Junia Furtado holds a Ph.D. in Social History from the Universidade de S�o Paulo, Brazil. She is currently a professor of history at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Her work on Chica da Silva has won awards from the Carlos Chagas Foundation for Women and Gender Research and the Ford Foundation. She has also contributed articles to Cartografia da conquista das minas and History of Cartography, volume 4. The Portuguese language edition of this book was awarded Honorable Mention in 2004 by the Casa de las Am�ricas foundation of Cuba.