A feature film might not be enough to tell the life story of Dayana Bárbara dos Santos Coqueiro. A series with multiple episodes and seasons would be more suitable. After all, from Coroatá, in the interior of Maranhão, to the port district of Santo Cristo, in Rio de Janeiro, where he currently lives, were many experiences and difficulties.
Danda Bárbara, as she is known, is 36 years old and lived on the streets of Brasília from 8 at 21, for “problems of violation of rights inside my house”, as defined.
He came to visit a path with almost no return: “It took me a while to get into drugs, I was almost 18 years old, but I started working with heavy trafficking, for important people”, he reports.
The pregnancy, when he was between 20 and 21 years old , represented his redemption. He left this life and started to dedicate all his attention to Arthur, now 14 years old.
He moved from Brasília to Rio de Janeiro in search of a dream, which is closer to coming true. Despite living with difficulties, working as a street vendor selling cheese on Rio’s beaches (Arhur helps by selling cookies), Danda is about to make what may be the biggest leap of her busy life: she passed the entrance exam and will study Literature at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj).
She is even looking for financial help to be able to buy a computer, which will facilitate your studies (whoever wants to help can enter her social networks and see how to proceed).
Versatile, in addition to walking, she has worked as an actress, percussionist, rapper, songwriter and worked in the circus throughout her career.
These incursions into the arts made that, at the end of 2021, Danda received the Black Woman of the Year Award, promoted by the Brasília Department of Culture .
Danda Bárbara tells Fórum just a little of her story and reveals that she lives the current moment with high expectations: “What I didn’t have in my early childhood and adolescence, I will have in adulthood.”
Forum: Your life is full of twists and turns. Tell us a little about your trajectory. Why did you have to live on the street for more than a decade (from 8 to 21 years old)?
Dayana Bárbara dos Santos Coqueiro (Danda): I went to live on the streets when I was 8 years old, due to problems of violation of rights inside my house and these things bothered me a lot. There was no family support. My family is from the countryside of Maranhão. I was born in a place that has less than 20 thousand inhabitants and I have no affinity with my relatives. I lived with my father and his wife and suffered all kinds of rights violations. In conversation with some people who lived on the street, I decided to go after freedom, which I thought was good for me, and I threw myself on the street. I started writing my story so I wouldn’t be a supporting player anymore. I became the lead actress in a story that everyone wrote. I stayed until 21 years old. From 20 to 21, I got pregnant. At the time, I was in the final, pitiful stage. I threw myself into crime, into drugs. It took me a while to get into drugs, I was almost 18 years old, but I started working with heavy traffic, for important people. With that, I was making a pretty good income. That’s when I got into crack and saw that the only solution I had was to have a root, which I found difficult, because I never understood myself as belonging to my family. That’s when I started getting involved with my son’s father. I’ve always had same-sex relationships and it was a very expensive process to get involved with a man. But in order to have this child, I undid all bad thoughts about men. I got off the streets, got a job. During the time I was on the street, I always studied at Escola Meninos e Meninas do Parque, which specializes in homeless people. I arrived there at 14 and left at 21. I finished elementary school there and high school I attended a public school and the last year I attended a private school.
Forum: Many people can’t get out of the street. How did you find the strength to give your life a new direction and move to Rio de Janeiro?
Danda: I managed to get off the streets for my son’s account. I had already left the street, but I went to work to watch the car and ended up losing my son to the Guardianship Council, which at the time was the Childhood Court. He spent a year in a shelter. I went after it and thought: ‘I’m not going to lose my son, I fought so hard to have him’. I went to the Childhood Court, showed that I was away from drugs and deserved to have my son back. At the end of a year, I got it. In July of last year we moved to Rio, because of a job promise that I had to coach a team, because one of my great passions is football. But it was all a lie. The guys didn’t pay me, I stayed in this space for three months. My son also plays soccer and I thought let’s stay here and I managed to get him to join a team from the floodplain, but which has a massive structure. He stays there during the week and on weekends he spends with me. I called in some people who could help me, with internet for me to study, pay rent, those things. It’s not easy. There are days when I come home with less than R$100 from my sales. My son helps me, because he has to buy boots, gloves, many other things. I continue to pursue his dream, which is mine too, of seeing him on a football team. I do everything for him.
