Viradouro's carnavalesco

Interesting story today in O Globo about Viradouro's carnavalesco. This is a fascinating life story.

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Viradouro's Carnavalesco was a street boy
by Alice Fernandes
Translated by me from the O Globo website. Click here for the original Portuguese version.

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Carnavalesco Edson Pereira has the job of carrying Viradouro to victory this year, after more than a decade of drought. But this is far from the biggest challenge he has faced in his life. The 32-year-old artist, who is new at Viradouro this year, had a difficult childhood that didn't include much in the way of Rio Carnival spirit. Born in Bangu, and raised in a shack in the favela of Rio da Prata, Edson was forced to begin working at the age 7 years, along with his 27 siblings. At the age of 15 years, he decided to try his luck on the streets, and ended up living on Copacabana beach.

Instead of luxurious Carnival floats, Edson's debut came with the construction of little rolling carts [? "carrinhos de rolimã", anybody know what rolimã means?]. Along with an older brother, he used these little toy constructions to help supermarket customers carry their packages, close to where he lived. The daily take, which at the time was in the old "cruzeiro" currency, rarely was more than the equivalent of ten reais today. [about US $6 for a day's work]

"I was never a child. I became an adult very early. Everything in my life was very difficult, and, because the financial conditions in my family were precarious, my dad sent me to work very early. There were a lot of kids in the house. My dad couldn't take the pressure all by himself, and he ended up beating me and my brothers because of the stress," he said.

He was a dedicated student at a public school, where he got good grades in geography and art history. Edson saw, in the cultural richness of Bangu, the possibility of becoming an artist. He began to study painting and art with a set designer at Globo TV. Soon he became a teacher's assistant, and he began to develop sets for soap operas and other TV productions, such as "The King of Cattle" and "Xuxa Planet" [a kids' show featuring an extremely famous TV star called Xuxa]. Meeting this "queen of the toddlers" was one of the most important moments in his life.

"When I saw Xuxa in front of me, I couldn't even believe that it was happening," remembers Edson. With the money from his TV job, he managed to buy his first pair of tennis shoes.

He held jobs as diverse as bricklayer, car mechanic's assistant, car painter, message boy and set designer's assistant. By the time he was 15 years old Edson had grown tired of this hard life, and he made a decision that radically changed the directory of his life: he left the humble house where he lived in Zone Oeste [West Zone] and moved to Zona Sul [South Zone] - more specifically to the beaches of Copacabana, where he lived for a year and a half as a homeless street boy.

"Because I was well-mannered and educated, I thought that on the beach I might be able to arrange a job as a houseboy in a rich lady's house. But my dream, actually, was to be a doorman and to be able to live in the same building where I worked."

However, he didn't fall into the good graces of a rich family, and instead Edson spent his days begging food from beachgoers and from the kiosks along the road. He managed to get some small change cutting open coconuts [at the coconut stands that sell coconut water]. On rainy days, he sought shelter under the balconies of the nearby buildings. To take baths, he relied on the generosity of the waiters of restaurants along the Avenida Atlantica. But even all these difficulties could not dampen the spirit of the man who would become, today, the carnavalesco of Viradouro. (He is sharing the post of carnavalesco with Junior Schall).

"I never felt sorry for myself. I knew that someday things would get better," he remembers.

His excess of confidence finally paid off when he was 17 years old. While passing the door of a nightclub, he decided to go in and ask for a job. He was hired the same day, and he ended up working as a janitor there for two years.

With renewed hope and now with a salary too, at 19 years old he decided to return to art. He went to Projac in search of new opportunities with Globo TV. After confronting a battery of exams, he was hired and began going to the College of Fine Arts. Soon came an opportunity to work as a designer and painter with several samba escolas, including União da Ilha, Império da Tijuca, Unidos da Ponte and Vila Isabel. It was in the float-construction warehouses of the escolas that he met Dona Ester, who was at that time an important "destaque" on the parade floats [a Carnival star, a famous person who rides on the very tops of the biggest floats]. She took on a role of being his guardian angel. With a show coming up in New York, she invited him to come work in the United States for fifteen days.

"I didn't have anything to lose. I was 21 years old, I'd already lived a little bit of everything, and I took advantage of every opportunity."

The experience with Dona Ester, on foreign soil, was only for a short time, but it was enough time to him to see the wider world and to convince him that he should return to New York, even though he didn't speak a word of English. In less than a month, Edson had managed to arrange this, and he returned to the United States to live.

In just three weeks, he got an interview and was hired to design the sets for an exposition of a cosmetics brand. He got the job due to his experience with the Rio Carnival. When he got his first payment after his first day of work, he had a nice surprise. His daily pay would be US $5000. [no, that's not a typo! - KH] In addition to the money, this experience resulted in an invitation to produce all of the events of the then first-lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton.

But the good life lasted less time than he hoped. Because of a medical error, Edson was forced to abandon all that he had won and return to Brazil.

"My plan had been to stay there a long time, not just the five years that I stayed. But I began to feel strange pains in my stomach and I went to a hospital to get some tests. When the results came, I was told that I had cancer and that I only had a little while left."

Thinking that he was about to die, he called up one of his sisters, asked her to find a house that he could buy to leave to his mother, and explained that he would be returning to Brazil in a few days. However, once he arrived, he discovered he didn't have cancer after all, and that the stomach pains had been due to a bacterial infection. With his health recovered and with plenty of money saved up, Edson Pereira bought the long-dreamed-of house for his family to live in, far from the favela, and he returned to his work in the escolas da samba. In 2006, he became a carnavalesco (chief artistic designer of the multi-million-dollar parade of a single escola) and won the championship with Unidos de Padre Miguel, where he stayed for two more years in Grupo A. In 2008, they ended up in third place, but he won several awards for the parade, which won him an invitation to go up a level to Grupo Especial and sign on with Viradouro. This triumph has erased, for him, all the sorrows of the past.

"I have won everything that I could. I've lived in luxury, I've met important people, my work has been recognized. Viradouro has given me one more opportunity, and it is a demonstration that we should never give up, never. It will be the biggest challenge of my career to assume so much responsibility, but I am ready. Everything that has happened to me has made me stronger and stronger, and it is with all this strength, together with Junior [his co-carnavalesco], that I will bring Viradouro's carnival parade to the Avenida."