Last issue, the Stylus brought you Michelle Lima Sa’s summer of protest in her home country of Brazil. This issue, the Stylus focuses on another Park University Brazilian student – Fabio Peixoto.
Peixoto is a graduate student violin major graduate student from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He is graduating this December. He just had his concert recital on Nov. 22.
Like Lima Sa, Peixoto also does not think the current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is addressing the demands of the Brazilian electorate. He does think she is a little better than the last president, Lula da Silva. She has a more progressive mind.
He joined the movement mostly because of public spending.
“There is no good feedback. No good services,” Peixoto says. “People were thinking the infrastructure of Brazil would improve but it didn’t happen.”
Peixoto says he loves Brazil and he thinks you can have a very good life there which is why he participated in a major protest in his home city. There were close to one million people at the protests June 20 and Peixoto says he wore goggles to protect his eyes from possible tear gas.
He used his shirt to breathe through the gas. It started as just a normal peaceful protest but quickly escalated into violence when the police try to block the marcher’s path.
“It was crazy,” he says. “People tried to get in city hall.”
Peixoto keeps up with the protests in Brazil even now that he is in the United States. He watches the protests online. On the day of interviewing for this story, Peixoto follows the protests live in Brazil on website called Twitcasting. It is a website where people upload live feeds as they protest. He can see the police roaming the streets of Rio. They are armed with anti-riot gear. Some protesters throw objects. The live feed is from a cellphone camera.
There are fires on the streets of Rio at the time. The protest Peixoto is watching is about teachers which ended later with dozens of arrests.
Some of the protesters are clad in black with helmets. Peixoto explains they are members of Black Bloc, which consists of people that go in front of the police to defend the protesters. They put on protective clothing like ski masks and motorcycle helmets. Black Bloc is a worldwide movement that has gained traction in recent years.
Peixoto was the only member of his family to participate in the protest Like Lima Sa’s parents; Peixoto’s parents support the ideals of the movement.
Peixoto says his father is very much a leftist and his mother is on the right. Peixoto is an independent. He leans to the right on some issues like religion and taxes and he is leftist on some issues.
The reasons Peixoto lists for joining the movement have primarily to do with the spending of public money.
“It is the huge taxes we pay, the state is very big,” he says. “Many things are concentrated in the hands of the state. You pay taxes, and the state says it gives you food and money for the poor people. It doesn’t give the real thing that is jobs or opportunities.”
Peixoto adds that with all this money that is going to the state, there isn’t adequate feedback.
The World Cup has lot to do with Peixoto joining the movement as well.
“People were thinking the World Cup would improve the infrastructure of Brazil,” he says. “It didn’t happen really. It is nine months to the World Cup and you can see the Brazilian airports. It is very bad.”
The cost of the World Cup has been sky rocketing. The government so far has spent $29 billion. The last World Cup was watched by three billion people.
A question for Peixoto, is he proud to be Brazilian?
“Of course,” he says.
Peixoto thinks he made a difference participating in the protests. The president addressed the nation in a major speech.
“Everything stopped for that speech,” he says.
This was the first time Peixoto participated in a protest.
“I never thought I would be called to do something like this,” he says.
