Marta Suplicy substitutes Ana de Hollanda as minister of Culture

On September 11, president Dilma Rousseff decided to substitute her minister of Culture, Ana Hollanda, and invited senator Marta Suplicy (PT-SP) to take the post.  On September 12, the Senate approved in record time (“quebraram os interstícios”) a constitutional amendment (“PEC”) that creates a National Culture System with a fat budget. Known as the Culture PEC, it streamlines public policy management in the sector at all three levels of government (federal, state and municipal). It also aims to universalize access to cultural services and goods, as well as democratize the decision-making process and decentralize the administration of the sector.

On September 13, Marta Suplicy took office as minister of Culture.

Between 2007 and 2008, during the second Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration, Marta was minister of Tourism. At that time there were serious problems with late flights and overcrowding at airports (“apagão aéreo”). She left the cabinet to run for mayor of São Paulo in 2008, but lost to Gilberto Kassab.

Marta has a degree in psychology from the Catholic University of São Paulo (“PUC-SP”), with postgraduate degrees from Michigan State and Stanford. She became a public figure in the 1980s on television where she talked about sex on a program called TV Woman (“TV Mulher”).

She has been a member of the PT since 1981. Between 1995 and 1998, she was a federal deputy and became one of the first members of Congress to come out in favor of gay marriage. In 2000, she was elected mayor of São Paulo. In 2004, she lost her bid for reelection. She was elected to the Senate in 2011, where she was the vice president.

During 36 years Marta was married to economist and senator Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP). The couple had three boys but were divorced in 2001 (she remarried in 2003 but got divorced again in 2009). Now 67, Marta has five grandchildren.