The Anonymous
Both of them were anonymous in a way till they were noticed. To the world he was just one more dirty old homeless man in tattered clothes, occupying the streets, while she was a pretty young woman in her twenties, who drove past him every day while going to her workplace.
He was a faceless member of Brazil's homeless population.of thousands, living in anonymity for over 35 long years, - yet he was different.
Every day, the disheveled homeless man gathered all the paper he could and created bits of enthralling poetry and short stories.
Day in and day out he sat outside his makeshift home, in his "Island" as he called it, scribbling in scraps of paper. People walked by him without giving him a second thought.
He kept on writing his beautiful life's work, dreaming all the while that one day his poems might be published for the whole world to see.
Then one fine day in 2011 this pretty young woman, Shalla Monteiro took notice of him. She was curious about what the old man was writing in the small pieces of paper.
She talked to him, they became friends, and the story took a surprisingly beautiful turn.
Meet Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho, the 77 old poet and philosopher who survived the streets of Brazil for over 35 years.
Raimundo was 23 when he moved to Sao Paulo in 1938. He had menial jobs as a gardener and then as a book salesman. It was nearly the end of military dictatorship in Brazil when he became homeless, and estranged from his family.
Meeting Shalla was the end of his destitute life. “When I saw Raimundo for the first time, he gave me one of his poems,” she recalls in a short film about the poet’s story called "The Conditioned." “From that moment, he started to be part of my life.”
Shalla was awestruck by his creation. She started a Facebook page to share his poems and stories with others.
Shalla would stop by every day to chat with him, and he would share his poems and stories with her, which she promptly posted to his Facebook page. The page garnered a huge following, with more than 100,000 fans.
As soon as people started being exposed to his work online, the support came flooding in. Raimundo became something of a local celebrity, with people buying him gifts and/or stopping by to tell him how much they admired his writing. His page has over 120,000 followers to in a short span of time.
Then his newfound fame led him to a miracle. He was visited by his long lost brother who had seen him on Facebook and sought his homeless brother out.
“My brothers are still alive. They’re all alive. He was the one missing to complete the emptiness we had.”, says Raimundo's brother.
His brother asked him to come live with him. Raimundo accepted his brother's warm invitation.
After 35 long years of living in streets, Raimundo is now surrounded by friends and family who love him the most.
His scraggy beard is gone and he finds even more fulfillment in writing remarkable poems and short stories each day.
He always dreamed of publishing his works and now he has been given the opportunity to make his dream a reality.
“He is not a guest, he is family. For my wife, and everyone, he is an integral part”, says his brother. “Damned is the man who abandons himself”, the poet once wrote. Raimundo is now reunited with the ones he cherishes.
Raimundo and Shalla remain close friends to this day.
Both of them are known to the world now.
Below is a short film about Raimundo.
The Conditioned
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