The Joaquina’s Beach legend (not quite exciting)

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough to pop up here, so things are getting better! And today, I finally bring the post I have been owing you all for quite some time!

I’ll start off with a double apology. 50% for taking so long to post, and 50% because the legend isn’t very exciting. Without further ado, here goes the legend I got from a surfboard at Joaquina’s Beach, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Legend has it that Joaquina was one of the women who lived in one of the beaches east of the Santa Catarina Island. She used to teach other local women to make all kinds of household items with intertwined thread, and also used to feed the local fishermen who came to her home.

According to the legend, she would have been swallowed by the waves of the sea where she lived.

It is said that around 1850 she used to work sitting at the rocks at the coast of that deserted and nameless beach. One day, she was distracted by the magic of the place and didn’t realize time was going by and the tide was swelling. She was then taken by the sea along with her laces, which enabled her to float away until she disappeared.

This story is told by the lacemakers of the region and by someone they claim is Joaquina’s descendant, though there is no documented proof. The story allegedly refers to Joaquina Rosa de Oliveira Costa, daughter to the second Barons of Laguna, Jesuíno de Lamego Costa and Leonor Auta de Oliveira. The Baron was a senator for Santa Catarina when Brazil was still an empire, and the family owned lands near where is not Joaquina’s Beach. Joaquina Rosa married Antonio Gomes de Mattos, Jr., who died in 1893 and is considered the patron of Brazilian Naval industry.

Sorry again, it was a bit disappointing! I’ll go back to bringing some more interesting parts of our folklore soon!

See you all on the next!

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