da Silva a
Who Says I Can’t? By Benedita da Silva
Benedita da Silva
at the Chamber
of Deputies in
Brasília, February
2010 (above). Then-Governor da Silva
en route to a news
conference with
Reverend Jesse
Jackson, September
2002 (left).
INSE T: RENZO GOS TOLI/AP
here are so many phases and aspects, so
much suffering—and joy too—that it’s
difficult to describe my journey. But for
all the ups and downs, an invisible thread
runs through my life.
I was born in the Chapéu Mangueira favela
in Rio de Janeiro—a girl, black and from a very poor
family. From an early age I knew and felt what that
meant: social, racial and gender-based prejudice. I suffered, but I responded. And that response has taken
me from being an activist to becoming a federal minister and senator.
With effort, I managed to study and, before long, I
could read—unlike many of the adults in
my favela. I became a community leader,
and in 1980 I helped found a party that
years later would change the country. It was
through that party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores ( Workers’ Party—PT), that I was
elected councilwoman, congresswoman and
federal senator.
I was elected governor of Rio de Janeiro
state in 2002. My political career also
included serving as the minister of social
action in the first administration of
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Every step of the way, I’ve stood up to
discrimination, and I’ve never stopped
fighting for social, racial and gender
equality. My faith in God has given me an
inexhaustible spiritual strength to confront
any challenge.
Now, at 69, that struggle continues to give me strength. The social advances
of former President Lula and current President Dilma Rousseff fill me with
pride. I’ve been a part of a political and social transformation—a transformation that has been marked by the lifting of over 40 million people out of poverty, through racial quotas in higher learning and the Maria da Penha Law,
which combats violence against women.
Still, I know that we have a long way to go. I will always be what the lyrics from
the Rio Carnaval samba school have called me, “Bené the Warrior.” I can’t help it.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK GROSNER
Americas Quarterly SPRING 2012
75
