When Did My Passion For Traveling Start And Why Does It Matter So Much?

This is probably one of the most common questions I get asked when people realize how huge my passion for traveling the world is. And to be honest, I love answering this question.

So, when did my passion for traveling the world start and why does it matter so much?

Stick with me for a bit.

What would a poor boy from one of the biggest Favelas in Brazil dream of when growing up?

Growing up in the Favelas was not easy. I went through so many hardships in life as a kid that, sometimes just by remembering certain things, my eyes get very teary.

Where it all started…

A favela is a type of low-income informal settlement in Brazil. And that’s where I was born and raised. It is a place that is heavily forgotten by the government, and yet it’s the same place where there are thousands of talented and hard-working people of all ages who often find themselves having to give up on their dreams because they are victims of a horrible racist system that still privileges the white and the rich over them, and limits their access to the basic needs of life.

I’m one of the children of a beautiful dark skin black woman who fought so hard to survive the hardships and injustices that life threw at her.

Growing up, I saw my mom come home tired from cleaning other people’s houses and cooking at restaurants. She went through so much. She had to move mountains and deal with the ugliness of the reality that surrounded her. She fought so hard for her kids so her kids could eat at least three meals per day. And still, there were a few times when it was nearly impossible to do so.

For instance, Christmas time is always a very emotional time for me. I often remember so vividly how many times we didn’t have anything to eat. And to make it worse, it rains a lot during Christmas in the southeast part of Brazil, so we’d always have to deal with flooding in the house. As a result, we ended up losing furniture and the ceiling would always leak from the heavy rains. Christmas was wet, cold, and hungry a few times.

I remember being 12 years old and having to get a “job” so I could buy myself stuff. And I’m not talking about video games or useless things that suburban kids have the privilege to possess for no reason. I’m talking about clothes to go to school, shampoo or conditioner, or a snack at school. Stuff that would cost way too much for my parents to be able to afford.

If you don’t know about poverty and low-income families’ struggles, you might think that my parents were irresponsible or something. But only those who have suffered from generational poverty know what I mean. My grandparents were poor. My great-grandparents were poor. My great-great-grandparents were poor. As a result, my parents were poor. Not so long ago, some people from my family were even enslaved people (as Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery).

We still feel and face the consequences. What happened 100 years ago still affected me growing up.

My privilege growing up…

Being privileged does not mean you have an easy life. It means you don’t have to fight hard or do anything exceptional to have access to the basic things of life.

Music was my biggest privilege. It was there to save me.

It had the power to transport me from whatever I was living to an imaginary reality where I felt free, happy, capable, and myself. It allowed me and taught me to dream big and go after my dreams.

Growing up, I enrolled in a social project which was created and sponsored by the car company FIAT in my hometown.

The project was designed to help low-income families have access to education, recreation, sports, music, cinema, and so many other things — You know, all the things that so many kids from other neighborhoods have the access to.

So, when I decided to enroll, I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be an opera singer. So, I signed up for the choir and the opera classes.

You have no idea what that did to me.

I went from being a hopeless kid who had very little access to so many things to, within months of participation in this choir, being a kid who was singing and performing on TV, in theaters all across the country, and even for the government. This kid was going to places, being seen and heard.

How in the world would I imagine that I would record a DVD, perform in front of 100 thousand people, or sing in the main opera house in the largest city in Latin America?

Well, it happened.

From 9 years old to 17 years old, I was a star.

I traveled and toured around my state in Brazil, sang on TV, gave interviews, and was on the cover page of many magazines.

A very different reality than my siblings and friends had in the favelas. Unfortunately, a privilege that only belonged to me and a few other kids during that time.

Because of Opera, I had to learn a few languages. I had to sing in German, French, English, Latin and so many others. Also, I had to professionally learn how to play the piano and the flute, and how to sing well so I could perform live on TV.

Music and languages showed me that there was a whole new world waiting for me…

However, regardless of how many times I’d tour with the choir, or how many hours I’d be rehearsing with an orchestra; when everything was finished, I’d still have to go back to my reality. I’d still have to go back to the Favelas.

I’m very proud of where I come from. Though I’m not going to glamorize all the suffering and struggles I had.

Despite everything, I can say that I was loved. My parents gave their all to raise me and my siblings. We had the basics of life. We didn’t grow up with the latest video game, sleeping in our own bedrooms, or eating fancy food, but we had love. And love was all we needed.

Whenever life turned its back against us, my mom was our strength. Our biggest foundation. Oh, how I love my mom. You have no idea what she had to go through in life.

June 6th, 2009…

One day before my birthday that year I went on my very first big trip.

I traveled with the choir and the orchestra to the largest city in Latin America. We went to “South American New York”. We traveled to the city of São Paulo.

