Eraldo dos Santos squeezes through the cramped quarters of three cramped rooms, leading through a mud hut just like the one where his cousin Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva began his unlikely journey to become President of Brazil.

Furnished with a straw bed, a wood-burning stove and an image of Jesus, the squat brown farmhouse off a dirt road in impoverished northeastern Brazil is a replica of the long-collapsed shack where the former – and perhaps future – president was born.

As Brazil heads for a divisive presidential election on Oct. 2, Dos Santos, Lula’s first cousin who was once removed – and self-proclaimed “brother in spirit” – says he wants to rebuild the shack to go back to the left-wing icon’s origins recall .

Love or hate Lula – and there are plenty of Brazilians in both camps – there’s no denying the man has an incredible story.

He rose from destitute poverty to become the most popular president in Brazilian history (2003-2010), fell spectacularly out of favor when he was jailed on controversial, now-cleared, corruption charges (2018-2019), and is now potentially on the verge of a notable comeback as president leading far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the polls.

It all began 76 years ago in a house made of mud and sticks outside the town of Caetes, in the state of Pernambuco, where Lula was born, the seventh of eight children into an illiterate farming family.

“We didn’t even have hospitals back then,” says Dos Santos, 68, who, like Lula as a boy, left this harsh, semi-arid region to work in Sao Paulo, where they both became metalworkers and union organizers.

“It was the only house that poor peasants could build – just a roof over their heads.”

This is actually the second replica of Lula’s birthplace.

The first was built by Lula’s late brother and the local mayor just before he began his presidency, but collapsed like the original.

In what those who celebrated when Lula was imprisoned might call appropriate political symbolism, it’s now a grassy mound of dirt, jutting out to the rear.

Dos Santos, a proud, cowboy hat-wearing Northeasterner who returned to the region 25 years ago, built the new version with a core of iron and concrete on which the traditional mud was layered.

“I had to adjust to the past,” he says, flashing a grey-bearded smile that bears a family resemblance to Lula’s.

He completed “Dona Lindu’s House” – named after Lula’s mother – about three months ago, with the help of another cousin and Lula ally.

Lula, who left the Northeast at the age of seven, visited us in July, grinning and posing for photos in the front window.

“I think there was an important mental film playing in his head at that moment,” says Dos Santos, who calls his cousin “a great guy.”

It’s easy to find Lula fans in these neighborhoods, one of the regions that have benefited most from the economic boom and ambitious social programs that are its distinctive legacy.

Opposite the “little house”, neighbor Paulo Gomes Bizerra, 50, composed a song dedicated to Lula.

“Lula, our hero is back,” he sings, belting out the chorus.

In the nearby town of Garanhuns, street vendor Tiago Azevedo, 42, remembers Lula’s presidency as a turning point for the poor and the working class.

“He brought electricity to people in rural areas who didn’t have electricity, gave poor people the opportunity to go to university. People who never dreamed of owning a motorcycle or car could buy them,” he says.

But even here, Lula’s legacy is not untarnished.

In an area called “Lulao” or “Big Lula” — a low-income housing estate built by Lula’s government — a happy but loud hoot erupts between neighbors Maria and Renata da Silva at the local daycare.

“Lula was a great president, he helped a lot of people,” says Renata, a 30-year-old mother of three.

“At Bolsonaro we only got rising prices. Everything is super expensive.”

Maria, a 38-year-old single mother of two, erupts into a dramatic cackle.

“All Lula’s group did was steal!” she fires back.

“I will not lie. I choose Bolsonaro.”