Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, sociologist, 56, was one of the mainstays of the (victorious) election campaign of her husband Lula, who was twenty years her senior. “You gave me back joy and courage,” said Brazil’s new president. “And he made me discover a word called love”
They repeatedly kissed on the mouth in front of thousands of followers. They look at each other, they look for each other, they always smile like two teenagers in their first love. She, anyway, ubiquitous, with the inseparable bottle of fresh water that she offers her husband during his endless rallies. He is always grateful for this third woman, whom he met in old age and in the most difficult moment of his turbulent life: “I have suffered a lot over the years, Janja gave me back joy and courage, the desire to do things, in old age At the age of 77 I discovered a word called love, »said Lula, the newly elected President of Brazil, several times on stage in his third term.
Here’s the pink tale that sweetened the toughest, most violent election in Brazil’s history. Elder Lula loves the younger Rosângela, known as “Janja,” a 56-year-old sociologist who revitalized the revived former metalworker’s feelings. And – according to many – this also pushed him to seek revenge on the right wing who had sent him to prison for 580 days.
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According to the official version, they met right there, behind the bars of the Curitiba prison, where Lula was being held after convictions for corruption and money laundering (which were later overturned by the Supreme Court). She often visited him, she sent him letters every day (all of them are received, who knows if a love book will come out), and when he came out of captivity, she was there waiting for him.
They immediately moved to Sao Paulo, along with the two dogs, Paris and Resistência. And together they made Lula’s big comeback.
Since then he has always been in the front row. With him in Cuba, in full pandemic, for a kind of honeymoon that anticipated the wedding that took place only last May. Lula commented, “Honestly I don’t feel age, it hasn’t taken a toll on my body yet. To prove it, I got married again on May 18th. Oh the boy in here. ‘
In this long election campaign, Janja was always the protagonist, one step behind or next to her husband. Too much, according to his critics – and there would be many – on Lula’s staff.
Today she decides on the participants in meetings with her husband or the passengers who will accompany him on flights. He sometimes takes initiatives that have not been agreed with Labor Party (PT) officials, but these generally work very well.
Like the SuperLive evening show on the eve of the first round of voting at a theater in San Paolo packed with celebrities from the world of entertainment and culture praising Lula’s return. She appeared as one of the first on stage, dressed all in red, in very elegant dungarees, and “warmed up” the audience: “It’s time for love, the union of people, the hope of returning. It’s time for another Brazil to return, the Brazil of smiles, of music, of the Amazon, of indigenous peoples ». Then he looked up at Lula, who was sitting proudly on the gallery: “Amo um beijo”, dear kiss.
Even more discussed was the event where, in August, she presented herself alone in the Heliópolis favela in São Paulo, conquering the public, the people of the lowliest, with her passionate words. To the point that the newspaper Folha de San Paolo didn’t hesitate to rename it “Brazilian Evita”. In fact, many things separate Janja from the Argentine first lady, who died at the age of 33, three years before her husband Juan Domingo Péron was deposed in a military coup.
First, age and experience. The future “primeira dama” is not exactly first class, not even politically. Janja joined PT when she was 17, has a degree in Sociology from the Federal University of Paraná, an MBA in Social Management and Sustainability and has a long history of activism. The PT selected her for a position at Itaipu Binacional in 2003, where she worked for almost 15 years. From 2012 to 2017 he worked for Eletrobras in Rio. He has been retired for two years.
In short, very different from Lula’s ex-wife, the low-key Marisa Leticia, who died of a stroke in 2017. To the point that an evil tongue whispers that Janja was in Lula’s life long before Marisa Leticia disappeared.
Janja describes her environment as a sunny woman, very feminist, with a strong personality. An energy that has made the allies of the president-elect uneasy. Someone probably felt a little overshadowed by this lady with the smile always ready for the photographer’s click, who promises to take over the scene again.
October 31, 2022 (Change October 31, 2022 | 14:04)
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