Rio Front-Runner: Black, Female, Slum Dweller : Mayor’s race: Runoff next Sunday pits widowed grandmother from the radical Workers’ Party against a centrist economist.

This city has never had a black or female mayor. But it soon may get both.

A 50-year-old widowed grandmother from one of the city’s hillside slums breezed by her more conventional opponents in the first round of the elections to become the front-runner in a hotly contested race.

Benedita da Silva, the candidate from the radical Workers’ Party, began the election campaign with only 4% of the voters behind her.

But when the votes were tallied Oct. 3 she had taken the lead with nearly 33%.

Because she did not receive more than half the votes, under Brazilian law she faces a runoff Nov. 15 against second-place Cesar Maia, an economist from the centrist Brazil Democratic Movement Party, who received 22% of the votes.

Da Silva, a graceful figure standing nearly 6 feet tall, believes the time has come for Rio to choose its leader from among the masses and not from the elite.

“I became a candidate for mayor with great support from segments of society ranging from favela (shantytown) dwellers to the middle class,” she told Reuters in a recent interview.

Da Silva’s platform centers on social issues. Her ideas range from creating a model market to house the thousands of sidewalk vendors scattered throughout the city to setting up small educational and housing centers for street children in the neighborhoods where they live. She says she would turn to the private sector to help shoulder some of the costs.

Seated at a table in the sparse tiny office that serves as her headquarters, Da Silva is surrounded by journalists begging for interviews and aides trying to juggle a hectic schedule.

“I need a day with 48 hours,” she complains.

A typical day for Da Silva includes visits to a local fair and a climb up one of the city’s many hillside slums, a part of Rio she knows well.

She mingles easily with the poor. As women and children from the slum flock around her she dances the samba to the beat of a local band.

Da Silva was born in a favela and still resides in one. Over the years she has transformed her shack in the Chapeu Mangueira favela into a comfortable home with a breathtaking view of Copacabana beach.

Da Silva’s grandmother was a slave whose stories helped mold the politician into the strong woman she is today.

“The stories taught me that we can overcome problems, not to feed hate but hope, and to give value to oneself,” she said.

Da Silva has experienced first-hand the poverty suffered by the 1.4 million who reside in Rio’s favelas. Her father washed cars and her mother was a laundress. As a child she helped her mother deliver laundry to the home of then-President Juscelino Kubitschek in Copacabana.

Da Silva worked as a maid and a nurse’s aide and earned a university degree in social work. She began her political and administrative career as a leader of Chapeu Mangueira’s community association.

As part of the association she helped obtain a community school and clinic and fought to bring down the infant mortality rate.

Three of Da Silva’s five children died as a result of postpartum complications.

Da Silva helped found the Workers’ Party, of which she is today national vice president. She was elected to Rio’s local assembly in 1982 and to the federal Congress in 1986 and 1990.

While in Congress she headed a commission that investigated the mass sterilization of women in Brazil.

Throughout her political career Da Silva has had to overcome both racism and sexism.

“The fact that I am a black woman has presented me with a greater challenge . . . in a country where, we cannot deny, there exists prejudice, both racial and against women.”

As Da Silva has risen in her career the prejudice has grown, she said. But she has turned her minority status into a “reference point for a population that needs to be stirred up.”

Religion has also played an important part in Da Silva’s life. While her mother was a type of holy woman known as a mae-de-santo in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Macumba, Da Silva has embraced Protestantism. She is an avid follower of the Assemblies of God, an evangelical group.

Da Silva’s candidacy for mayor has received the support of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The two had met several times and while in Washington in July Da Silva invited Jackson to visit Brazil. He accepted but no date has been set.

“He spoke of the importance for Rio to have a person with a history of life and of struggle like mine in public office,” she said.