Former sugarcane cutter becomes judge; know the story – 06/19/2023 – Market

The childhood memories of criminal judge Antônia Faleiros, 59, have been softened by time. “There’s an aura of nostalgia that beautifies.” But a longer conversation is enough to reveal difficult memories of a child who at age 12 went to work in the sugar cane fields.

The first daughter of six siblings, Antônia was born and raised in the community of Barro Vermelho, in the rural area of ​​Serra Azul de Minas, a municipality in Minas Gerais that today has just over 4,000 inhabitants.

In 1975, she says, she didn’t study because the city only had classes up to the fourth grade. “The children of those who had money went to other cities. I didn’t have that possibility”, she says.

That was the year he started working to contribute to the family income. The Jequitinhonha valley, where she lived, was an exporter of male labor.

In the communities, she says, there were still women and children —taken, according to her, for child labor. “There was a preference for recruiting children because they were more controllable, because of their innocence.”

Antônia says that she went to work in the Curvelo region, a place where sugar cane is grown for the production of rapadura.

Some memories of the time were unlocked by meeting other victims on social media. They worked in the fields, had no salary or formal contract, he says.

In the barracks on the farm, separated between boys and girls, remember that they all ate and slept in a huddle. In order to have some privacy, she says, the girls improvised huts.

I heard reports of the fear that many had of sexual abuse. There, she understood early on what it means to be a woman in a sexist society, she says.

After that year’s harvest, Antônia says she went back to work in the city itself, washing clothes in the river. In 1976, they implemented the fifth grade, and they opened classes year by year until 1979.

The incentive to study came from his mother, who was forbidden to study in childhood by her father. “She was aware of the importance of education and gave me the initial impulse. Today, I only see education as a ladder, as a way to reach”, she says.

It was her mother’s effort, going to great lengths to pay for her studies, which allowed Antônia to go to a religious boarding school in Serro, where she studied teaching, from 1982 onwards. gave remedial classes.

After high school, he moved to Belo Horizonte. In the capital, she says that racism knocked on her door with more force. When looking for a job, she was barred by the criterion of good looks.

“At the time, I couldn’t understand what they were talking about, so they told me to tie my hair back. It was a very strong social marker in terms of blackness,” he says.

The situation got worse when a relative no longer wanted her to live in her house. “On a certain night, she told me: tomorrow you won’t come back here. It was a very painful episode”, she says.

She says that the shelter became a bus stop, where she spent almost six months of sleepless nights, studying and pretending to wait for the bus to disguise her situation.

Working as a maid was a solution, as it guaranteed housing in the “little maid’s room”. “Our slave mentality reveals itself in two categories: rural workers and domestic servants”, she says.

When looking for a job in the newspaper, he saw the announcement of a public tender. But the social barriers were still many. Unable to buy the booklet, she claims that she collected pages discarded by the copier in the trash and started memorizing passages.

In 1984, at the age of 21, she was approved in third place for bailiff of the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais. She began studying law at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and graduated in 1991.

He took part in other competitions, including for the judiciary. She was a lawyer for a long time, served as a delegate, attorney for the INSS (National Social Security Institute) and held various positions in the legal field, she says.

At the end of 2002, she took office as a judge at the Court of Justice of Bahia, but claims that this was never a dream. “I wanted to eat, I wanted to have shoes. A judge, I didn’t know it existed or that a woman could be a judge, let alone look like me.”

Today, she works in the 1st Criminal Court of Lauro de Freitas, in the metropolitan region of Salvador, where she is known for her simple way. She walks, travels by bus and engages in social work in communities. Last year, she received the Maria Felipa Award, which recognizes the work of black women in the state.

Master in Public Security, Justice and Citizenship by UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), now works as a professor and speaker. She says she uses her experiences in the courts and in life to inspire future legal professionals.

“A life story can be beautiful and inspiring, but it doesn’t accredit us to anything. What accredits us is what we are on a day-to-day basis”, he says. “I make sure I don’t distance myself from people and, within my possibilities, extend a hand to anyone who is in a vulnerable situation.”