Eunice Paiva and her husband Rubens were living in Rio de Janeiro with their five children — Veroca, Eliana, Nalu, Marcelo and Babiu — when the military police arrested Rubens, a former congressman who opposed the establishment of the Brazilian dictatorship in 1964.
The next day, Eunice and Eliana were arrested and sent for questioning. Eliana was held overnight, while Eunice was not released until 12 days later. Upon her return home, Eunice balanced pressuring the government for information regarding Ruben's whereabouts and taking care of her children.
As time passed, Eunice found out that her husband had been tortured and killed, and the government would not release the information to the public. This transformed Eunice into someone who would go on to fight for others.
She moved the family out of Rio to São Paulo and returned to college to become a lawyer. She dedicated herself to fighting regime policies that targeted indigenous Brazilians. She would continue past the fall of the dictatorship in 1987 by co-founding an institute dedicated to defending Indigenous autonomy.
While she was fighting for the rights of others, Eunice continued to fight for the release of an official death certificate for Rubens. This was eventually accomplished in 1996.
Eunice died in 2018 after 15 years of living with Alzheimer's. After she was diagnosed, her only son Marcelo decided to write a memoir. He said that his mother was losing her memory at the time that the Brazilian government had started to admit what really happened, which created an interesting paradox while writing. The memoir was released in 2015 titled Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here).
The book aided in forming the script for the 2024 film of the same title. Eunice was played by Fernanda Torres for much of the film, while her mother, esteemed actress Fernanda Montenegro, played Eunice in the film's final scene. Torres was nominated for Best Actress at the 97th Academy Awards.