Patch suggested by Hannah and conceptualized, designed, and sewn by her friend Liz Cohen; writing by Liz

Benedita da Silva is Brazil’s first Black woman senator.  This patch is about (some of) her story.

The inspiration for this patch was relatively simple: Hannah handed me a book about Bené[1], asked me to read it, and make a patch in her honor.  After reading the book and taking too many notes, it became clear to me that the story of Bené’s life would be difficult to communicate in an 8” x 8” patch.  Therefore, this patch focuses mainly on a few components of her political career.

First, a brief summary of her life:

Benedita, who was born on March 11, 1943, grew up in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio in a family of 13 siblings.  She led a life of excruciating poverty.  She watched two of her four children die of curable diseases, barely survived a back alley abortion, and was exploited and humiliated as a live-in maid. 

But Benedita is a fighter.  She organized her neighbors in the favela to get water, sewers and electricity.  She learned to read and write, and then taught other women.  In 1982, she took the extraordinary step of running for political office in Rio as a Workers Party candidate, becoming the nation’s first black city councilwoman.  In 1986, she became a Federal Deputy and is now a Senator.  She has fought the foreboding obstacles of race, gender, and poverty with creativity and charm.  And, as she herself says, she has emerged a champion. 

Bené, as she is known, has not forgotten her roots.  She still lives in the Chapéu Mangueira favela in Rio, although she flies back and forth to the nation’s capital, Brasília, every week.  She dedicates her political life to advocating for a better life for those who are marginalized and oppressed, especially women, blacks, street children, and indigenous people.

The patch itself:

In the center of the patch is a whirlpool, with Benedita swimming against the current.  This whirlpool comes from a story that Benedita tells in her book about one of the many “mud-slinging” campaigns that was levied against her by some of her political opponents.  Though Benedita’s permanent residence continues to be in the same favela in which she grew up even since being elected senator, she also lives in an apartment provided to her by the government when Congress is in session in Brasília (as do many other senators).  These apartments have whirlpools in the bathrooms.  Though Benedita has never used her whirlpool, some of her opponents created a significant scandal by ”exposing” to the press the fact that Benedita, the senator who held dearly to her poverty-stricken roots, had a whirlpool in her fancy apartment in Brasília.  They did not mention that any other senators had whirlpools: only Benedita.  Not only did she have to fight the status quo within the Senate, she had to contend with brutal and untrue assaults on her public image.  On the left of the patch are white men, representing the power elite within Brazilian politics, pointing at the whirlpool, and using the TV above them. 

On the bottom left of the patch is a group of women, some of whom have babies and some who are not able to have them.  Benedita has worked a great deal to improve women’s rights in Brazil, particularly with respect to access to contraception.  The form of birth control most often given to poor women, many of whom are in their teens and early twenties, is sterilization.  Often times, these women have not been educated enough to understand the full impact of this irreversible procedure.  Benedita herself was sterilized at age 22.   

Benedita is holding onto a cross as she struggles.  Religion has always been of central importance to her.  It is her strong conviction that her faith is her backbone of strength.  She also has worked within her Evangelical church community to help open up the public image of that sect to include liberal, progressive members as well as more conservative ones. 

She swims toward a man and a woman, representing the working families with whom she grew up and for whom she lobbies continually in the senate.

The initials “PT” are the initials for Brazil’s Worker’s Party, which she helped to found.  Partly through her initiative, the PT was established with the requirement that at least 1/3 of the candidates from the PT must be female.  This early vision undoubtedly helped open doors for her and subsequent women from the PT that had never been available to women before. 

Benedita has been a heroic voice within the government for Brazil’s underprivileged communities for over fifteen years, and she continues to this day.

Wow.