Now serving as Brazil's Secretary of Youth in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government, Vitória Genuino cut her teeth as a grassroots activist in the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem-Teto (MTST, Homeless Workers’ Movement), the spearhead of the fight for dignified housing and social justice.

Last weekend, she was in Barcelona to take part in the Global Progressive Mobilization meeting, bringing together left-wing and center-left heads of government such as Lula, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, and Spain’s own Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. She told the conference about mobilizing youth and her work in Brazil.

In an interview with Pablo Castaño for Jacobin, Genuino spoke about the opportunities and contradictions of moving from social movements to institutional politics. She also takes stock of Lula’s government just a few months before October’s general election, in which the veteran leader of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Workers’ Party) will face Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.