{"id":392427,"date":"2025-07-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=392427"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:30:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T14:30:59","slug":"granddaughter-of-arabs-at-brazils-electoral-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/granddaughter-of-arabs-at-brazils-electoral-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Granddaughter of Arabs at Brazil\u2019s Electoral Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Born in Petr\u00f3polis, Rio de Janeiro state, Arab descendant Andr\u00e9a Maciel Pach\u00e1 is proud of her journey. An appellate judge at the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Justice and a writer, since June 2024 she has been working in the Office of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am currently away from my position as an appellate judge at the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice, in the 8th<\/sup> Chamber of Private Law, because I am providing direct assistance to Justice C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha until June 2026,\u201d says Pach\u00e1, 61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Office of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of the TSE, Andr\u00e9a Maciel Pach\u00e1 works alongside Justice C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha. Versatile, in addition to being an appellate judge, the Brazilian of Syrian descent has worked in film and has written five books.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Pach\u00e1
Pach\u00e1 (L) with Justice C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, the minister currently embodies what\u2019s most symbolic and republican in our country. She\u2019s a person extremely committed to the public cause and dedicated to administration. That\u2019s why it was a great privilege to be invited by her to take on this role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduating in Law at the age of 21, after practicing as a lawyer for two years, Andr\u00e9a decided to pursue other professional experiences. Because of her deep love for texts and cinema, she spent five years studying playwriting, sociology, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. In the cultural field, she had the opportunity to produce plays directed by Rubens Corr\u00eaa, Aderbal Freire Filho, and Amir Haddad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wanting to achieve greater financial stability and to have children also led her to decide to return to law. Passing both the judiciary and public defender exams in 1994, Pach\u00e1 took office as a judge in a small town of Rio de Janeiro state and later in Petr\u00f3polis, where she spent most of her career. \u201cI worked for almost 20 years in the Family Court, where I presided over more than 20,000 hearings. Between 2007 and 2009, as a counselor at the National Justice Council, I created the National Adoption Registry and established Courts for Violence Against Women throughout Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the importance of promoting campaigns to simplify the language used in legal proceedings and to combat \u201clegalese,\u201d Pach\u00e1 created a project alongside Brazilian Portuguese professor Pasquale Cipro Neto. \u201cBetween 2002 and 2003, I spoke with law students from all over the country to teach them to study in order to talk about justice, not to speak in a convoluted way. It was and it still is necessary to use language that\u2019s understandable to people,\u201d explains Pach\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pach\u00e1, the writer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While working in the Family Court, the appellate judge found herself once again in a space full of stories that inspired her to write three books. A vida n\u00e3o \u00e9 justa <\/em>[Life Is Not Fair] was published in 2012, Segredo de Justi\u00e7a <\/em>[Secrecy of Justice] came out in 2014, and Velhos s\u00e3o os outros <\/em>[The Old Are the Others] was released in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her second book was adapted into a series for TV show Fant\u00e1stico<\/em> between 2016 and 2017, the other two were turned into plays. \u201cMy story ended up coming full circle because I moved from law to theater and cinema, then back to law, and went again to literature and theater,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy story ended up coming full circle because I moved from law to theater and cinema, then back to law, and went again to literature and theater\u201d<\/p>Andr\u00e9a Maciel Pach\u00e1<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By sharing a bit about the daily life of a judge, these books, Pach\u00e1 says, are essential for people to understand how the branches of government that guarantee access to fundamental rights work. \u201cThey also help people have an easier time accessing their rights when necessary,\u201d explains the writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a coauthor, Andr\u00e9a wrote Sobre femininos<\/em> [On Feminines] and N\u00f3s\u2026 Mulheres do S\u00e9culo Passado: Nossas Escritas, Nossas Hist\u00f3rias<\/em> [We\u2026 Women of the Last Century: Our Writings, Our Stories]. The Rio de Janeiro native is also a member of the Lebanese-Brazilian Academy of Letters, Arts, and Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019m not Lebanese, I was very glad to accept the invitation. We share a very similar history, and I was deeply honored to participate. Among the other members of the academy are people who are references for me, not only publicly but also in private life, such as doctors and singers like Jo\u00e3o Bosco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family influence on her profession<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Arab descendant saw her career choice and path shaped by the influence of her paternal grandmother, Elvira Bittar Pach\u00e1. A mother of five, Elvira came from Syria in her youth. Her paternal grandfather, Alfredo Pach\u00e1, worked in commerce in Petr\u00f3polis but was not part of the appellate judge\u2019s life as he died before she was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a very collective life. Every Sunday, the whole family gathered at my house to listen to her stories. It was like One Thousand and One Nights<\/em>. She loved telling stories, and at the time, I didn\u2019t realize it, but there was an intensity of affection toward me that ended up influencing my career choice. When I grew up, I also wanted to take care of other people,\u201d Andr\u00e9a Pach\u00e1 recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Pach\u00e1:
Pach\u00e1: Learning from her grandmother Elvira\u2019s stories and listening<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Besides her own family, it was common for friends and neighbors to come to hear her grandmother\u2019s stories. \u201cWe formed bonds back then that last a lifetime. I realize that it came from her care, from the dedication she had to listen to other people\u2019s stories. For me, it was a fundamental environment to develop a love for people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Arab culture and food were present in the appellate judge\u2019s daily life, the language was not. Illiterate in her country of birth, Elvira made sure all her children and grandchildren learned to speak Portuguese well to have good opportunities. \u201cEven without knowing how to read or write, oral tradition was very strong for her, which is why she told us so many stories throughout her life,\u201d Pach\u00e1 recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father, Alfredo Pach\u00e1, the only son in the family to graduate from college, also influenced her choice of profession in some way. \u201cHe studied Law, then practiced as a lawyer for many years, served as a judge at the Court of Appeals, and presided over the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice before retiring. He\u2019s 90 years old today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/em>:
\u201cWe\u2019re our ancestors\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report by Rebecca Vettore, in collaboration with ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2024, Andr\u00e9a Maciel Pach\u00e1 has been working in the Office of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of court, alongside Justice C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha. Versatile, in addition to being an appellate judge, the Brazilian has worked in film and written five books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2342,"featured_media":392415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[53868,50923,1824,44382,53869,3156,19221,53870,53871],"class_list":{"0":"post-392427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-andrea-pacha-2","9":"tag-arab-descendants","10":"tag-brazilian","11":"tag-direito-en","12":"tag-judge","13":"tag-law","14":"tag-lawyer","15":"tag-profile","16":"tag-syrian-descendants"},"wps_subtitle":"Since 2024, Andr\u00e9a Maciel Pach\u00e1 has been working in the Office of the Secretary-General of the Presidency of court, alongside Justice C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha. Versatile, in addition to being an appellate judge, the Brazilian has worked in film and written five books. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}