Honorific-Prefix: | Excelentísima Señora |
Maria Dantas | |
Honorific-Suffix: | MP |
Office1: | Member of the Congress of Deputies |
Constituency1: | Barcelona |
Term Start1: | 16 May 2019 |
Term End1: | 30 May 2023 |
Birth Name: | Maria das Graças Carvalho Dantas |
Birth Date: | 21 May 1969 |
Birth Place: | Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil |
Party: | Republican Left of Catalonia |
Otherparty: | Republican Left of Catalonia–Sovereigntists |
Maria das Graças Carvalho Dantas (born 21 May 1969), known as Maria Dantas, is a Brazilian-Spanish activist and politician who had served as Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain.
Dantas was born on 21 May 1969 in Aracaju in north-eastern Brazil.[1] [2] She is the daughter of a merchant and a nurse.[2] [3] She has a degree in law from the Federal University of Sergipe.[3] [4] She was a student of Carlos Ayres Britto at the university.[5]
Dantas worked as a deputy delegate for the civil police in Sergipe.[2] [6]
Dantas migrated to Spain in 1994 in order to study environmental law.[2] [6] She was an undocumented migrant and worked in various jobs over 15 years – as a maid, nanny, old age carer, dog walker, waitress and Portuguese teacher.[2] [6] She would clean toilets after attending doctorate classes.[2] [3] She later worked as an administrative assistant for a finance company.[7] She is a naturalised Spanish citizen.[3] [8]
Soon after arriving in Spain Dantas became an activist against xenophobia, racism, fascism and homophobia and supporting immigration and human rights.[4] She is a member of Unity Against Fascism and Racism (Unitat Contra el Feixisme i el Racisme) and is a member of the boards of Centre Internacional Escarré per a les Minories Ètniques i Nacionals (CIEMEN) and Confederació d’Associacions Veïnals de Catalunya (CONFAVC).[9] Her activism has led to death threats from supporters of Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.[4]
Dantas contested the 2019 general election as a Republican Left of Catalonia–Sovereigntists electoral alliance candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Congress of Deputies.[10] [11]
Dantas has a son, Thiago Lee, from a marriage when she was living in Brazil.[12] She also has two daughters born in Barcelona, Victoria and Natalia, from a second relationship to a Brazilian.[6] [12]
Constituency | scope=col colspan="2" | Party | scope=col colspan="2" | Alliance | scope=col | No. | scope=col | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18 | Elected |