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WORK TITLE: Never Stop Walking
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Coelho, Christiana Mara
BIRTHDATE: 1983
WEBSITE: https://christinarickardsson.se/en/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Sweden
NATIONALITY: Swedish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1983, Diamantina (Minas Gerais), Brazil.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and lecturer. Founder of the Coelho Growth Foundation.
AVOCATIONS:Skydiving.
WRITINGS
Never Stop Walking has been published in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian .
SIDELIGHTS
In her book titled Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World, Christina Rickardsson, born Christina Mara Coelho, tells how she left a life of poverty behind in Brazil to a new life in Sweden. Rickardsson was born into extreme poverty in Brazil, where she spent the first seven years of her life living in forest cafes outside the city of São Paulo. Rickardsson, along with her loving mother and her younger brother, eventually ended up begging on the streets of São Paulo until suddenly both she and her brother were put up for adoption. Rickardsson soon found herself living with caring adoptive parents in Sweden. Although she appeared to be well-adjusted, Rickardsson was living with a seething rage, partly due to being separated from her mother and partly due to struggles adapting to a new world while still dealing with her past traumas.
Commenting on the publication of her memoir, Rickardsson told Rivias Sports website contributor Oskarriby: “The feeling is indescribable, I have always dreamed of getting the chance to tell my story and make a difference for all these poor children who society ignores. That my book is coming out in Brazil is a dream come true and I hope that it can help people in Brazil to realize that these children have so much more to offer.”
Rickardsson, who started a foundation to help poor children in Brazil, details the feral-type life she lived with her brother, Patrick” and their mother Petronilia, who it turns out suffered from schizophrenia. Rickardsson notes that, despite the hard life they lived, their mother was extremely loving and caring. When they moved to São Paulo, Petronilia got a job but Rickardsson and Patrick still had to beg on the streets to get enough to live on. Petronilia eventually decided that her children should have a better life and left them both in an orphanage to be adopted by a Swedish family.
Rickardsson details the psychological trauma she suffered, even though her adoptive parents were kind and loving. Because of her brown skin, Rickardsson stood out in the Swedish world. “Everything was a shock in the beginning,” Rickardsson noted in an interview for the Brasil Wire website, adding: “The weather, the religion, the food culture, how you dress, how you talk and social codes are so much different. It’s like taking someone from planet earth and moving them to Mars to live with the Martians.”
Despite her seeming adjustment to a living in a white, middle-class family and society, Rickardsson never forgot her past and sought to go back to Brazil to fill in the gaps in her life. The memoir details how she eventually went to Brazil to find her mother and come to terms with the traumas in her life. Calling Never Stop Walking “candid and compelling,” a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to note that, in addition to focusing on “a woman seeking to heal the fractures inherent in a transnational identity,” the book also provides “a moving meditation on poverty, injustice, and the meaning of family.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World.
ONLINE
Brasil Wire, http://www.brasilwire.com/ (January 16, 2017), “The Lottery of Life: Christina Rickardsson,” author interview.
Christina Rickardsson website, https://christinarickardsson.se/en (July 17, 2018)
Rivias Sports, https://www.riviasports.com/ (August 28, 2017), Oskarriby, “Christina Rickardsson – Skydiver and Author,” author interview.
Biography
Christina Rickardsson was born in 1983 as Christiana Mara Coelho in Brazil. At the age of seven, she was taken to an orphanage along with her younger brother and then out to Vindeln, a village located in the north of Sweden in a region called Västerbotten. After Christina finished her memoir, Never Stop Walking, she founded the Coelho Growth Foundation, which brings awareness to the plight of child poverty.
Christina Rickardsson was born in 1983 as Christiana Mara Coelho in Brazil in a town called Diamantina (Minas Gerais), where she lived with her mother in a cave. When Christina was around five years old they were kicked out of their home (their cave) and ended up having to move to the streets of a São Paulo, where Christina begged for food and money, and where she was subjected to several physical and psychological abuses. At the age of seven she was taken to an orphanage together with her youngest brother, and when Christina was eight years old they were adopted (against Christina’s and Christina’s mother’s will) and moved to Vindeln, a village located in the north of Sweden in a region called Västerbotten.
Christina’s life changed when she moved to Sweden, but even though she was finally in a safe place, adapting to new country was not easy. There were several culture-clashes and in the beginning it was hard for her to feel at home because everything around her was new: the food, the nature, the people, and also the language spoken around her. Little by little Christiana became Christina, and this change helped her to adapt to the Swedish lifestyle.
Christina wants her book to help increase people’s understanding about differences, prejudice and cultural conflicts, helping to promote dialogue, tolerance towards more open societies. She wants her own experience to become an example of how important it is to secure children’s rights, with Sweden and Brazil and a starting point.
