Ana Mesquita is a Portuguese archaeologist. Since 2015 she has been a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal representing the Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU), which is a coalition between the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...

(PCP), of which she is a member, and the Ecologist Party "The Greens".

Early life

Ana Cristina Cardoso Dias Mesquita was born in Portugal's second city of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on 22 March 1979. She lived most of her youth in the town of Rio Tinto in the municipality of Gondomar, north of Porto. Mesquita obtained a degree in archaeology and history from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

and became a practising archaeologist in 2009. At a young age she was a keen

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. She continued to play while at university in Coimbra and, later, for the

C.D. Olivais e Moscavide Clube Desportivo dos Olivais e Moscavide is a centenary club located in the eastern area of Lisbon that distinguishes itself in practice in different levels of football, basketball, American Football and Table Football, in addition to developing ...

club in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Political career

Mesquita was chair of the Board of the Archaeology Workers Union of Portugal between May 2014 and November 2017 and remains a member of the board. A member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), she was elected in 2015 as a deputy to the 13th Legislature of the Assembly of the Republic, representing the Lisbon constituency. In 2019 she was re-elected, but this time on the Unitary Democratic Coalition's list of candidates for Porto, where she was second on the list after Diana Ferreira. She has served on the Education and Science Commission, the Environment, Spatial Planning, Decentralization, Local Government and Housing Commission and the Culture, Communication, Youth and Sport Commission in the role of co-ordinator of the Unitary Democratic Coalition parliamentary group. In January 2021, she was chosen as one of two of the 10 PCP parliamentarians to be given priority access to

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

, because of the importance of the role she played in the Assembly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mesquita, Ana 1979 births Living people Members of the 13th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 14th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese communists University of Coimbra alumni Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)