RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL - The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict in the assassination case of former Rio City Councilwoman Marielle Franco today or tomorrow. It's a long process, with each judge on the Brazilian Supreme Court explaining their reasoning for their vote. We may not know the final verdict until tomorrow.
All day, I have been watching the judges speak Portuguese and feeling anxious about what to write about the verdict in the assassination case of my former college classmate. For 8 years, many of us have waited for these moments, and the emotions felt overwhelming.
So to calm down today, I decided to walk about a mile down the road to PUC-Rio, where Marielle and I studied sociology together in the mid 2000s. I figured a good walk would help me calm my nerves and think about what to write later today.
When I got to PUC, I saw a student villa named after Marielle. Incredible that a woman who attended the elite university on a scholarship, was a single mother, and often alienated there, would have this gorgeous multicolored villa named after her. It was simply inspiring.
The student villa was full of students talking, laughing, and carrying on in a space where many of us had done the same, nearly 20 years. Her legacy and memory had morphed into something else for these students, many of whom were not alive when Marielle and I had studied there twenty years ago.
Bruce Jett, my mentor in the NewsGuild, once told me that in our struggles as activists, "We stand on the shoulders of giants." For these students, they were literally standing in a space that honored her memory, on the shoulders of a giant Marielle Franco.
All throughout Brazil, there are tributes and murals honoring Marielle Franco, and it's beautiful to think that for years to come, people will remember this college classmate of mine, who gave her life for daring to stand up to the injustice of paramilitary gangs in Brazil.
May Marielle Franco's memory always be a blessing in the fight against injustice!