Christina wants her story to inspire governments, companies, organizations and people to work together effectively in multicultural settings.
There are currently about seven million street children in Brazil, and Christina believes it is important to draw attention not only to the situation they are in, but also to the fact that these children have no voice of their own. The writer wants to help change this reality so that all children can live in a society where they can have a safe and happy childhood, and where they contribute to their own society when they become adults.
When I was eight years old I moved to a small community called Vindeln. I was very excited even though it happened against my will. You may think that I was already used to moving to different places since I had already lived in a cave during the early years of my life, then I moved to the streets of São Paulo and then to an orphanage. But none of these changes can be compared to the culture-shock I experienced in 1991 when I was adopted from Brazil to a village in northern Sweden. It was time to become Swedish!
It did not take me a long time to realize that my Swedish friends and I had had completely different upbringings, to say the least. Our childhood could not have been more different. One day I had the idea of writing a book about my story while I was in the kitchen of my house in Vindeln, and as years passed by that idea was always on the back of my head. In the meantime I also had other dreams, such as becoming a space scientist or astronaut, a famous athlete or maybe even an entrepreneur. Today, at the age of 34, I can say that I did not become a space scientist even after spending many nights during my childhood in Sweden looking at stars and planets through my father’s binoculars on the roof of our house.
When I was younger I realized that I needed more action than a very safe life could give me. I decided to dedicate myself to athletics because I have always loved sports and I have always been a good runner, but when I was in high school I had an injury that was so severe that I was forced to change my plans.
A few of my childhood dreams remained intact, and being able to tell the story of my life was one of them. I wanted people to know about my biological mother, about our life together in that cave in the wilderness of Diamantina, and about our struggle to survive. My mother told me stories and made me feel loved and safe even though we were very poor. I remember that on a sunny day we saw cotton wool clouds in a complete clear sky, and it was in that moment that I began to dream about flying. My mother told me that nothing was impossible, and I am very grateful for that. I have met many people who tried to convince me otherwise, but if there is one lesson that I truly learnt in life is that nothing is impossible. When I was 28 years old I climbed to four thousand feet, jumped out of an airplane, unfurled my wings (my parachute), and landed on the ground with my own feet. Since that day I have already climbed and jumped about 400 times more, and I do not want to stop.
Today I have my own company. I am a lecturer, a writer and I have started a foundation to help children and young people in need who live in Brazil.
My first book is called Never Stop Walking and it is a tribute to the three women who mean everything to me and that I lost in one way or another: my biological mother, my adoptive mother and my first true friend, Camile. These women gave me the strength and the courage I needed to follow my own path and to work hard in order to make my dreams come true.
I want my story to inspire people. I want to help them understand that their dreams can become true, no matter where they come from. My life is marked by sadness, pain and loss of loved ones, but it is also marked by a lot of love and joy. In the end, love, friendship and joy, together with the choices that we make, are what make our lives meaningful. We may live completely different lives, but we are all the same on the inside.
Never Stop Walking was published in Sweden in September 2016 with the title Sluta Aldrig Gå and in Brazil in August 2017, where it is called Nunca Deixe de Acreditar. It will also be available in languages such as English, Spanish, French, German and Italian in a near future by the American publisher Amazon.
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Rickardsson, Christina: NEVER STOP WALKING
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rickardsson, Christina NEVER STOP WALKING AmazonCrossing (Adult Nonfiction) $24.95 6, 1 ISBN: 978-1-5039-0096-7
A Brazilian-born Swedish woman's account of childhood poverty and reconciling her early trauma with her experiences in adulthood.
In 2012, Rickardsson discovered that she had suddenly "hit the wall." Gradually, it became clear that her troubled past had finally caught up with her. Growing up, she and her younger brother, Patrick, had lived a feral existence alongside their schizophrenic single mother, Petronilia, in a series of caves just outside Sao Paulo. As difficult as their circumstances were, their mother still managed to make their lives bearable through her unstinting love. Eventually, the family made their way to Sao Paulo's favelas, where Petronilia worked menial jobs and Rickardsson quickly learned that survival meant doing whatever it took to secure a meal. In one disturbing episode, she recounts how she inadvertently killed a young boy who tried to steal her food scraps. But the author never forgot the stolen moments of joy she experienced with other street children. Petronilia eventually left her children in an orphanage that brokered their adoption into a Swedish family. Life in Europe was far easier materially, but emotionally, Rickardsson realized she had been "split in two." On the outside, she was Christina, the brown-skinned girl who strove to fit into a white, upper-middle-class Swedish world. On the inside, she was Christiana, the scrappy street fighter who bore the weight of a painful past. Rickardsson's breakthrough came when she found the name of the orphanage from which she had been adopted. Seeking to bridge the gap between who she was and who she became, the author flew to Brazil to find her mother and come to terms with her past. Both candid and compelling, Rickardsson's story is not only about a woman seeking to heal the fractures inherent in a transnational identity; it is also a moving meditation on poverty, injustice, and the meaning of family.
