da Silva, Benedita

c. 1943

Benedita da Silva was born in the favela (shantytown) Praia do Pinto in the barrio of Leblon in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She moved with her family a few months later to another favela, Chapéu Mangueira, situated on a hill overlooking Copacabana Beach. Her adopted father, José Tobias de Sousa, worked in construction, and her mother, Maria da Conceiçao de Sousa, washed clothes. The de Sousas had thirteen children, only eight of whom survived infancy, and Benedita was the only one who learned how to read and write. Because the family lived in poverty, Benedita was forced to earn money starting at age seven. She shined shoes, sold candies in the streets, and worked as a live-in maid, as a school janitor, and in a leather factory. In her thirties, she worked as a clerk in the Department of Transportation of Rio de Janeiro and supplemented her income as a nurse's aid at the Miguel Couto Hospital. In 1980 Benedita earned her high school degree, and only a year later she graduated from the State University of Rio with a degree in social work.

Benedita married three times. She married her first husband, Nilton Aldano da Silva, at age sixteen; he was ten years older than her. The couple had four children, two of whom died within days of their birth. After Nilton's death in 1981, she married Aguinaldo Bezerra dos Santos, a community leader in Chapéu Mangueira. In 1988, however, Aguinaldo died suddenly. Benedita married again in October 1993. Her third husband was Antônio Pitanga, a popular actor and city councilor in Rio de Janeiro.

Benedita's experiences as a black child, a wife, and a mother shaped her political activism. Elected president of the community association for Chapeu Mangueira in 1978, she was the first female to hold the position. Influenced by the ideas of liberation theology and the progressive ideas of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, she became a vigorous proponent of educational opportunity for all Brazilians. During her political career, Benedita has led efforts to assure that domestic workers receive a minimum wage, to make gender discrimination illegal, to end mass

sterilization of women, to defend female prisoners from violent abuse, to provide access tohealthcare, and to protect the reproductive rights of women.

In 1980 Benedita helped found the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores ). Two years later, campaigning with the slogan "I am [proud to be] black, a woman, and from the favela," she was elected to the City Council of Rio de Janeiro, the first black woman to attain this position in the history of Brazil. This success was followed by a series of stunning electoral victories as a representative of the state of Rio de Janeiro. In 1986, she was elected to the Federal Chamber of Deputies, and she was re-elected in 1990. Four years later she won election as Brazil's first black female senator. Then, in 1998, she became vice-governor (deputy governor) of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

When Governor Anthony Garotinho ran for the presidency of Brazil in March 2002, Benedita took up the governorship. Although she was defeated in the gubernatorial election of October 2002, she was soon after appointed Minister of Social Welfare by Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. She headed this ministry until January 2004. Since her resignation, Benedita has spoken on behalf of women's rights and human rights around the world. In February 2005, she visited Atlanta, Georgia, to establish the Benedita da Silva Foundation in that city. The foundation seeks improve social conditions and increase educational opportunities for Afro-Brazilians, particularly women marginalized children, and the poor.

In a nation that has been portrayed as a "racial democracy," Benedita's career has vividly shown the harsh struggles faced by Afro-Brazilians. Although she has endured racist slander and discrimination, she has been unceasing in her defense of the rights of Afro-Brazilians (estimated to number more than half of Brazil's 186 million inhabitants), women, and native people (estimated at 734,000 in the 2000 census). Benedita's extraordinary journey and contributions are a testament to her determination to survive and succeed in spite of the desperate circumstances into which she was born.

See also Politics and Politicians in Latin America

Bibliography

City of God. DVD. Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Miramax Films, 2002.

Da Silva, Benedita, with Medea Benjamin and Maisa Mendonça. Benedita da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love. Oakland, Calif.: Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1997.

dale torston graden (2005)