Eunice Paiva

Eunice Paiva
Born	Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva (1929-11-07)November 7, 1929 São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Died	December 13, 2018(2018-12-13) (aged 89) São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian
Education	Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
Occupation	Advocate
Spouse	Rubens Paiva (m. 1952)
Children	Multiple, including Marcelo Rubens Paiva

Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva (November 7, 1929 – December 13, 2018) was a lawyer and a symbol of the struggle against the military dictatorship in Brazil. She worked actively for the human rights of those who disappeared during the military dictatorship and their families, and for the indigenous cause.

Biography

Eunice Paiva spent her childhood in the neighborhood of Brás, in the city of São Paulo, where she lived in a community of Italians who came to Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century, and later moved with her family to the neighborhood of Higienópolis, a noble district of the city. From childhood, he cultivated a love of reading. At the age of eighteen, she graduated in Literature from Mackenzie Presbyterian University and spoke fluent French and English. At the age of 23, she married engineer and politician Rubens Beyrodt Paiva, who was involved in labor causes, and with whom she had five children: Vera Sílvia Facciolla Paiva (1953), Maria Eliana Facciolla Paiva (1955), Ana Lúcia Facciolla Paiva (1957), Marcelo Rubens Paiva (1959) and Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva (1960). She was friends with great writers such as Lygia Fagundes Telles, Antônio Callado and Haroldo de Campos.

Living at Avenida Delfim Moreira, in the Leblon neighborhood, in the south of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Eunice and Rubens kept their children living comfortably. In January 1971, her husband was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the cellars of the DOI-CODI in Rio de Janeiro by the Brazilian military dictatorship. The family lived in Rio de Janeiro when the military came to their home and took her, her husband and their daughter Eliana to the Army's Operations and Information Detachment (DOI). Eliana was imprisoned for 24 hours, while Eunice was interrogated for 12 days. In 1973, Eunice re-entered Mackenzie University and began her law degree, graduating at the age of 47.

Career

Playing a central role in the search for information on her husband's whereabouts, Eunice Paiva led campaigns to open archives on victims of the military regime and became a symbol of the fight against the military dictatorship. With her militancy and criticism of the dictatorial regime, she risked her own life, as shown by documents from the National Intelligence Service (SNI) that were made public in 2013, because both she and her children were watched by military agents from 1971 until 1984. She was one of the main pressure forces that led to the enactment of Law 9.140/95, which recognizes people who disappeared because of their participation in political activities during the military dictatorship as dead. Eunice was the only relative of a disappeared person invited to attend the ceremony in which Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed the law. In 1996, after 25 years of fighting for memory, truth and justice, Eunice managed to get the Brazilian state to officially issue Rubens Paiva's death certificate. She was also one of the main lobbying forces behind the enactment of Law.140/95.

In her work as a lawyer, Eunice Paiva gained more and more notoriety because of her seriousness and commitment. She dedicated herself to the indigenous cause, acting professionally against the violence and undue expropriation of land suffered by the indigenous population. In October 1983, she signed with Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, in the “Tendências e Debates” section of Folha de S. Paulo, the article “Defend the Pataxós”, which was a milestone in the Brazilian indigenous struggle and served as a model for other indigenous peoples, including Africans, Americans and Eskimos. In 1987, together with other partners, she founded the Institute of Anthropology and the Environment (IAMA), an non-governmental organization, that worked until 2001 to defend the autonomy of indigenous peoples. In 1988, she was a consultant to the National Constituent Assembly, which promulgated the Constitution of Brazil.

Death

She died on December 13, 2018, at the age of 89, in the city of São Paulo, after 15 years of living with Alzheimer's.

In popular culture

Released in 1978, the documentary Eunice, Clarice, Thereza, directed by Joatan Berbel, tells the story of three widows of political prisoners: Clarice Herzog (widow of journalist Vladimir Herzog); Thereza Fiel (widow of worker Manoel Fiel Filho); Eunice Paiva. Three women united against the dictatorship and the repression of the military regime.

Published in 2015, the autobiographical novel Ainda Estou Aqui, written by her son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, deals with the life of Eunice Paiva and draws parallels between her story and the period of dictatorship in Brazil. The book won third place in the Jabuti Prize in the reader nomination category and was nominated for the Oceanos awards, as well as being included in the list of the best books of 2015 by the newspaper O Globo.

The book Ainda Estou Aqui has been adapted for the cinema. Directed by Walter Salles and starring Fernanda Torres as Eunice and Selton Mello as Rubens Paiva, I'm Still Here was released in Brazil on November 7, 2024. The film won Best Screenplay at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and was chosen to represent Brazil at the 2025 Oscars in the category of Best International Film.