Mariana Correia Alexandre

Mariana do Rosário Tapadas Correia e Alexandre. Born on July 11, 1951, in Vale de Açor, Ponte de Sor municipality, where she completed her primary education. She attended the Marquesa de Alorna Elementary Technical School in Lisbon for part of the 1963/64 school year. In the 1964/65 school year, already a student at the Externato Camões in Ponte de Sor, she was awarded the prize for best first-year student; a prize she did not receive in subsequent years because it was not reinstated. In 1969/70, at the same Externato Camões, she completed the third, fourth, and fifth years of the general high school course, condensing it into a single school year. In 1971, she married Francisco Maria Marques Alexandre and settled in Avis, where she worked from 1973 as an administrator for the Medical and Social Services of the Portalegre District Social Security Fund, later the Avis Health Center. He retired in 2010. Since 2011 he has been part of the musical ensemble of the Avis Folkloric Group. He has sung in the choir of the Avis Municipal Music School since its founding in 2013. He has always been interested in the importance of the traditions, customs, and local stories of his homeland, which characterize a reality largely lost in time. The book Memories of My Village It intends to make a humble contribution to restoring this memory of the people of Vale de Açor.