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Few people know his name, but as President Jair Bolsonaro’s ever-present sign language interpreter, Fabiano Guimaraes is familiar to millions of Brazilians Face – He now hopes fame will help him win a seat in Congress.
After three years at Bolsonaro’s side, Guimaraes turned the president’s words into Brazilian Sign Language, and Guimaraes himself began to dabble in politics, as part of a Bolsonaro-aligned Republican Party in October. Elected to represent Brasilia in the House of Commons.
Guimaraes, 42, who is not deaf himself, started learning sign language at 18 when a pastor at his evangelical church in the northern suburbs of Rio de Janeiro paid him to take lessons.
He discovered he had a knack for “Libra,” as sign language was well known in Brazil, and began working as an interpreter for the deaf in churches.
But that’s on par with what he calls the “technical challenge” of interpreting for the far-right president, whose signature linguistic sauce is full of folklore, anti-establishment diatribes and the occasional obscenity.
‘Can you speak?
Guimaraes has sometimes gone viral on social media for his quick gestures around Bolsonaro, notably in a weekly Facebook Live video where the president, who is up for re-election in October, speaks directly with his supporters chat.
At one point, Guimaraes gesturing effusively, an angry face identical to Bolsonaro’s, and the president delivered a gushing expletive at his critics.
In another, Bolsonaro whispered cautiously when he forgot the name of Agriculture Minister Marcos Montes.
“Can you tell?” Bolsonaro asked him in surprise.
“I can talk!” he replied, and they both laughed.
“Being around the president puts me in the limelight,” Guimaraes, small in stature, with a receding hairline and a vibrant face, told AFP in an interview from his home in Brasilia, where it proudly displays A glass with Bolsonaro’s image and a woodcut logo engraved with the word “Jesus”.
“I’m just a normal person because God brought me here, it’s incredible,” he said.
“Democracy Service”
Bolsonaro has featured interpreters in his public appearances from day one.
His wife Michelle, who is fluent in sign language, gave a speech at the 2019 presidential inauguration.
Guimaraes, a trained Portuguese and Spanish teacher, joined the president’s sign language team later that year after taking an official exam, which he believes is an interpreter for the Ministry of Education.
Instead, he was assigned to the presidential palace.
He said his job was “democratic service”.
“I bring the deaf community into the national political debate,” he added.
“Having an interpreter at the president’s side, two languages ​​(voice and sign) are equally important, bringing enormous visibility to the deaf community in Brazil” — a country of 213 million of about 10 million people.
Guimaraes is a big fan of Bolsonaro and the way he communicates.
The president “used informal colloquialism, but it was informative,” he said.
“It speaks to the Brazilian people. He brings them into political debate. My mother-in-law left school after fourth grade, always saying, ‘The only politician I can understand is Bolsonaro.'”
He also admires the first lady, an evangelical Christian who played a key role in encouraging him to run for Congress.
Guimaraes is campaigning on a platform of social inclusion and defense of family values.
He said he embraced Bolsonaro’s motto of “God, Country, Family and Freedom” and the first lady’s support for “sensitivity and tolerance.”
“I want to create a link between these two agendas,” he said.
He wasn’t worried that few people knew his name.
“A lot of times people ask, ‘Who is Fabiano?'”
As such, he will appear on the ballot paper on October 2 as “Fabiano, Bolsonaro’s interpreter” — a practice permitted by Brazil’s electoral law.
“It’s amazing to be able to call myself that,” he said.
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