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Tabata AmaralBrazilian political figure and activist
Date of Birth: 14.11.1993
Country:  Brazil |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Tabata Amaral de Pontes was born in the underprivileged neighborhood of Vila Missionária, São Paulo, on November 14, 1993. Her parents, Maria Renilda Amaral Pires and Olionaldo Francisco de Pontes, worked as a housekeeper and a bus conductor, respectively. She has a younger brother named Allan.
Amaral attended public elementary school and excelled academically from a young age. In 2005, she won a silver medal in the Brazilian School Mathematics Olympiad (OBMEP). In the following year, she secured a full scholarship to the private Colégio ETAPA in São Paulo.
In subsequent years, Amaral represented Brazil at international science competitions in chemistry, astronomy, and astrophysics. In 2012, she received scholarships to several prestigious universities, including Harvard University, where she chose to pursue a bachelor's degree in government and astrophysics.
Social Activism
Upon graduating from Harvard in 2016 with honors, Amaral returned to Brazil to dedicate herself to educational advocacy. She co-founded the "Movimento Mapa Educação" (Educational Map Movement) in 2014, which surveyed candidates on education-related issues during the 2016 municipal elections.
In 2017, Amaral established "Acredito" (I Believe) with Felipe Oriá and José Frederico Lira Netto. This organization supports young progressive candidates running for office for the first time, prioritizing increased diversity among federal deputies.
Political Career
Tabata Amaral joined the center-left Democratic Labour Party (PDT) and ran for the Chamber of Deputies in the 2018 general election. She focused her campaign on improving education, and was elected with 264,450 votes, placing sixth among all candidates in the state of São Paulo.
As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Amaral has served on the Education Committee, the Commission for the Defense of Women's Rights, and the Science and Technology, Communication and Informatics Committee. She was also副leader of the PDT parliamentary block and deputy leader of the PDT party in 2019.
Amaral has been a vocal critic of the Bolsonaro administration's education policies, contributing significantly to the dismissal of Education Minister Ricardo Veléz Rodríguez. Despite her progressive views, she controversially voted in favor of the government's controversial pension reform bill, which went against her party's stance. She was briefly suspended from her party for this vote.
In 2019, media outlets reported that Amaral had hired her partner for her electoral campaign, sparking allegations of nepotism.
