Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Two weeks after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s birth in Garanhuns, Pernambuco, Brazil on October 27, 1945, his father Aristides Inácio da Silva moved to Santos, São Paulo, leaving his mother Eurídice Ferreira de Melo to raise the family. Lula was the seventh of eight children and of Portuguese and Italian descent. In 1952, at age seven, he migrated to São Paulo aboard a cargo truck known as a pau-de-arara. He worked in metallurgy from 1959 to 1975, which led to his union activism.

In 1975, Lula was elected president of the metallurgy workers’ union with 92% of the vote, and in 1978 he led the first major strike against Brazil’s military dictatorship. He founded the Workers Party in 1980. After running for president in 1989, 1994, and 1998, he was elected in 2002 and served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. He won a third term in 2022, becoming the first democratically elected president three times. Lula has also appeared in documentaries such as The Edge of Democracy 2019 and Apocalypse in the Tropics 2025.

Lula’s first wife, Maria de Lourdes Da Silva, died in childbirth along with their son. He then married Marisa Letícia in 1974; she had a son, Marcos Cláudio, whom Lula adopted. With Marisa, he had three sons: Fábio Luiz, Sandro Luiz, and Luiz Cláudio. Marisa died on February 3, 2017. In 2022, Lula married Janja Silva. He also has a daughter, Lurian, from a relationship with Miriam Cordeiro. His siblings include Frei Chico and Genival Inácio da Silva.

Lula’s presidency from 2003 to 2010 included social programs that earned him the World Food Prize in 2011 and the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2003. He was reelected in 2006 with over 60% of the vote and again in 2022, demonstrating enduring political support. His foundation of the Workers Party reshaped Brazilian politics. Lula is known as a three-time president and a recipient of the World Food Prize.