Tabata Amaral

Tabata Claudia Amaral de Pontes (born 14 November 1993) is a Brazilian politician and education activist. She is currently a federal deputy for the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) representing the state of São Paulo. Throughout 2019, she was a vice-leader of the PDT and its associated political coalition.

Tabata Amaral
Amaral in 2019
Federal Deputy for São Paulo
Assumed office
1 February 2019
Personal details
Born (1993-11-14) 14 November 1993
São Paulo, Brazil
NationalityBrazilian
Political partyPDT
Alma materHarvard University

As an activist for education in Brazil, Amaral co-founded two organisations: Vontade de Aprender Olímpica, which prepares Brazilian students to compete in international olympiads,[1] and Movimento Mapa Educação, which promotes education equality in Brasil.[2][3] She also co-founded the political organisation Acredito, which provides funding for progressive candidates running for the first in Brazil.[4][5]

Before attending university, Amaral represented Brazil in five international science competitions. She then graduated from Harvard University, with a degree in astrophysics and political science. She was also a columnist for Rádio CBN and Glamour magazine.[6][7]

Early life

Tabata Amaral de Pontes is the daughter of Maria Renilda Amaral Pires, a domestic worker, and Olionaldo Francisco de Pontes, a bus conductor. She has a younger brother, Allan. They were raised in Vila Missionária (Pt), a poor neighborhood located in the South Zone of São Paulo, on the outskirts of the city.[8][9][10]

Tabata Amaral received her primary education in local public schools. In the sixth grade, at the age of 12, Amaral participated in the 2005 edition of the Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad (OBMEP), and won a silver medal on her first attempt.[11] The following year, due to her gold medal and strong academic performance, she obtained a full scholarship at Colégio ETAPA, a private school in São Paulo, where she completed her secondary education. In the following years, she represented Brazil in international chemistry, astronomy and astrophysics Olympiads.[12]

In 2012, Amaral was offered a full scholarship to a number prestigious universities, six of them in the United States: Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and California Institute of Technology, and at the University of São Paulo.[13][14][15]

Academic life

Amaral attended Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with highest honors in Government and Astrophysics.[16][17]

In her undergraduate senior thesis,[18] Amaral conducted an analysis of educational reforms in Brazilian municipalities, arguing that despite the expansion of access to education in Brazil over the past two decades, the quality of federal education remains lacking according to international standards.[19][20] Her thesis received the Kenneth Maxwell Senior Thesis Prize in Brazilian studies, and the Eric Firth Prize for the best essay on the theme of democratic ideals.[17]

Activism

After graduating, Amaral returned to Brazil to work as an education activist.[10][16][21][22]

In 2014,[23] Amaral co-founded the education advocacy organisation Movimento Mapa Educação (the Education Map Movement) with Lígia Stocche and Renan Ferreirinha (Pt).[3] The organisation crowd-sourced concerns about education among young people in Brazil, and then questioned candidates on those education-related issues during the 2016 Brazilian municipal elections, disseminating their responses widely on social media.[3]

In 2017, Amaral co-founded the organisation Acredito (meaning "I believe") with Felipe Oriá and José Frederico Lyra Netto.[4] The organisation promotes young progressive politicians who are seeking office for the first time,[4] with a particular focus on increasing the diversity of federal deputies.[17]

Political career

2018 election

During the 2018 general election, Amaral's campaign was mainly centered on education.[24] She received the sixth highest vote total of any candidate in the state of São Paulo, with 264,450 votes.[25] She is a member of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).[24]

Deputy

Building on her background as an education activist, Amaral became a prominent education critic, and was credited with being partly responsible for the removal of Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez as the Minister of Education in the government of Jair Bolsonaro.[26]

She served on the Education Commission, the Commission for the Defense of Women's Rights, and as an alternate member of the Science and Technology, Communication and Informatics Commission.[27] From February 20, 2019 until April 25, 2019, she was the vice-leader of the PDT Block, the electoral coalition of the PDT.[27] From June until November of that year, she was the vice-leader of the PDT.[27]

Amaral voted for reforming the Brazilian Previdência social security system, which would raise the retirement age; this was a major policy of Jair Bolsonaro's government, and the PDT opposed the reform.[28] Amaral broke party lines together with 8 other deputies of the PDT to vote in favour of the reform, stating that the reforms would be beneficial for education in Brazil.[26] For this she was temporarily suspended from the PDT.[29]

Controversies

In July 2019, the magazines Veja[30] and Exame[31] revealed that Amaral hired her boyfriend, Daniel Alejandro Martínez, to work on her 2018 election campaign.[30] According to the Superior Electoral Court, Amaral spent 23,000 reais (at the time about 6,000 USD[32]) from the public election fund to pay for these services, which were provided between August and October of 2018.[33] Amaral's team did not present the results of the services provided by Martínez.[34] In another case, the Supreme Federal Court had previously ruled that hiring relatives or spouses with electoral funds is legal,[35] but the practice has been widely condemned by journalists and commentators.[36][37][26] Veja magazine asserted that it was hypocritical for Amaral to engage in this practice, since in a previous interview with the magazine she had taken the anti-corruption position that "renewal in politics is not about changing the name of things or the face in power, but a change of practices".[38]

