Shoeshine Teen to the Voice of 'Festa no Apê'

Latino, the Brazilian pop singer whose full name is Roberto de Souza Rocha, spoke about his youth in an interview with UOL, later reported by A Tarde. He described it as a very hard period. His parents separated when he was 14. His mother moved to the United States and he stayed in Brazil with his father.

During his teenage years he lived on the street. He earned money by shining shoes and washing cars, and he often went hungry. He said that at one point he used glue to dull the feeling of hunger.

The way out came through his mother, who came back to Brazil to take him to the United States for a fresh start. The change was not easy. He found it hard to leave his Brazilian youth behind and was bullied; he was nicknamed Latin Boy because he mixed Portuguese and English. He started school again from the beginning and found work quickly. He also formed a group of five boys who danced, and he studied, worked and performed on weekends.

After around five years in the United States he chose to return to Brazil, and he says his life changed from then on. He built a career as a pop singer, with songs such as Festa no Apê and Baby Me Leva among his best-known hits. Years later he was able to go back to the United States to perform at Brazilian Day, on the strength of the song Dançar Kuduro.

At the time of the interview he was 50 and said he was celebrating 33 years in music. The article rests on his own account and was not independently checked, but it gives a picture of a teenager who worked on the street to get by and later found a place on stage.