Forum: Is it true that, in addition to being a street vendor, you are an actress, percussionist, rapper, songwriter and have worked in the circus?
Danda: I developed, in Brasília, some works in the area of culture and art. Sometimes they put me in rhyming spaces and I end up winning awards. In addition, in November 2021, I received, in Brasília, the Black Woman Award, I was also awarded as best actress, along with the female cast, for the short film “Presas que menstruam”, based on the book by Nana Queiroz, I participated in a documentary inspired by the life of feminist Nísia Floresta. In fact, I always fall prey to art issues. When I try to run away from her, she always hugs me somehow and ends up saving me somehow, too.
Forum: Where did the taste for writing come from? Who are your favorite authors?
Danda: The taste for writing came to put on paper my trajectory, my ideas and experiences. My inspiration as a writer today is Djamila Ribeiro. Bell Hooks too. I read Cecília (Meireles), I like Cora (Coralina) and Machado (from Assis). Despite my taste for literature, Letters was my third choice of course in college. The first was Physical Education and the second, Social Work.
Forum: You have a son, Arthur. What changed in your life after he was born?
Danda: Arthur is 14 years old. He is the air I breathe. Without this boy, I don’t think I would be alive and my story wouldn’t be seen by many people. When I found out I was pregnant it was a really crazy feeling, because I wanted to be pregnant, but at the same time, I was still in the middle of the street. I started to process how I was going to raise this child on the street. That’s when I started working on the possibility of leaving, of leaving the street, because I didn’t want him to have the same experience as me. I educated him, with him knowing all my life. I never hid anything. I have always shown what the world has to offer. If you choose this side of the world, you have to know that things are going to turn out that way. Even to be a drug dealer you have to study. I don’t protect him from things, but I make the biggest pain come to me.
Forum: How important is it for you to have been chosen to receive the Woman Award Black of the year?
Danda: When the result came out and I had been one of the 30 selected, I couldn’t believe it. Who gave me the information was Liana Farias, owner of a production company and who is from the Faculty of Arts Dulcina de Moraes. I didn’t want to run. In Brasília, there are a lot of great black women who have been in the arts for a long time. I’ve always done sporadic work and there are black women who only live from art. But my friends got the documents, signed me up, and then let me know. The first wave came out and it was in. The Brasília Department of Culture, who promoted it, did not know about my life story. I found out later, when they asked me to do a minibiography. I was very delighted, because I had never won anything. My turning point, in terms of visibility, started with this award. So, many people I’ve always followed, artists from Brasília that I’ve always admired, got to know a piece of my life story. I couldn’t go to receive the prize, because I didn’t have the money for the ticket. So, I asked a friend from Brasília, a black woman, to receive the award for me. It was very beautiful. A crowd came to talk to me, saying that I was a reference, an example of not giving up. I don’t want to take a theater course and live as an actress. What I crave is the path I’m on now. The focus is on the academy, graduating and living off my course.
Forum: What do you expect from life after entering university?
Danda: I have I’m really afraid of the university, because it’s a completely different experience from anything I’ve ever lived. An experience that until now I haven’t been able to know, in fact, how it will be for Dayana (Danda). I’m going to suck up everything the university has to offer me. I know that in this first semester I will “eat a lot of grass”, I will have a lot of difficulty. I’ve been away from the classroom for 14 years and when I come back it’s in a universe that is another world. But I’m full of positive expectations. I applied again for the entrance exam to take another course (Physical Education). I’ll make it through too. Now, for real, my life will make another sense. I have faith that I will gain many positive things. What I didn’t have in childhood and adolescence, I will have in adulthood. Now is harvest time. Today, I have no quality of life. The only advantage I have today is a house to sleep and live in. But there are days when I open the fridge and the pantry cabinet and there’s nothing. What I earn today, throughout the year, being a street vendor I earned in two, three months, selling drugs. Only I don’t want to. I prefer to pass this difficulty, ask people when necessary. But I don’t go back to the traffic.
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