Born in the outskirts of São Paulo, Tabata Amaral, 24, took the opposite direction from what thousands of young Brazilians dream of doing. After graduating in astrophysics and political science at Harvard University, in the United States, she came back to Brazil to start a political career.
On Sunday (7th), 264,450 voters believed in her and her dream of improving Brazilian education through a better public administration and turned her into the state's sixth most voted Lower House representative.
She is one of the two "left-wing" names among the top ten most voted Representatives in São Paulo. The first place went to Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
Tabata says she was already prepared to face a more conservative Congress, but her goal will be to find a way to dialogue with everyone without giving up her principles. She was born in a favela in the outskirts of São Paulo, the daughter of a house cleaner and a bus ticket collector. Since she was 12 years old, she collected over 30 medals in contests for math, physics, chemistry, programming, robotics, and linguistics.
She almost gave up her slot in Harvard, because her father died of a drug overdose the day before her flight to the US. But she decided to go anyway.
After graduating, she decided to go back to Brazil to change the future of underprivileged like her, through better educational opportunities.
Translated by NATASHA MADOV