from what he presented as his miraculous conversion to protestantism in 1994, garotinho, although not himself a pentecostalist - he is member of a presbyterian church - came to stand as a spearhead of the constantly growing involvement of the pentecostalist churches in brazilian politics, as well as of their bid for the federal executive itself. given the notorious ties between pentecostalism and the urban unorganized poor - for which a conversion to pentecostalism tends to stand for a newly found sense of community as well as for an aspiration at upward social mobility - one could say that garotinho stood for the preferential social connections created by his political mentor leonel brizola, differing from him in that he gave such connections a more politically conservative hue, by means of a kind of right-wing populism in what is seem by many as simply pandering for the bare needs of the poor by means of a shallow philanthropy reduced to the concrete minimum. others, however, consider that, conversely, one could also say that garotinho gave evangelical politics a leftist slant, in that his evangelicism is the "personal" choice of a recent and enthusiastic convert, who therefore acknowledges the most destitute ones by means not only of offering munificence, but of a shared identity.