Pé de Serra – Bahia April 13, 2018

My Dear President Lula,

How difficult it is to write you a letter without my emotions taking over.

I am a teacher, I am 33 years old, and I feel very proud when I tell my students about the first time I voted, in the 2002 elections: for Lula.

A few days ago, I told one of my students that when I remember, I still feel the same thrill that I felt when I entered the number 13 in those elections. My friends and I went out to celebrate for two reasons: our first vote, and the fact that it was for Lula. When I remember the song from that campaign, I’m still moved:

“....Lula lá, my first vote

Is to make this star shine…”

Today, when I look back, to such a recent past, I feel so proud that with this vote I helped change the face of the country, to make my Northeast have value.

Thank you for ending hunger for so many in my town, thank you for bringing electricity to my grandma’s little farm in the countryside and to so many others grandmas, thank you for making the dream of going to college for my friends and former students real, thank you remembering that we live with droughts and need reservoirs. If I were to thank you for everything, there is no way it would fit in a letter. I thank you most of all for seeing those who are invisible, every Luiz Inácio here in the Northeast.

I learned even more about your story through “Lula, the Son of Brazil”. If all Brazilians had the pleasure of reading it, we would not have so much intolerance. Now I am reading “The Truth will Prevail” and I am spreading the idea of Lula.

To fight to free Lula is, at a minimum, an obligation of each Brazilian, in the face of such a great injustice. This is why I went to Capim Grosso, a town 80km from Pé de Serra, to stand beneath the sun and the rain and shout:

“Lula, warrior of the Brazilian people!”

Thank you for being an example and an inspiration!

Stay strong, Lula! I am praying for you and your family, and I know that the coup-mongers “will never manage to extinguish our dreams, will never manage to imprison our dreams.”

No one will put out you star.