On October 30, voters will return to San Francisco's Brazilian Consulate for a runoff election between Lula and Bolsonaro that will determine the future of Brazil.
[Photos by Mara Cavallaro; Featured photo: Camila, 24, Quitéria, 22, and Katharina, 22, make the L symbol for Lula.]
This past Sunday, October 2, the line at the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco to vote in the presidential election wrapped around four city blocks. Lula—the beloved former Workers Party President—received 48.4 percent of the vote, just shy of the 50 percent needed to secure a victory in the first round. Jair Bolsonaro, the current far-right president—who is openly anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-LGBTQ+, and pro-dictatorship—came in second, with 43.2 percent. On October 30, voters will return to the Consulate for a runoff election between Lula and Bolsonaro that will determine the future of Brazil—from worker’s rights to affirmative action policies to the Amazon forest. El Tecolote spoke with voters about what is at stake in this election, and the need for solidarity.
Lalo, 56, and Zé, 50, have been married 27 years. For 25 of those years, they’ve lived together in San Francisco’s Castro District. Both wear red, the color of the PT (Workers Party/Lula), and Zé (right) wears a shirt in memory of Marielle Franco, a Brazilian feminist, socialist, bisexual Black woman city councilor who was assassinated in 2018.
Guadalupe, 39, of Emeryville, debated what to wear this morning, since Bolsonaro and his far-right supporters have co-opted the flag’s yellow, green, and blue. “Do I go with my red [the color of the PT, and Lula] or do I go with something that will recover what we lost in these last four years? Green and yellow are not just theirs. We have to reclaim what we find precious, we have to recover what we’re losing in the Amazon, respect for women…All of that led to the symbolic choice [to wear] this shirt—that is yellow and green but also Lula—and to have Brazil on my chest, because that’s how we’re going to win. We have to fight…for what we love.” Of her hat, she says, “I’m proud to be an immigrant.”
Emmanuel, 20, and Ana Julia, 19 of San Jose voted for the first time in this election. “It’s an important moment for the nation’s history,” Emmanuel said. They voted Lula “for democracy.”
Gabriel, 24, and Danillo, 29, live in Walnut Creek and San Francisco, respectively. Their ”Ele Não” (“Not Him”) shirts, written in the rainbow of the LGBTQ+ flag—protest Jair Bolsonaro’s homophobia and transphobia.
Amanda Valéria, 25, of San Rafael, skips down Montgomery Street with a banner of Lula. Like Guadalupe, today she reclaims the Brazilian jersey.
Marina, 26, Kaio, 31, and Marina, 39, are grad students at the University of California Santa Cruz. Of her green bandana—the symbol of the abortion rights movement that emerged in Argentina—Marina (right) says, “It’s a fight that is part of Brazil…and one of the topics that we want to include in the agenda: legalizing abortion.” Marina (left), is voting for “the Black, quilombola, and Indigenous populations that Bolsonaro simply hates.”
Adele, 40, of Alameda (right) says this election might be the most important one since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 after decades of violent dictatorship. Bolsonaro has repeatedly expressed support for that dictatorship, praising the general who tortured former president Dilma Rousseff and threatening a coup should he not win this election.
The line to vote in the presidential election wrapped around four city blocks, where voters waited for hours to cast their ballots.