Sometimes, on Sabbath, I like going to the Tree of Life Synagogue and praying for the 11 fellow Jews who were killed there in 2018 as a result of their advocacy for immigrants' rights. As a Jew who grew up in the community, their murders have always affected me deeply, and sometimes, I like to go to the massacre site to pray for the strength to keep fighting.
Today, I find myself praying for a college classmate of mine, Rio City Councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was assassinated on March 14th in 2018.
Today is the 7th anniversary of the assassination of Rio City Councilwoman Marielle Franco, who I studied with in college at PUC-Rio de Janeiro. Franco studied in the same department, and we had many friends in common.
Few Americans, however, cared about her assassination. However, as she was someone who walked the same hallways as me, partied with the same people, and went to the same protests, it has always been a deep pain in my gut when I think about how she was machine-gunned down in the streets of Rio along with her driver Anderson Gomes.
March 14th passes like a kidney stone for me every year.
Franco had been investigating police abuse in Rio and their ties to paramilitary gangs, where approximately 1,200 people are killed by police every year in a city of 9 million. In comparison, an average of 1,200 people are killed by the police in the whole United States, a country of 340 million.
For nearly half a decade, authorities under the Bolsonaro Administration in Brazil refused to investigate the murders, but Mônica Benício and Agatha Arnaus marched to demand justice. They inspired thousands by reliving their pain and trauma constantly, not letting the assassinations go uninvestigated.
Then, in 2022, Lula was elected and instructed the Brazilian federal police to take over the investigation from state and local authorities.
Finally, last year, the Rio Police Chief, a former Congress member, and the Congress member’s brother were arrested for plotting her assassination. Franco had been investigating their ties to paramilitary gangs that helped the trio intimidate poor workers so they could acquire lucrative land deals.
Today, I went to the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre site, prayed for Marielle, and prayed to have the strength to be able to continue to fight back against these fascists.
It may seem odd that a massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh and the assassination of a Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman seem connected, but for me, someone whose communities were affected in both cases, they always seemed linked.
As our fight against fascism is becoming more global, we need to be looking to other movements like those in Brazil for inspiration on how to fight back.
Four blocks from where the Tree of Life massacre happened, the Oscar-winning Brazilian film I'm Still Here is showing at the independently-owned Manor Theatre. The film depicts the disappearance of former Brazilian Congressman Rubens Paiva during the dictatorship and the 45-year struggle of his widow, Eunice Paiva, to find out what happened.
Fernanda Torres, playing Eunice Paiva, was the first Brazilian woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress and her victory took the American press by storm: I'm Still Here has become the biggest grossing Brazilian film in American history.
This past week, I walked by the Manor Theatre, where I'm Still Here was playing for its seventh week. The cinema had even changed the signage used for the movie to include its new title, "Oscar Winner." Finally, a film about Brazilian political courage had market success in America, just a few blocks from the site of a Jewish massacre.
My grandparents, both Jewish World War Two and civil rights activists, took me to that theater to see Michael Moore's anti-war film "Fahrenheit 9/11," twenty years ago, and earlier this month, I took my dad, a retired union leader, to go see the film. My dad knew nothing of the history behind the film and was inspired by it, and the movie indeed has inspired many other American activists.
On the way home from seeing the movie, I told my dad about a conversation that I had last April with Agatha Aranus, the widow of Anderson Gomes, who was killed driving Marielle Franco that night on March 14th.
I had told Agatha that Brazilian films available in the United States tended only to depict drug dealers and "samba girls." Rarely are strong women like Eunice Paiva, Marielle Franco, or Agatha shown on screens.
But we need to know these Brazilian heroes’ stories if we are going to survive fascism here in the United States.
This March 14th, I found myself praying at the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre site for Marielle Franco. I pray that somehow, we draw inspiration from one another to bear witness and fight against fascism.
May Marielle Franco's and Anderson Gomes's memories always be a blessing in the fight against fascism worldwide.
