During Lula’s era, things were easier. The poor had a chance, the Black had value…and now, people don’t think like this; everything is more complicated.
—A dark-skinned, nineteen-year-old, self-identified Morena woman from Itaparica Island, Bahia
The Bolsa Família program, the conditional cash transfer program implemented in 2004 during the first of Luis Inàcio “Lula” da Silva’s three terms as president of Brazil, lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty. Bolsa Família beneficiaries received monthly cash stipends on the condition that their children regularly attended school and had regular medical checkups. The conditional aspect of this program changed under the administration of Lula’s successor, Jair Bolsonaro, who in 2021 replaced Bolsa Família with a new, more expansive, social welfare program called Auxílio Brasil. To make beneficiaries aware that Bolsonaro’s program was new and to clearly distinguish it from Lula’s Bolsa Família, a new debit card, emblazoned with Brazil’s green, yellow, and...
University of California Press