An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love
"I live in a country of 30 million impoverished people, people who can't read or write, people who live in cardboard shacks in the shantytowns, under bridges, on the streets. I know their stories because I have lived it myself."
— Benedita da Silva
"Benedita's story will open up avenues of international understanding and friendship that will help keep hope alive."
— Jesse Jackson
Project summary
I Was Born a Black Woman recounts the remarkable life of Benedita da Silva, the first Afro-Brazilian woman to be elected to Brazil's senate. Her long history of struggle in the shantytowns, the women's movement and the black movement created the base for her enormous popularity as an organizer, a politician and an international role model.
Benedita is a charismatic speaker who readily reaches a broad audience. On a 12-city US tour organized by Global Exchange, Benedita spoke to overflow crowds, transfixing audiences with her own story and the story of Brazil's dynamic social movements. Her biography, Benedita da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love, (published by Global Exchange with Food First Books) sold out at every event during her tour to Americans hungry for inspiration and news of change in Latin America. The book is being widely used in university courses.
As the United States continues its national debate on race, there is much to learn from the Brazilian experience. Benedita's story brings that discussion to life in a powerful way that engages both Brazilians and Americans.
Benedita's story--and a story of Afro-Brazil--is important to tell now, when Brazil is at the forefront of progressive change in Latin America. At a time when many people in the United States are struggling to understand racism and redress racial inequities in our country, Brazil and Benedita have a lot to share. Benedita's specific proposals for reversing 500 years of discrimination in Brazil can serve as an example for people of all backgrounds in the United States.
Benedita's story and the story of African-Brazil will link black Brazilians with black viewers in the US and other parts of the world, igniting people who are striving for power for their own communities. The film will inspire activists in the United States and the rest of the world. It will educate a generation of college students about life and social change in Latin America on the eve of the 21st Century.
American organizers will find in Benedita's story parallels to our own struggles for poor women and children. Her efforts to build the Workers Party--the largest labor movement in Latin America--will encourage unionists in the United States and around the globe. And her example as a powerful black woman standing up for the powerless will motivate us to bridge the racial and economic gulfs in our own back yards.
Who is Benedita da Silva?
Benedita is one of those rare people whose story reflects the struggles, and the hopes, of an entire people. Born in 1943, Benedita, or Bené as she is affectionately known, grew up in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio de Janeiro in a family of 14 children. She led a life of excruciating poverty, including watching two of her four children die of curable diseases, barely surviving a back-alley abortion, and being exploited as a live-in maid. Going to bed hungry as a child, and watching her own children go to bed hungry, Benedita understands the tragedy of Brazil's poor. She also embodies the strength of Brazil's activists.
Benedita's parents worked on a plantation in Minas Gerais for the low wages characteristic of jobs held by black Brazilians. Like millions of other Brazilians they migrated to Rio in search of a better life, and ended up living in a crowded favela. Her "childhood" was spent hustling for money in the street, selling fruits, nuts and shoes and helping her mother wash other people's clothes. Married at 16, by the age of 21 Benedita had given birth to four children, two of whom died.
Benedita began organizing at 16. While raising her children and working, she also fought to get access to clean water, sewers and electricity. At 40, she returned to finish high-school, then went to University and earned a degree in social work. She joined the Workers Party and quickly rose within its ranks. In 1982 she was elected to the City Council of Rio de Janeiro. In 1986 she became the first black woman ever to be elected to Brazil's Congress. In 1994 she again made history by becoming a Senator. She still lives in the favela her family moved to 55 years ago.
Benedita sees her role as working for the oppressed: women, blacks, street children, the poor. In a country with the second-largest black population in the world, after Nigeria, her participation in the Brazilian Senate is much more than symbolic. Her political organizing has made a concrete difference for poor Brazilians. In a government dominated by the wealthy, she is an effective advocate for the Food Movement and the Landless Movement. She has pushed for laws to regulate domestic labor and worked on commissions to investigate child prostitution, the killing of street children and the mass sterilization of young Brazilian women. She is pioneering some of Brazil's first affirmative action proposals to redress racial inequities in the schools, the neighborhoods and the media.