I was beyond words excited. I could not believe it was happening.

São Paulo is huge. There are 16 million people and it is one of the cities with the biggest number of skyscrapers in the world.

Being exposed to it was what impacted me and influenced me to travel the world.

I got to see so many people from so many different countries living all together and that blew me away.

During that trip, I got to experience a life that was very different from what I had growing up.

São Paulo was my first love…

It was the first time I said to myself; “I will leave my hometown, my parents and I will travel the world”.

So here I was: A poor boy from the favelas getting to see the largest city in Latin America.

How do you think this impacted me?

When I went back home I was not the same kid anymore…

I took my studies more seriously because I knew I’d need to use education as a tool to get me out of that reality.

And the type of education I chose was none other than learning a foreign language.

It was a very valid and important form of education that allowed me to dream higher and find ways to leave Brazil.

I wanted to live abroad. I wanted to travel the world. But deep inside, I knew that all I wanted was to escape reality. I wanted to live a different life than my parents and my ancestors had lived. I wanted to do something that my neighbors had never done.

So, I was the first…

The first person in my family to become fluent in English.

The first person in the family to ever get on a plane and cross an entire ocean and arrive on another continent.

I was the first y’all. The first. As I’m writing this, I’m getting very emotional.

How did a boy from the favelas end up traveling the world?

I found ways to do so. And I went after them.

Today, I don’t do it only for me.

Every single country or city I travel to, I dedicate it to my mom who has never left the state she grew up in.

I’m doing it for my dad who once thought his son was never going to get on a plane, not because he didn’t believe in him, but because it was such a reality that he was not a part of.

I’m doing it for my siblings.

I’m doing it for my grandmother. My grandmother never had the chance to learn how to read. She lived almost 80 years of her life without knowing how to write a single word in her own native language. That’s what poverty did to her.

So I broke the curse

When I speak English, or when I write a new article for my blog, I dedicate every single word of it to the dark skin black single mother who my grandmother was. A woman who dreamed big things for her children and grandchildren. She didn’t know how to read but her teachings made each one of us strong.

I also dedicate it to my parents. My dad, who comes from the countryside of Brazil, didn’t even finish 4th grade. And my mom’s dream is to graduate high school so she can get a degree in Culinary Arts or Nutrition (because back in the day, poor kids couldn’t finish school as they had to get “real jobs” to help their poor parents bring food to the table).

Every achievement is dedicated to them.

My parents allowed me to fly…

They never told me that I should or should not do what I wanted. They knew that whatever I was dreaming meant something to me (even when it didn’t make sense in the favelas).

And I am so thankful to them.

They never paid a single vacation for me. They never gave me a single cent to pay for a hotel or a trip.

But they raised me. And this is everything I needed to travel the world.

But why does all of this matter?

Because I think representation matters.

I want everybody to know that no matter where you come from or who your parents were, you can dream.

It’s your human right to dream and to live your dreams.

I know it’s not always the same for everybody. Trust me, even in my own family, not everybody has had the same access that I have had.

But I want everybody to know that they can do it…

I don’t believe in meritocracy. It’s big a lie. It’s not because you want it that you’ll get it. Certain people have certain privileges that simply allow them to achieve their dreams in an easier or more possible way (you remember what privilege means, right?)

So, this is the point.

Though I come from one of the largest favelas in Brazil and I grew up poor, my biggest privilege was music and the fact that I was part of a choir.

Somehow, that poor kid learned to use it all to his advantage.

And somehow he succeeded.

I’ve been to 26 countries and I’ve lived in three different continents.

I would have never thought this would happen if it hadn’t been for music, the social project I enrolled in when I was 9 years old, and, of course, the years of endless sacrifices my parents made to make sure I’d get here safe. I would certainly not be here.

Because I traveled the world, I found myself, my voice, my passions, and my desires. Traveling the world enabled me to see myself better, and this is why this story matters.

Unfortunately, it’s sad to know that right now there are millions of kids who still think that because of where they come from they won’t be able to travel the world and live their dreams.

But here you are. You now have a mission. I need you to go out there and tell all the “Gabriels” you know to use all they can so they can follow their dreams.

One of my biggest goals with my blog has always been to destroy the idea that traveling is something luxurious, fancy, or Instagrammable. That makes a lot of people from unprivileged communities think that it’s not meant for them.

To me, it has to be a human right, so everybody, no matter where they come from, can also have the same positive impact that the boy who wrote this article has had in his life throughout this beautiful journey across 26 countries.

So, that’s why I write. I write so I can show as many people as possible that they can travel the world, learn foreign languages and be happy.

To end, I’d like to share something my mom has taught me throughout my entire life.

“It’s not about where you come from, my son. It’s all about where you’re going”. Claudia