1 of 2 6/25/18, 11:12 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
A thought-provoking and humane memoir of survival and self-discovery.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rickardsson, Christina: NEVER STOP WALKING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700513/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=10536094. Accessed 26 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700513
2 of 2 6/25/18, 11:12 PM
The lottery of life: Christina Rickardsson
CULTURE
Christina Rickardsson, 33, is a successful Swedish businesswoman who spent the first years of her life as Christiana Mara Coelho , one of tens of thousands of homeless children who did what they could to survive on the rough streets of Brazilian cities during the crisis years of the 1980s and 1990s. After winding up in an overcrowded charity orphanage at the age of 8, she and her brother Patrick were adopted by a Swedish couple and had a traditional upbringing in the northern town of Umea. She had completely forgotten Portuguese when, 24 years later, she traveled back to find the orphanage and her biological mother. The book she wrote about these experiences, Sluta Aldrig Gå, is currently a best seller in Sweden, slated for release in Brasil some time in the first half of 2017 and rumored to be released in English some time in the near future. She is a successful motivational speaker and her TED lecture can be seen here. Brasil Wire caught up with Christina last week as she was meeting with her publishing company and visiting favelas and orphanages for her new non-profit organization, the Coelho Growth Foundation, which she plans to use to help improve conditions for poor children in Brasil.
Tell us a little about your book
My book is an autobiography. Roughly translated into English it would be “Never Stop Walking”. It tells the story of my mom and I and our lives here in Brasil. When I was 15 days old we moved to a cave outside of Diamantina, Minas Gerais. We lived out there in the wilderness by ourselves until I was 5 years old, struggling, and sometimes we went into the town to beg on the streets for food and money to survive and then we got chased out of our cave and ended up on the streets in São Paulo, sometimes in the favelas. Life was very tough. So the book is about me and my mom’s journey through all that, but also about what happened later. When I was about 7 years old my brother and I ended up in an orphanage here in São Paulo and at the age of 8 we were adopted to Northern Sweden and that was a huge cultural shock for me. So the book has two stories simultaneously. One story is Christiana Mara Coelho , the Brazilian girl telling her stories and talking about her memories and her life. The other story is Christina Rickardsson , the 32 year old Swedish woman telling her story of going back to Brazil for the first time to try to find the orphanage and her family and the cave where she lived and through that you get to follow my story, my thoughts and my feelings but I also talk a lot about what home and family are, what a country should and should not do for its citizens, how we treat each other and so on so it’s much more than just a personal story.
What was it like arriving in Sweden as an 8 year old?
Everything was a shock in the beginning. The weather, the religion, the food culture, how you dress, how you talk and social codes are so much different. It’s like taking someone from planet earth and moving them to Mars to live with the Martians. When I came to Sweden I learned very quickly that who I was, Christiana, was not accepted because I was not Swedish. So what I realized very fast was that I had to become Swedish. So I forgot all my Portuguese in two months and I spoke Swedish. I remember that it was a shock to me that I couldn’t communicate with people and I was afraid that if something happened to me I wouldn’t be able to tell my new parents or that I wouldn’t fit in so it became psychological, it became a huge shock. That is what I remember feeling.
In the end it was a very good experience but it is important to say that I never felt that I lost my Brazilian me. I always saw myself as a Brasilian but of course after 25 years in Sweden I became Swedish too so the way I look at myself is that I have two nationalities, different cultures and when you are 8 years old you pretty much already have your culture and personality. I still have those Brazilian parts of my personality but maybe I don’t have those characteristics up there the same way that I do when I come back here. I adapted those characteristics more to the Swedish culture but I am a little bit warmer than the average person back in Sweden. I hug a lot, I kiss a lot and it’s true I do not always arrive on time (laughs).
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Photo taken in the cave where Christina lived for the first 5 years of her life with her mother, outside Diamantina, MG.
When you left Brasil during the early 1990s it was in a crisis. There was a terrible hunger epidemic and it looked like Brasil was sliding into oblivion. That is the moment you left and you came back 24 years later. What do you notice that has changed?
