Maria Vaz
| GENUS PEDIGREE: | Birdbeak (parrot) | ||
| KNOWN ALIASES: | Maria Vaz; Rosita; Rosinha | ||
| KNOWN RELATIVES: | Rocha Vaz (father), Gabriela "Gaby" Vaz (niece). | ||
| KNOWN PETS: | unknown | ||
| CITIZENSHIP: | Rio de Janiro, Brazil. | ||
| KNOWN CONFIDANTS: | Jose Carioca; Nestor. | ||
| KNOWN RIVALS: | Joe Galo. | ||
| PARAPHERNALIA: | unknown | ||
| 1st PRINT APPEARANCE: | perhaps: "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" #48 (Sep. 1944) in "Joe Carioca." | ||
| 1st FILM APPEARANCE: | unknown | ||
| VOICE ACTOR: | none | ||
| SIGNATURE: | unknown | ||
| BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: | Jose Carioca's girlfriend. In the 1940s a series of films were planned featuring Jose and a pretty parrot named Aurora, but they never made it past the storyboard process. However, a pretty parrot named Maria, (also called Rosita in Italian and Rosinha in Brazil), does show up in a large number of comics done in both Holland and Brazil, so the fact that she isn't in an actual cartoon didn't stop her from becoming a star. Her first appearances occurred in a series of Newspaper comicstrips that appeared in the late 1940s and were never reprinted in the USA, except perhaps, in "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" #48 when Jose rescues a featherless rooster. This animal is so grateful that he follows Jose all around. Shortly Jose encounters Maria sitting in a booth and selling kisses for 25 cents. He is about to take advantage of the lovely she-parrot's offer when a blustering crow named Pedro pushes him aside in an attemp to steal the affections of the young lady (which she rebuffs). He claims to own the great champion cockfighter named "Killer" and challenges Joe and his rooster to a fight. Joe gallantly accepts, and proceeds to attempt training the hopelessly scrawny Rooster. Rooster, through hypnosis, does defeat Killer. Joe, Maria and Rooster celebrate their victory over dinner. Jose's rival for Maria's affection is an anthropomorphic rooster named Joe Galo with a blustering personality (akin to "Bluto" of Popeye fame). Maria also has a wealthy father named Rocha Vaz who highly disapproves of his daughter's relationship with Jose and does everything he can to interfere. Maria also has a young niece named Gabriela "Gaby" Vaz who is a bane to Jose. | ||
| HISTORICAL FACTS: | unknown | ||
| LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: | unknown | ||
| WORKING THEORIES: | *The name "Aurora" comes from some unproduced film storyboards for proposed cartoons featuring Jose & Donald continuing the South/Latin American themes began with "Saludos Amigos" & "The Three Caballeros." I presume that if these films had been made Maria would indeed have been called "Aurora." |