend Jorge Amado (October 1990), the tribute to Emmanuel Nunes on the occasion of the Autumn Festival in Paris (November 1992), the debate with the architect Siza Vieira on the “reconstruction of Chiado after the 1989 fire” (January 1964) and the conference “Portugal in the work of António Tabucchi” (Marco of 1964), as well as nights of debate dedicated to the filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, such as the exhibition of “Non ou a vã gloria de mandar”.

The writer was closely associated with a broad network of influential figures across Portuguese, Brazilian, and French cultural spheres during the 20th century.

[17][18][19][20][21] Her death, which occurred on June 4, 1998, was described by the president of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Ferrer Correia as "the loss of one of the most notable figures in Portuguese culture".

In Honor of Maria de Lourdes Belchior Pontes, edited by João Camilo dos Santos and Frederick G. Williams, Center for Portuguese Studies, University of California, Santa Bárbara, 1995; Romanesque.