Mirtes Renata graduates in Law with tribute to her son

Mirtes Renata Santana graduated with a law degree in Recife, Brazil, during a ceremony marked by a tribute to her son, Miguel Otávio. As she received her diploma, she carried a photograph of Miguel and was accompanied by the song ‘Maria, Maria’.

Miguel Otávio died in June 2020 at the age of five after falling from the ninth floor of a building in central Recife. His mother’s former employer, Sari Corte Real, was previously sentenced in the first instance to seven years in prison for abandonment of a minor resulting in death, a case that remains under legal appeal.

Mirtes’s academic work focused on modern slavery and the rights violations faced by domestic workers. She received a perfect score on her final thesis, noting that the research was deeply personal as she drew upon the narratives of vulnerable women in the domestic labor sector.