Eraldo Peres / AP

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is Brazil's unlikely hero.

'The Most Popular Politician on Earth'

For nearly seven years, he's done a spectacular job as Brazil's president. But can Lula resist the temptation to throw it away?

He grew up so poor, he didn't find out what bread was until he was 7. That was Lula's age when he climbed onto a flatbed truck with his Brazilian dirt-farmer family and all their possessions and made the 1,900-mile journey from the country's northeastern dustbowl for a life in the slums of São Paulo. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade, shined shoes on the street, and went to work in a factory at 14, losing a finger to a lathe in an accident on the graveyard shift at an auto-parts plant. Eventually he rose through the rank and file to become an internationally respected union leader. A military junta ruled Brazil back then, and strikes were illegal, but he defied the generals and the bosses and practically shut down the continent's industrial powerhouse in the name of the steelworkers.

Full Article

Click to visit BrazilAmerica.com for ALL your Brazil Travel!

“World Champions Baby, Yeah!!”

Something amazing happened in Formula 1 in Brazil yesterday. The result that occured had long been expected, even from the first race back in Australia, but yesterday Brawn GP and their British driver Jenson Button proved all of their doubters wrong, by becoming World Champions.

Brawn were clearly the underdogs going into this Formula 1 season. Their previous owners Honda had decided late in 2008 that they were pulling out of the expensive sport, leaving a team without financial backing, or an owner. At the last minute Ross Brawn stepped in with a management buyout, putting everything he had on the line. The team still had it’s drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. They stuck with the team despite the uncertainty, trusting Brawn would pull the team through.

Full Article

Click to visit BrazilAmerica.com for ALL your Brazil Travel!

The selection of Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Summer Games is the latest indication of how wrong the critics were. Brazil's economy is projected to grow by 5% or more next year. Its stock market has risen more than 30% this past year while those in most developed nations have fallen. And, in addition to the Olympics, it gets the other global sports spectacle, the World Cup, in 2014.