Lula da Silva and Janja have known each other since the 1990s, but it was only when he was imprisoned that their love relationship began.
The wedding dress worn by sociologist Rosângela da Silva to marry Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in May this year was decorated by embroiderers from Timbaúba dos Batistas, in northeastern Brazil.
That region, bastion of the Workers’ Party (PT) de Lula, was the theme of the party: cacti under a moonlit sky.
And throughout the dress there were geometric stars identical to the star of the match, although all white. In red, only the roses from the bouquet and the lapel of the groom, who was wearing a blue suit.
Historical activist of the PT, the sociologist Rosângela da Silva -nicknamed Trick– He was a member of the party long before he met Lula: he joined the party at the age of 17, in 1983, and some time later he went on to work in the PT leadership in the Legislative Assembly of the state of Paraná.
She met her current husband in person in the mid-1990s, when she was a recent graduate in social sciences, while Lula had already run for president and was traveling through Brazil to internalize the reality of the country.
The courtship, however, occurred decades later, when Lula was already a widower of his second wife, Marisa Letícia, who died in February 2017.
Janja, 21 years younger than Lula, 77, helped bring the idea of health and youth to his political campaign.
The relationship was only publicly confirmed in November 2019, when the former president came out of the prison in Curitiba following being locked up for 580 days.
The release came following the Federal Supreme Court ruled that it is illegal to serve a sentence before resources are exhausted.
Subsequently, the convictions once morest Lula were annulled by the court.
The courtship with Janja became public in 2019, when Lula regained his freedom.
The two were not yet married, but Janja was listed as “family” on the list of people authorized to visit Lula while he was in prison. And she went every day, Lula said later.
“She lived in Curitiba and brought me a little food every night. She wouldn’t let me send my clothes to be washed, she wanted to wash them at her house,” the former president said in an interview in 2021.
“When I came out, I thought: ‘No case, I think I really I’m going to have to marry the girl‘” Janja, 56, is 21 years younger than Lula.
In the photos of the former president leaving the Federal Police headquarters in 2019, Janja appeared for the first time publicly at his side. And she no longer turned away.
The two moved to an apartment in Greater São Paulo and the sociologist began to appear not only in photos but also in political events, on trips, in strategic meetings of the PT and in the presidential campaign.
Lula began to frequently mention his wife, whose youth in relation to the now president-elect helped bring the idea of health and joviality to the PT campaign.
The former president repeatedly described himself as “a man in love” and said more than once during the pandemic that, despite his age, he had “the energy of a 30-year-old.”
“Did you see this young lady singing? She is my wife. This young lady… I fell more in love with her when I was in prison“, Lula said at an event in Minas Gerais in September.
“She and I wrote 580 letters to each other. Every day I sent her a letter and every day she sent me a letter,” he added.
Letters were exchanged through friends visiting the politician in prison; sometimes, through them, Lula sent flowers with the letters to Janja.
Several times the sociologist made romantic posts with photos of the flowers on Instagram, although without mentioning who her admirer was since the courtship was not yet public.
During the pandemic, more out of her desire than his, says a friend of the couple, they moved to a rented house in Alto de Pinheiros, a luxury neighborhood in São Paulo.
Animal welfare is one of the important issues for the future first lady, who is also concerned regarding environmental protection, is specialized in social management and sustainable development and has worked in this field.
Another relevant issue for Janja is the protection of minors and the fight once morest the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. That is why she participates in campaigns in favor of the rights of minors.
The sociologist, however, has said that she wants “resignify the role of first lady”historically linked to the idea of care work.
“Let’s work to become the first lady you’ve been waiting for,” she wrote on Instagram in August. “And we’re going to try to redefine this concept of first lady,” she said, without elaborating.
Janja considers herself a feminist and at an event with Lula she stated that she does not intend to be her husband’s “assistant”, in reference to the speech of the current first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, who said in September at a ceremony with her husband that “the wife is a helper to the husband.
“I’m not going to help you, I’m not going to be a helper. I’m going to be by your side, together, fighting, so that we can once once more give Brazil the hope that the people deserve,” Janja said.
Janja has been involved in organizing events with artists in support of Lula.
Lula is often asked regarding his wife and, although he doesn’t shy away from saying how in love he is, he avoids talking regarding her or her personality.
“I really don’t like to talk regarding Janja because she can talk regarding herself”said the president this year, showing the influence of his wife’s feminism.
The president-elect has admitted that in his second marriage, with Marisa Letícia, he still had a “macho culture, of a factory worker, who thought that the woman had to cook the food when I arrived” and that this changed over the years. years.
“I am now with Janja, who is highly politicized, has a good political head and is very feminist,” Lula said in a conversation with singer Mano Brown on his “Mano a Mano” podcast.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.