Race in Brazil
Brazil's prominence as one of the world's largest black nations makes it key to the international discussion on race and redressing racial inequities. Brazil has the second largest black population in the world, and the largest population of decendents of slavery. Between 1500 and 1888, when slavery was finally outlawed, 35% of all slaves taken to the New World landed in Brazil. This was ten times the number that were taken to the United States.
Now, 100 years after the abolition of slavery, Brazil's black population remains at the bottom of the economic and social ladder, living in conditions of extreme poverty and violence. Illiteracy among blacks is 37%, compared to 15% among whites. Life expectancy is eight years shorter than for whites. Ninety percent of black women have only an elementary school education. Black women earn 48% of what white women earn in the same professions. Blacks are almost absent from government, business and the country's universities.
The legacy of slavery also includes a strong patronage system still in place in rural Brazil, where blacks provide field and domestic labor for white households in exchange for meager wages and handouts. It includes an ongoing tradition of white families "adopting" black children, who serve as unpaid domestic servants.
Throughout much of this century Brazil enjoyed an international reputation as a "racial democracy," a discrimination-free country where the races--black, white, and Indian--mixed freely. Because Brazil's legal system did not overtly prohibit blacks from the priveleges enjoyed by whites, blacks in Brazil are not perceived as suffering racism the way blacks have in the United States and South Africa.
Project description
The gripping story of Benedita's life will be interwoven with a visual landscape of Afro-Brazil. Her story will be the vantage point from which we see the myth of "racial democracy" in Brazil and the reality of devastating poverty and discrimination for most Afro-Brazilians. She will guide us through a stimulating discussion of race.
The film will open with Carnaval 1998 in Rio de Janeiro. There, one of Rio's leading samba schools will honor Benedita, soccer star Pelé and Nelson Mandela. Three thousand dancers will participate in the street pageant with the theme "African Roots--from Pelé to Bené," a pulsating expression of Afro-Brazilian pride and spirit. Carnaval is the way most outsiders see Brazil--as a happy and harmonious mix of peoples and fantasies. As the film evolves we will look under this glittering surface to investigate the myths and realities of race in Brazil.
Benedita's story--and the story of Afro-Brazil--is told through interviews with Benedita, her family, activists, political colleagues and people on the street. We follow Benedita in various situations, from her home in the Chapéu Mangueira favela to the Senate floor in Brasilia. Stories will be juxtaposed with current and historic visuals. Benedita's parents life on the plantation will accompany archival stills of blacks working the fields during the 1930s and today. Descriptions of her childhood as a street vendor will underlie scenes of the ongoing plight and strong social activism of Brazilian street kids today. Bene's history as a laundress and domestic servant form the basis for a discussion of these jobs as they continue to be the staple work for Afro-Brazilian women. And Benedita introduces us to the halls of power in Brasilia, a land of expensive suits, fantastic architecture and mostly white male politicians. There, we hear stories of her successes and frustrations representing her constituents.
We learn of the particular challenges faced by Afro-Brazilian women and girls; the difficulty of keeping kids fed and healthy, of finding viable work, of maintaining self-esteem and hope. And we'll see how Benedita and her community are tackling these big questions and working on all levels for economic justice.
Interviews with key people in Bene's life, family members, fellow organizers and politicians help explain how Benedita was able to overcome great obstacles to become a leader. Her personal story illuminates complex racial issues. Interviews with experts in Afro-Brazilian history help tell the bigger story of black Brazil and set Benedita's life in an historic context. And we learn about the growing Black movement, comprised of hundreds of organizations working on health, education, and cultural identity issues. We hear the current debate on race, which is gaining space in the mainstream media.
Interviews with well-known African-Americans relate the Afro-Brazilian experience to the more familiar struggle for civil rights in our country. These include Jesse Jackson, who is a dear friend of Benedita, Angela Davis, authors Evelyn White and Toni Morrison, who have visited Brazil looking at issues facing black women there. Benedita's voice (the narrator) will be a famous African-American actress or singer.
The video captures the vibrancy of Afro-Brazilian culture. Scenes in churches, playgrounds and workplaces show the spirit of black Brazilians, the close connection to African culture, the music, dance and spiritualism that is part of everyday life.