Selected honours
  • BBC 100 inspiring and influential women (2019)[39]
  • Time 100 Next (2019)[40]

References
  1. Vanessa Fajardo (17 July 2012). "Estudantes criam cursinhos gratuitos para formar campeões de olimpíadas". Globo. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  2. "Mapa Educação". mapaeducacao.com.
  3. Fabio Takahashi, Três jovens criam movimento por educação de qualidade e protagonismo, Folha de S. Paulo, 7 November 2017
  4. Grupo de jovens lança o 'Acredito', um 'MBL progressista', Folha de S. Paulo, 28 March 2017
  5. "Líderes Cívicos do Movimento Acredito" (in Portuguese).
  6. "Jovem apaixonada por educação estreia na CBN". CBN (in Portuguese). 2017-10-03.
  7. "Conheça o projeto que faz do primeiro voto algo divertido, educativo e fácil". Glamour. 2018-04-29.
  8. "Garota prodígio da periferia, Tabata Amaral é a 6ª deputada federal mais votada em SP". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). 2018-10-08.
  9. "Tabata Amaral: Jovem da periferia de SP que chegou a Harvard sonha em mudar educação e entrar para a política". BBC. 2017-12-17.
  10. 'Tabata Amaral: a mudança pela educação, Portal Dialogando, 21 July 2018
  11. "OBMEP abriu as portas do mundo para Tabata Amaral" (in Portuguese). IMPA. 2017-08-18.
  12. Vanessa Fajardo, 'Supercampeã olímpica', jovem de SP quer estudar astrofísica em Harvard, Portal G1, 4 November 2011
  13. "Jovem da periferia de SP passa em Harvard e outras 5 universidades dos EUA". O Estado de S. Paulo. 3 April 2012.
  14. Vanessa Fajardo, 'Supercampeã' entra em Harvard e em mais 5 universidades americanas, Portal G1, 1 April 2012
  15. Aluna da rede pública é aprovada em seis universidades americanas, Bom Dia Brasil TV Globo, 10 April 2012
  16. "Interview with Tabata Amaral de Pontes, co-founder of Movimento Acredito". David Rockefeller Center For Latin Studies. Harvard University. 2018-04-05.
  17. "Interview with Tabata Amaral de Pontes, Co-founder of Movimento Acredito". Wilson Center. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  18. Tabata Amaral de Pontes, The Politics of Education Reform in Brazilian Municipalities, Harvard University, March 2016
  19. Paulo Saldanã e Natalia Cancian, Estagnado, Brasil fica entre os piores do mundo em avaliação de educação, Folha de S. Paulo, 6 December 2016
  20. Ana Carolina Moreno, Brasil cai em ranking mundial de educação em ciências, leitura e matemática, Portal G1, 6 December 2016
  21. Tabata Amaral: A dona do sonho gigante para mudar a educação no Brasil, Huff Post Brasil, 1 April 2018
  22. Mariana Bonora, 'Voltei para lutar por uma educação de qualidade no Brasil', diz jovem formada em Harvard, Portal G1, 20 May 2018
  23. Edson Caldas; Barbara Bigarelli (20 August 2014). "Jovens criam manifesto para elevar debate sobre educação no Brasil". Globo. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  24. Cerioni, Clara (March 28, 2019). "De Harvard ao Congresso: quem é a jovem deputada que deu lição em Vélez". Exame. Grupo Abril. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  25. "Apuração: São Paulo". Uol. October 7, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  26. "Brésil : Tabata Amaral, la rénovation politique en « trompe-l'œil »". Le Monde (subscription required) (in French). 14 December 2019. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  27. "Tabata Amaral biografia". Câmara Dos Deputados. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  28. "Ciro diz que movimento de Tabata é 'partido clandestino' e que ela faz dupla militância". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). 2019-07-13. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
  29. Luiz Felipe Barbiéri (17 July 2019). "PDT suspende atividades partidárias de deputados que apoiaram reforma da Previdência". Globo. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  30. "Tabata contratou namorado por R$ 23 mil durante a campanha, diz Veja". Congresso em Foco (in Portuguese). 21 July 2019. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  31. "Tabata Amaral pagou R$ 23 mil ao namorado por 50 dias de trabalho". EXAME (in Portuguese). 20 July 2019. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  32. "The U.S. Dollar to Brazilian Real Historical Exchange Rates Conversion Page for 2018". Pound Sterling Live. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  33. "Divulgação de Candidaturas e Contas Eleitorais - Tabata Amaral" (in Portuguese). Tribunal Superior Eleitoral. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  34. "Tabata quebra silêncio sobre contratação de namorado por R$ 23 mil". VEJA (in Portuguese). 30 July 2019. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  35. "Tabata contratou namorado por R$ 23 mil para atuar em estratégia de campanha". =Folha de S. Paulo (in Portuguese). 20 July 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  36. "Tabata Amaral". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  37. "Tabata Amaral defende pagamento de R$ 23 mil a namorado na eleição: 'Gratidão'". O Globo (in Portuguese). 24 July 2019. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  38. da Costa, Machado; Pedroso de Campo, João (20 July 2019). "Tabata pagou R$ 23 mil ao namorado com dinheiro do fundo eleitoral". VEJA (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 14 October 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  39. "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year?". BBC. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  40. "Time 100 Next". Time Magazine. 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
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