I think that when I returned here the first time my mind was more set on finding myself so I don’t think I was thinking a lot about the difference between now and then. The first thing I noticed was that I didn’t see as many street children as I remembered because I was a street child myself. I don’t know if that is because I wasn’t in the right neighborhoods. I stayed in Jardins and I don’t expect Jardins to have a lot of street children. I was hoping that I wouldn’t find any street children or homeless people at all or so many favelas or poor areas. I knew they exist because I read the newspapers at home but I was still hoping that it would be much better and I was a little disappointed that it is not.
The 2009 Federal Adoption Law forces orphanages to conduct a thorough search for all family members and prioritize placing children with relatives before enabling them to be available to adoption, something that has become much easier to do because of the internet. If you were put in an orphanage today you wouldn’t be taken to Sweden because they would have to find your family. What was it like finding them again?
I am very glad that I found a part of my family and we are still reconnecting and getting to know each other. I think it’s very difficult to explain to people who haven’t been through it, separating from your family and then trying to reconnect. I have had a totally different life up there. There are cultural issues between us. You have to get to know each other all over again.
Are you happy that you went to Sweden for 25 years or would you have rather been in Brasil the whole time?
I wouldn’t change my life in Sweden because I really got to know beautiful people and I have had a good life and I got an education and a different life from what I would have had here. But the adoption could have gone a different way. They could have done it more smoothly so the shock wouldn’t have been so huge. But I don’t believe in thinking, ‘if I could have done things differently’ and living in the past. I think you should strive to do the best with what you have and always strive to be better and move forwards but I’m glad to hear that Brazilians have better adoption laws now then they had when I was 8 years old because the way that the adoption went for me was not the best. It was a shock but I am very glad for having my life in Sweden.
Christina Rickardsson – Skydiver and author
by oskarriby on 28 August, 2017 in Ambassadors, blog, Brazil
Christina Rickardsson, “Kicki”, one of Sweden’s most circumscribed author this last months. This due to her latest book, “Sluta aldrig gå – från gatan i Sao Paulo till Vindeln i Norrland” which have been translated to Portuguese and distributed in Brazil.
Kicki is, like Rivia, born and raised in Brazil, however Kicki’s childhood was not the easiest. She was raised by her mother in a cave deep in Diamantina and by the age of eight she was adopted to Sweden. After many years of thinking she decided to follow her dreams and to write the book of her story.
For those who haven’t read Sluta aldrig gå, what is it about?
My debut book is an autobiography. It is about a different journey that begins in Brazil’s wilderness and ends in the northern Swedish forests in Sweden. I tell you how my mother and I lived in a cave my first five years in Brazil. About how poor we were but also about the love we shared. How life became so much tougher when we were forced to live on the street of Sao Paulo and in the favelas. The book is about loss of grief and physical and mental pain that I as a child went through but also about joy, love and friendship. It´s about when I first arrived in Sweden and about finding courage and strength to face my own story.
It is a book that I hope can create deeper insight into the fact that we are all so much worth and that if children get the right opportunities in life, they can follow their dreams and be so much more than a street rat that society ignores.
Sluta aldrig gå - Christina Rickardsson
How is the feeling to see your book in your motherland?
The feeling is indescribable, I have always dreamed of getting the chance to tell my story and make a difference for all these poor children who society ignores. That my book is coming out in Brazil is a dream come true and I hope that it can help people in Brazil to realize that these children have so much more to offer. That they have not chosen to be born into poverty and that they are entitled to schooling and health care among many things. That they are not a burden for society if they are given that chance to make something of themselves.
Besides writing, Kicki is running a foundation which donate money to the orphan in Brazil where she stayed before moving to Sweden.
Beside writing you are also a skydiver. How is that?
I love to Skydive and jump out of airplanes or helicopters. It’s more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. Jumping out of a plane from four thousand meters falling among the clouds is a feeling that is indescribable. Something that everyone should try sometime. It is a sense of freedom that is something out of the ordinary.
We know you enjoy working out, which Rivia Sports piece is your favourite for that?
Asking me to choose a favorite piece among Rivia’s clothes is like asking me where I like to skydive most. I love to jump everywhere and the same is with Rivia Sports’ clothes, I love them all. But right now, I use tights and sports bra for almost everything, not just when I’m working out. It’s one of the things I love with the clothes. They are awesome to work out in, but are perfect for everyday life as well. Win Win!
If I have to choose something it has to be Forza High Tights and Selva Active Tights.
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You are working on a new book, can you tell us anything about it?
Hahaha, no, I can not because it’s still a secret. But there is a connection to my first book and I hope my readers will like it.
The book is available in Swedish and now in Portuguese. During 2018 it will be released in English, Italian, France, German and Spanish.
Buy Kicki’s book here and follow her on Instagram.
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