Distribution
We are in discussion with the Public Broadcasting System about presenting Benedita on the national PBS schedule. If the program is not accepted for the national schedule it will be made available on public television stations through one of the four regional public broadcasting organizations. We estimate that the public television release will reach several million viewers. The public television broadcast will include an offer for educational and home video purchase of the film. Global Exchange will also reach the educational and home video market with a campaign that includes direct mail of a brochure to our 17,000 members, targetted electronic list-serve notices and participation in educational and community conferences and events.
We will also seek theatrical distribution by entering the film in major national and international festivals, in North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
The film will be marketed with Benedita's biography for a wide range of college courses, including Latin American Studies, Economic Development, International Relations, Race and Women's Studies. And Global Exchange will outreach to African-American high schools and colleges. Through our large network of organizations across the United States and overseas, we will distribute the video to activists. As part of the work of Global Exchange's US-Brazil Women's Exchange Project we will print a brochure for distribution to specialized mailing lists of women's groups, civil rights groups, human rights and educational organizations.
Personnel
Director--Maria Luisa (Maisa) Mendonça
Maria Luisa co-authored the book on Benedita with Medea Benjamin and Benedita herself. In November, 1997, Maria toured the US with Benedita. Maria Luisa has won many awards in the US, Canada and Latin America for her films. She has been a resident artist at the Banff Center for the Arts and a recipient of the Film Arts Foundation Grants Program and the Open Society Institute's Soros Documentary Fund. Her film Indonesia, One Struggle, One Change is being used nationally by colleges and organizations working for democracy in Indonesia. She is the coordinator of the Brazil Program at Global Exchange in San Francisco.
Cinematographer, editor--Vicente Franco
Vicente has worked on more than two dozen films dealing with social issues and Latin Americans in the US and Latin America. They include The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Struggle, Cuba Va: The Challenge of the Next Generation, and Freedom on my Mind, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He has also produced several cross-cultural information and training videos, including Reaching Across Cultures, Mi Bebe Fumando?, about the dangers of smoking while pregnant and Is it Really Magic?, about children's safety.
Executive Producer--Rick Tejada-Flores
Rick's productions include The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle, Corn is Who We Are, a three part series for the Smithsonian Institute, Nuestros Hijos, Elvia: the Fight for Land and Liberty, Rivera in America, and many other films for television and theater. His awards include the Cine Golden Eagle Award for The Fight in the Fields and Si Se Puede, and the National Education Media Festival's Gold Apple Award for The Fight in the Fileds and Spreading Beauty. He has taught broadcasting, film and communications at Cal State University Hayward, San Francisco State University and other Bay Area colleges.
Kit Miller--Producer, writer, still photographer
Kit's photographs have appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Native People's Magazine and other publications. She has traveled widely in Brazil, reporting on the street children's movement, rubbertappers, and native people. At home in Nevada, she photographs communities. Her book, Inside the Glitter; Portraits of Workers in Nevada's Casino Industry, has been widely excerpted and will be published by University of Nevada Press in 1999. Kit has raised money for several films, including Elvia, Land and Liberty, The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and Faces of War.
Consultants
Medea Benjamin
Medea co-authored the book on Benedita da Silva, with Maisa Mendonça and Benedita herself. As founder and co-director of Global Exchange, Medea has traveled widely and written extensively about global issues. She is author of Don't Be Afraid Gringo! A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart, and consultant on the film "Elvia, Land and Liberty." She is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Writer's Fellowship.
Jurema Werneck
Jurema is a physician and researcher, and she is the founder of the Afro-Brazilian women's group CRIOLA. She has played a major role in creating a network of Afro-Brazilian women's groups, organizing conferences and publishing materials on race and gender issues.
Evelyn C. White
Evelyn is the author of The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves (Seal Press, 1995) and Chain Chain Change: For Black Women in Abusive Relationships (Seal Press, 1994), and she is the co-author of the photography book The African Americans (Viking, 1993). Evelyn participated in the Brazil-US Women's Exchange in 1997. She is the official biographer of Alice Walker.
