To die with a painted face

“For this character, I lost my family, my wife and my children”

The seventh race is the only place in Bogotá where you can see so many people gathered, from 26th street, to Plaza de Bolívar, people stop every 10 meters with the only purpose of having fun for a while and see the different artists, among them Alfredo Chaparro, better known as the human statue that plays Carlos Vives.

Located a few meters from the Catedral Primada de Bogotá, in front of the house vase, there is the human statue from 11 in the morning until 5:30, in the afternoon on a barrel and with a stereo on the right side. He has managed to win the love and recognition of several people, reaching the point that several television channels have been curious about this interpreter able to honor him without moving the line towards mockery.

Chaparro's interpretation is so good that Carlos Vives himself has communicated with him, through the voice message and then in person. "I do not have words to express my emotion the day I met him," he says, after drinking a little water, looking at the photograph he has with his artist which is stuck on his stereo. He remembers it with surprise since he never imagined that a world-class artist would notice a character from the seventh. He knows that there were moments of discomfort, due to the shyness of the two, because none knew with what words to break the ice and start a stable conversation. In spite of everything, he shows with pride that photograph that shows that everything is possible.

Although that day was one of the best for him, this character has brought him moments of pain, one of which mentions him bending his head and leaning against the wall behind him. "She falls in love with another guy, she didn't like to be played by this character anymore," Squeezing his microphone remember as in the living room of his house, a midnight, his wife told him the shame he felt to walk with a man painted silver, making sure that the relationship ends because, according to her, she wanted a serious man who had planned a secure future, be it an engineer or a doctor.

The separation was a great blow for the artist of the streets; However, he says that nothing compares to the relationship he had with a Venezuelan woman who lasted a year and a half. He met her in the same place where he is standing, playing one of the classics of Carlos Vives, ‘la tierra del olvido’ He says that since he met her everything was beautiful and that for a moment he thought about finding that "half orange" that each person expects to find ... until jealousy and fights arrived, ending the fairy tale.

"It still hurts in my soul, sometimes I feel that I will not be able to continue", he says after twenty days of his breakup, but he knows that he will overcome this difficult situation that is happening. He recalled a lesson his father told him when he was little: "my child, you must be careful to sacrifice personal life for work" Now he manages to understand these words, and looking at the sky, he understands why his father arrived stressed from work because that is the life of the artist who rarely has stability.

However, he does not regret having followed in the footsteps of his father who was a clown. And Chaparro remembers very well when, at the age of 10, he took him to the various events he did, he says that that was what he liked the most about starting to play characters for 20 years, to see how people get excited, "I've always made characters, although I've had other jobs this is the one I love the most."

His career was not the only thing his father left him, there is also the pleasure of seeing cartoons every morning before going to work, after washing his teeth and having breakfast, and then painting and going for a drink in the diagonal cafeteria to the house where he is staying, to come to the seventh, and he do the best he can do: sing. He admits that although he often mimics, in some cases he wants to demonstrate to the people who pass before him that he is capable of singing empirically.

Starting at the traffic lights of Bucaramanga, he moved to Medellin, telling one of his experiences he remembers when the police treated him like a criminal making him feel worse than a cockroach. Apart from the previous event, he says that his stay in the city of flowers was a marvel, with nostalgia he laughs as he knows that to defend those rights that protect the artist, that everyone ignores, was that to this day they cannot stay anywhere in this city. Then he arrived in Bogotá, 10 years ago, first arrived at the traffic lights, until one day he arrived at the seventh

"The seventh without artists is like a meal without salt, without flavor". This justifies why he continues singing in the seventh. For him it is one is a tourist area where all the street artists meet. Highlight that this great tourist road would be nothing without the people who accompany it."The people who come to walk a Sunday or a holiday, it's not for the pigeons, it's to walk and laugh or be impressed with a show that catches their attention". He denies that being an artist on the street is for everyone, he says that it is not simple to take a microphone or invent an act and any day stand in front of the public even if it is on the street, he knows from his great experience that this world it's not for everyone.

Being already 5:15 in the afternoon, Chaparro goes collecting his things talking about how tired it can be to stand more than eight hours, although he also says that it would be more boring if people do not support him.

For this reason he plans to continue until God allows him to do so, he knows that in this profession the future does not exist and that it is best to live day to day; However, all he expects is to know someone who loves him and value him as the generous and humble person described, demonstrating to those envious people that there is no profession in which one cannot succeed if he does it with passion. He knows that no other path awaits him than to die with his face painted.

#artista #callejero #carapintada #carlosvives