On the whole, sophomore Victor Nascimento looks to be a happy person. He is confident and opinionated with his jet-black hair slicked back, a warm smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
But ask about his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Nascimento's brow begins to furrow.
Overshadowing his stories of a pleasant childhood in one of Brazil's rich, romantic cities, Nascimento remembers an experience that changed his life. Before he traveled over 4,500 miles to come to Tufts, Nascimento learned about violence and poverty first-hand as he worked to help impoverished children escape the clutches of illegal gangs and drug lords that rule the hills outside of Rio de Janeiro.
"I grew up in a really nice area of the city, and I was always confused. I would ask, 'Why does my neighbor have a Lamborghini, and those people up in the hills have no food? How can I be surrounded by walls and security, and they have no protection?'" he said.
"When I was old enough, I began to volunteer for several NGOs, and I became really indignant about that disparity," he added.
Unlike the United States, Nascimento explained, Brazil faces a serious urbanization problem, with most of the modern infrastructure concentrated in one area of the country.
"After slavery was abolished, Brazil began to urbanize," he said. "But the Southeast and South regions of the country have developed economically much faster than the rest of the country, and lots of people from rural areas have tried to migrate to [Rio de Janeiro]."
Unable to find jobs due to racism and elitism in the city, these migrants instead began to develop small, illegal communities in the hills outside the city, trafficking drugs, and murdering and blackmailing for money.
"They're uneducated, and they're facing a lot of racism and poverty," Nascimento said. "They have no access to hospitals, no schools, no police, and as a result, violence spreads like fire."
Nascimento decided to do something to help when he was still in high school. Ignoring a substantial amount of personal risk, he joined an organization aimed at extracting children from these communities and providing them with a future. According to Nascimento, they faced substantial challenges.
"The children born in these communities are born surrounded by gangs and drug traffickers, and it's tough for them to get away," he said. "They breed violence into those kids."
Nascimento said that the gang leaders expose the children to violence and death at as young as three or four years old in order to "instill in the kids a violent response" that will allow the gangs to more easily recruit the children when they come of age.
"No matter how intelligent you are, if you're raised watching violence, it becomes a part of you," Nascimento said. According to him, the children are enlisted to fight gang wars and transport drugs. The death toll, he said, is high.
"They use those kids like we use paper bags," Nascimento said, his face tightening. "When they get shot, it's not a big deal, because drug lords know they've got a whole new wave coming."
Nascimento began focusing his efforts on a young boy named Julio. Though Julio was the son of a major drug lord, Nascimento said he was shocked at the boy's potential and desire for change. "Imagine being six, and your father brings people into the house to torture them and kill them," Nascimento said, shaking his head. "But in spite of all that, [Julio] was a really intelligent and insightful kid. He wanted to do something with his life."
Inspired by the motivation the young boy showed, Nascimento began working on a plan to transition Julio away from his illegal lifestyle and provide him with opportunities for success.
"We became really close friends, and one of the things we were trying to do was work out a way for him to move to another part of the country, to run away," Nascimento said.
But one day, tragedy struck.
"After I had been working with Julio for about a year," Nascimento said, "he was assassinated."
Nascimento explained that Julio had been standing up for some of the other kids in his community, and the gang members knew he had been getting involved with Nascimento's organization. As the son of a major gang boss, Julio had been targeted and murdered by a competing gang.
"Some of the drug lords, they didn't like what they were doing because it was taking away from their recruitment base," Nascimento said. "For them, it's all about power and violence; the lives of these kids mean nothing."
Nascimento said Julio's death taught an important lesson.
"So many of these kids have grown up watching their parents being killed, their brothers being killed, their sisters being raped; they had just become dead inside," he said. "Julio showed me that, no matter what, there was a part of these kids that could still feel."
"He was really like a brother to me," Nascimento added. "He gave me a different perspective on things and made me look past those elitist stereotypes I had grown up around."
While Julio's death hit him hard at the time, Nascimento said it has since inspired him to do something meaningful with his life. Planning to double-major in international relations and sociology, Nascimento hopes to work to solve issues of urban violence and poverty.
Nascimento is also a head tutor for the Academic Resource Center and volunteers for a Somerville organization called Unidos, which educates American and Hispanic students together in a bilingual atmosphere to help form a joined community for parents and students of different backgrounds.
"My experience with Julio gave me the will and the desire to try to produce change," Nascimento said.
"I wouldn't be pursuing what I'm pursuing today had it not been for that experience."
Having grown up in a privileged environment, Nascimento said the experience changed his outlook on life. "I'm not ashamed to admit that, likely, I would have instead been an elitist and a racist person had I not had that experience," he said.
"I realized that, had I grown up out there in the hills, I would probably have that kind of life. People shouldn't assume these are just bad people, but they have no opportunities in life."
"In a country as wealthy as Brazil," he added, "there's no reason anyone should be starving."
