Zuzu Angel was a famous Brazilian fashion designer in the 1970s. Born in Minas Gerais in 1921, she lived in Bahia during her childhood and then moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she began her career. Her clothes were influenced by Bahian culture, with vivid colors and splashy designs, and they eventually became so successful that they were exported to the U.S. and throughout the world.

But Zuzu’s life as she knew it changed forever when her son, Stuart, disappeared. He was a leftist activist against the Brazilian military regime, and as a result he was imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by the dictatorship. Zuzu devoted her life to trying to find out the truth about what happened to her son, and to revealing the abuses of the dictatorship to the rest of the world. She began stitching angel designs into all of her pieces, a symbol of retaliation against the regime.

Since her ex-husband was American, she tried appealing the U.S. government to condemn the Brazilian government, and delivered a document to Henry Kissinger during his visit to Brazil describing the atrocities taking place.

Unfortunately, Zuzu’s efforts were cut short when, on this day, April 14th, in 1976, agents of the dictatorship murdered Zuzu and made the scene of the crime look like a car accident.

Today, her memory lives on in a film about her life and an institute founded in her name. Also, the tunnel where she was killed in Rio was renamed after her. She is a real Brazilian hero.