Cristina Serra launches a book about the years of the Bolsonaro government – 02/03/2023 – Politics

Journalist and columnist for Sheet Cristina Serra launches next Thursday (9) the book “We, Survivors of Hate – Chronicles of a Devastated Country” in which she presents her vision of the final three years of the Bolsonaro government.

The work brings together a selection of 224 columns published in the newspaper from January 1, 2020 to January 17, 2023.

The idea of ​​gathering the chronicles in a book was a suggestion that came from the readers of the column, through comments. She began to notice that some subjects had great repercussions and that, in fact, they could yield a book.

“Brazilian society will need to address Bolsonarism and what it [Bolsonaro] did with Brazil”, says the columnist.

After maturing the idea, Cristina reread all the published chronicles and made a selection. The criterion was to choose those that could give the reader an overview of how the Bolsonaro government was.

“Whoever picks up the book to read, even if he already follows my work in Sheetthere will be a record of what these three years of Bolsonaro’s government were like, which coincide with the pandemic period,” he says.

According to her, the texts chosen address the former president’s attacks on the lives of Brazilians and his behavior during the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic was a very lethal combination for us Brazilians, so much so that it resulted [em cerca de] 700,000 dead, by the way, it is to them that I dedicate the book.”

The work also features columns that portray the Bolsonaro government’s attacks on democracy, human rights and the environment.

The title of the book is the same as that given to a column published on September 19, 2022 (“We, Survivors of Hate – Chronicles of a Devastated Country”).

The columnist says that, after the first round, she already thought that Lula would be elected and it crossed her mind that Brazil went through a very difficult period, but survived.

“I immediately came up with the title of this column that I had already written a long time ago”, he says.

“It’s one of the strongest columns and it has this sense of building memory, so that we don’t go through that again”, he concludes.

There are other topics addressed in the book, such as the dismantling of culture, how journalism covered the Bolsonaro government, issues related to international geopolitics and the former president’s attacks on indigenous people.

Other topics that appear in your columns are mining-related issues. Cristina Serra is the author of a book on the subject —”Tragedy in Mariana: The story of the biggest environmental disaster in Brazil”—and has also written about it in Sheet.

At first, the book would end with Lula’s election, with the column the day after the second round, but with the coup attack on January 8, the author decided to extend the work.

“That was a milestone in the history of Brazil. We had seen those acts on the 12th of December, in Brasilia, but the 8th of January is many degrees above”, he says. “It was the first time that we saw a terrorist joint organized to attack the three Powers.”

Therefore, she and the book’s editors decided to also portray the beginning of the Lula government and the institutional reaction to the coup acts.

To end the book, Cristina says she selected a column that talks about the Chico Buarque show and the inauguration of ministers Sônia Guajajara and Anielle Franco and minister Silvio Almeida, as these events point to a better future.

“At least for those who voted for this new government. A future of inclusion, democracy and citizenship for all”, he concludes.