Democracia brasileira

The first democratic presidential elections in my country happened in 1989 when I was six years old. Before this we had been through a dictatorship that lasted almost twenty years. I don’t remember this time since I was born in September of 1983 and by then the political regime was losing power and million of people were in the streets demanding for elections: the Diretas Já! movement. I don’t remember this either, I was just a baby; but  my mom always tells how frustrating it was not getting what they wanted after almost a year of struggling for the elections. But at least they gave us a republic system and a president; his name was Tancredo Neves and this I can barely remember. I remember the excitement of my mom finally having a president and also the sadness when he got sick and died just a few days before taking office. So they gave us another president, his name was Jânio Quadros and I remember that he had a big mustache. He looked like a seal. People didn’t like him. My mom always used to complain that the prices were rising and that things weren’t getting better as she had imagined.

And then 1989 arrived, and this year brought the possibility of chosing our president; for the first time in years that would be a democratic election and we could say that we lived in a democratic country. I remember having simulated elections in school so the kids would know how it worked, I remember the jingles of the candidates, their slogans. And it seemed like most of the people had their preference; his name was Fernando Collor de Mello. He was young, handsome, clever, and fitted perfectly with this new democracy. He was elected and in January of 1990 he took office of the Government. I remember watching this event on TV and even skipping school because my mom couldn’t miss seeing it. And after a few days: the disillusion; the “perfect” president was actually a jerk, he put our country in a deep economic crisis. He was the first president elected by the people, and was also the first one who was expelled by the population. In 1992 he suffered an impeachment; I remember people in the streets wearing black with their faces colored in yellow and green, and I remember watching in my sister’s bedroom on a small TV all those men wearing tie saying if they were against or for the president. And when the majority voted against him people all over the country celebrated.

Fernando Collor was replaced by his vice-president, Itamar Franco; he had a tuft of hair and nobody took him too seriously. After him was Fernando Henrique Cardoso. He was a sociologist and a intelligent man. He created the Plano Real that made the country comes out from the inflation and he was reelected and stayed in power for eight years. People really liked him, but not as much as they like the current president.

Luís Inácio Lula da Silva was a worker and a sindical leader; he never went to university and doesn’t know how to speak English; even though when he came to U.S. Obama said that he was “the man.” Lula ran for president since the first democratic elections,when the handsome guy won. By that time Lula identified as a communist. I remember my mom telling me that if he won the election we wouldn’t be able to leave Brazil again, and the idea of never going to Disney again just scared me. And that was the general feeling about him: fear. But he didn’t give up; he tried for 12 years and finally in 2002 he was elected by the majority of the population. That was the first time that I voted and I remember that I didn’t vote on him. After four years he was reelected and I didn’t vote for him either. But even if I don’t like him very much, most of the people in my country love him even with so many scandals involving his government.

And now the elections are just going on in my country. Lula can’t run again for the presidency but it seens that his candidate is going to win. I wouldn’t vote for her if I was back home. Actually the candidates that I always voted for never won and that is kind of frustrating. Well that is democracy after all!