ORLANDO – When the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro finished Dec. 31 in Brazil, he headed to a resort community near Orlando in the shadow of Walt Disney World.
There he was spotted at a local Publix supermarket, dining at local restaurants and being greeted by cheering local Brazilian fans. Whether it’s local support or political reasons, only Bolsonaro himself knows for sure why he ended up there.
What’s clearer is why nearly 130,000 Brazilians live in Florida, according to the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Bolsonaro in Florida:As Brazil reels from riots, Jair Bolsonaro finds Florida home in Disney’s shadow
Presidential election in Brazil:Leftist Lula da Silva defeats Bolsonaro in Brazilian presidential run-off
Who is Bolsonaro? :The former Brazilian president says he was released from hospital in Florida. Who is Jair Bolsonaro?
Although their individual backgrounds in the United States differ, immigrants’ reasons for leaving Brazil are similar: personal security, better financial circumstances, and lack of hope that their home country will ever offer the opportunities they find here. .
Brazil has been boiling for thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress and the Presidential Palace on Sunday. The right, former president, who narrowly lost, said the election was fraudulent and came to Florida without attending the swearing-in of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his opponent.
Hope for more safety, quality of life
Jorge Paiva, who has lived in Orlando for 10 years with his wife, Alessandra, and son, Guilherme, 17, said one of the main factors that played into their decision to leave was the lack of security in São Paulo. , the largest city in Brazil. .popular city.
“We had an episode where we were robbed outside our apartment,” Jorge Paiva said.
The constant fear of what might happen next, without the prospect that things might get better, made the couple think, above all, about their son’s safety and quality of life. Giving his son a 1 a.m. curfew after a night out with friends is much easier to do here than in Brazil, he said.
“If we were in Brazil, I couldn’t fall asleep in peace,” he said.
According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimethere was an average of 22 intentional homicides per 100,000 people in Brazil in 2022. In the United States, the average was 7 intentional homicides per 100,000 people during the same period.
Like many Brazilian families, Paiva said her family comes to Orlando on vacation. But the experience of starting a new life is entirely different from being a tourist.
“I used to work for a very good company in Brazil, an American company, a very good position,” said Jorge Paiva. “But I ended up giving that up not just for (himself and his wife) but rather for (his son) Gui, to give him better security and more opportunities.”
He said that although life in the United States presents its own challenges, such as access to health care, taxpayers’ money is spent much more efficiently.
“What the government says about what it is going to do with taxes is in fact done,” said Alessandra Paiva. “You see the money being spent in the right areas needed.”
The couple also mentioned how tuition-free public education (middle and high school) is another big plus for their son’s future and their own financial situation. Private schools in Brazil are expensive, and although public schools are free, they often don’t provide as good a structure for students.
He acknowledged that while Bolsonaro is in fact more popular among Brazilians living in the region, Brazilian politics may be just one of several, sometimes more important, factors that play a role in a person’s decision to leave the country.
“No amnesty!” :Brazilian protesters demand jail time for Sunday’s pro-Bolsonaro rioters
“The issue is not just support (for Bolsonaro), nobody agrees 100% with what this or that politician is doing,” said Jorge Paiva. “But Lula’s rejection rate is higher than Bolsonaro’s.”
Lula began his third term as president of Brazil after beating Bolsonaro 50.9% to 49.1%. Bolsonaro was elected in 2018, while Lula was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006.
Lula and his political party, the PT (“Partido dos Trabalhadores”, or Workers’ Party), have represented left-wing politics in the South American country in recent decades, while Bolsonaro has swung between right-wing parties ( there are several major political parties in Brazil, unlike in the United States), especially during his presidency.
Lula was arrested in 2018 over a corruption scandal and was unable to run for president against Bolsonaro, as he had planned. In 2019, Brazil’s Supreme Court overturned his convictions on the grounds that the judge was biased and colluded with prosecutors.
Financial outlook
Milena Simões and her husband, Rodrigo, have lived in the United States for six years. She said that although her husband’s business (a mozzarella cheese company) in Brazil was successful, the quality of life in the home country cannot be bought.
“What prompted him to apply for a permanent visa for us was because of the extra time we could spend with the children, the quality of life we could have and, frankly, being able to enjoy what you fought. for your whole life,” Simões said.
She said that while the opportunity to give their children the experience of living in another country and learning a new language was a factor, the main motivation for leaving Brazil was to find a better and safer place. or live.
“It’s sad to work your whole life and be able to reach a level of financial success and not be able to enjoy it,” she added. “In Brazil I have a bulletproof car, which I still have – I have a whole structure in Brazil for my return.”
She said that with Lula’s victory, they think the company could be affected by the policies of the new government and are trying to find a way to earn their income in dollars. The exchange rate of the dollar against the real (the currency of Brazil) is currently $1 at 5.16 reais.
“We don’t know now how much the dollar will cost (during Lula’s administration),” she added.
The decision to move was ‘now or never’
Luiz Rafael Piedade moved from São Paulo to Winter Garden, Florida just over a year ago with his wife, Carol, and their three children.
He grew up in the Brazilian countryside, in the town of Itapetininga, where the quieter, greener way of life is different from the rush, traffic and pollution of São Paulo.
While they lived in a safer area closer to the city of São Paulo, where security is better, “nothing compares to what we have in this country,” Piedade said of the United States.
“There are problems here, of course,” he said. But sometimes I forget to close the garage door or my front door; I can let my kids go to nearby Starbucks on their scooters – things I could never imagine doing in Brazil today.
A lawyer in Brazil, he was able to work remotely in the United States, which cut his work time almost in half, leaving him more time to spend with his family.
“Combining better security, the ability to work remotely, my son’s desire to go to school here, we decided it was time to move,” he said. “We said, ‘It’s now or never. “”
Piedade said he thinks the political divide in Brazil between right and left has been prevalent since before Bolsonaro became a prominent political figure – that right-wing Brazilians see Bolsonaro simply as the opposition, as where the other right-wing politicians who opposed the Workers’ Party presidents, Lula from 2002 to 2010, and Dilma Rousseff from 2011 to 2016 (Roussef was deposed in 2016, halfway through her second term).
“The Brazilian right is not against a candidate from the left,” Piedade said. “They are against a candidate who was arrested for running in a presidential election.”
0 Comments