From Brazil to a New Beginning
Recorded from a memory of 1997 · spoken in Portuguese
Listen in My Voice
Play the real recording, exactly as it was spoken.
Listen in My Voice
Original recording · spoken in Portuguese
The original recording, exactly as it was spoken.
The full word-for-word transcript is further down this page.
I came to the United States in 1997. I still see the airport: my mother crying at the gate, and me promising her I would come back soon. I believed it when I said it.
From the window of the plane I watched the coast of Brazil slip away, and I understood that the life I had known was ending and another one was beginning without asking my permission.
I arrived with two suitcases and almost no English — only "thank you," which I had learned because it was the same word my mother had taught me in Portuguese.
That first winter was colder than anything my body had ever known. I learned to work, to listen, and to begin again.
Read the original transcript, word for word
so... I came in ninety seven, right, and I remember the airport, my mother crying and me saying mãe I will come back soon, I really believed that. the plane, I looked out the window and the coast was going away and I thought this is it, this is my life now. I had two suitcases. I didn't speak English, not one word, only obrigada and thank you which is the same thing basically. the first winter, oh my God, the cold...
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Images
1 attached to this chapter
Thematic images are illustrative and are not photographs of the storyteller or her family.
People
- My mother
Places
- Brazil
- United States
Dates
- 1997
Translated versions
No translations created for this chapter yet.
Translated versions are not available yet. When the feature exists, translations will be clearly labeled as AI-assisted and the original recording will always remain the authentic version.