He was born on a farm in southern Bahia. At 15, he moved in with his uncles in Feira do Santana to prepare for college entrance exams. He wanted to study medicine but ended up being accepted into his second choice and went to study biology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. While in college, he took a hairdressing course and started working as an assistant in a beauty salon in the city.
One day, he received a phone call from a friend inviting him to try his luck in New York. Without thinking twice, he interrupted his biology course in the last year, got his passport, and landed at JFK airport with a tourist visa. In his small suitcase, he had only two changes of clothes and 700 reais in his wallet. He didn’t realize that the currency here was the dollar.
He took it easy in the first week but knew he needed to earn some money doing something until he could get a city license to cut hair in a salon. The following week, he left early with his friend to get to know his new job at a small dog-walking company. He accepted the job of walking dogs through the streets of Manhattan in the morning, and in the afternoon, he earned extra money cleaning his boss’s apartment, as he hosted dogs while their owners traveled. On weekends, he studied in a preparatory course for the test, in Spanish, that would qualify him to be a hairdresser in New York.
After three months, with the certificate in hand, he went out to find a Brazilian salon that would accept him as a beginner. Skilled, in less than six months, he already had his own clientele, working in Astoria, one of the neighborhoods in Queens. A year later, the salon owner, who was about to retire, offered him a 50% stake, and from then on, he went from employee to boss. Two years later, he met an American at a Brazilian party, started dating, got married, and obtained his legalization.
This interview took place on a pleasant spring afternoon in the apartment located on Central Park West, where the couple has lived for twelve years, along with Lili, a beautiful white poodle.
This is a brief summary of one of many stories that are part of my interview books with Brazilians who have reinvented themselves in New York.