Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was born in October 1945 in Vargem Grande (later to be renamed Caetés) in the Brazilian Northeastern state of Pernambuco. In 1952 his family moved to the coastal town of Guarujá in the state of São Paulo. Four years later they moved to the state capital.
Lula began his working life as a shoeshine boy, moving on to making deliveries for a dry-cleaner’s before starting his first official job as a metalworker at the age of 14. At the same time he studiedmetalworking at night school until 1963.
In 1966 Lula joined Indústrias Villares and embarked on trade union activities for the first time. In that same year he married Maria de Lourdes. Lula looked forward to becoming a father but both Maria and the first child died during the birth.
In the following years Lula increased his participation in trade union movements. In 1972 he was elected Secretary of the Union of Metalworkers of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. In 1974 Lulamarried his second wife, Marisa. They now have three children.
Between 1975 and 1978 Lula was twice elected President of the union and led industrial activities in the region of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo and São Caetano, commonly referred to as ABC, in the outskirts of São Paulo. On 10th February 1980, at the Sion College in São Paulo, the Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT (Workers’ Party) was created, when Lula joined other trade unionists, intellectuals and academics in launching its manifesto.
Throughout the eighties Lula and the PT became established as a national political force to be reckoned with. In 1983 Lula helped to found the CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores), a national trades union association.The following year the PT started the "Direct Elections Now" campaign, calling for the right to vote for the President of the Republic. In 1986, the year in which representatives were elected to form the National Constituent Assembly, Lula stood for election as a Federal Deputy and obtained 650 thousand votes, more than any other candidate in Brazil.
In 1989, Brazilians returned to the ballot box to choose the President of the Republic. Lula’s PT recorded 31 million votes but finished in second place. In 1994, Lula again came second in the race for the presidency, a result that was to be repeated in 1998. In 2001, Lula participated in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, before going on to launch his fourth campaign for the Presidency of the Republic.
He was elected on 27th October, 2002, with 52.7 million votes, a record in Brazilian history. President Elect Lula will govern Brazil from January 2003 to December 2006.
