Zapatos nuevos: Pachi Tamer en TEDxRosario

I've bought new shoes,

and I wanted to show them to you.

I bought them from this guy.

His name is Catalino,
he's been living here,

in North Rosario Station
for over 20 years.

Here is Catalino giving me his shoes.

I bought them specially for this talk,

because for me,
it's a very special occasion.

And I wanted to have new shoes.

I studied Advertising in Buenos Aires.

In the Faculty we were given an excercise

that was about going out
and changing something

in order to observe people's reactions.

So I dressed like I'm dressed today

and I went to the Obelisco

and when the cars stopped at the light,

instead of asking for money
I gave them one peso.

What did I learn?

I realized people
have a lot of prejudices.

Because as soon as they saw me
approaching their car,

they closed the window
or looked to the front

pretending that nobody was there,

they also made me uncomfortable,

a feeling that lasted
until the next red light,

when they became uncomfortable again,
ignoring another person.

Women usually put the bag in the back.

The excercise was a success,

and that's how I got my first job
at Agulla y Baccetti.

After that I went to Vega Olmos Ponce

and in 2001 I escaped
our Great Depression,

by going to London
with just thousand dollars,

a tourist visa
and speaking no English at all.

I survived one year,
I worked washing dishes,

building scaffolding
for construction sites

and installing heating and AC equipments.

I came back from London
deported for working illegally,

and twice the hours allowed,

but it was the best experience of my life.

I returned to work in advertising
for two years in a new agency,

until I got an offer
from another agency in New York

and I took it without second thoughts..

But this time I had a paid apartment
in front of the Empire State

and a salary of US $60,000 a year.

A completely different experience,

but that I could really
appreciate after London.

Then I met my girlfriend.

Soon after we moved in together

I got a call from another agency
in Austin, Texas,

offering me a job.

I told them, "Listen, I just moved in
with my girlfriend a month ago.

I can't take it. She has a job here."

And they said,
"We'll also give her a job."

So we went to Austin for a weekend,
we liked the city, and we moved there.

We arrived on a Sunday

and on Monday we found out
she was pregnant.

So we got married, I brought
my parents from Argentina

and we got married
in Puerto Rico, pregnant.

We got married pregnant,
but we were really happy.

In 2009 Elena was born.
She is the love of my life.

She is that baby.

When Elena was a year and a half old,
I got a call from my brother.

I was having lunch,

and he tells me that my parents
have had a really bad car accident.

He didn't know how they were.

He only knew they were
in a serious condition.

it happenned near Rafaela
coming from Santiago del Estero.

And there were no news.

Without no information I took a plane.

A friend was waiting for me
in Ezeiza and he took me there.

And I found this.

My father was in coma and --

(Sobs)

My mum had all her bones broken.

My dad was in a coma
for 10 months until he died,

and my mom was six months
in bed with six surgeries.

This was the last time
I hold my father's hand,

because at the beginning
he listened to me responded

and then, not anymore.

So, I went back to Austin,
to work, I had to keep working.

And 5 months before my father died,

one morning me and my wife had an argument

and I left to work slamming the door.

The next day I received a divorce petition

and I was left on the street.

I lost my daughter, my house,

my parents in that situation in Argentina,

I was completely alone

and I moved to a friend's house
to sleep on a couch.

At that time I was using Instagram,
the pictures application, like any other,

taking pictures of the sky, a bird,
whatever crossed my way.

Until one day I met this man.

I asked him for a portrait
and I gave him a dollar for the photo,

we started chatting
and he told me his story.

And suddenly all my problems
became very small compared to his story.

It helped me to appreciate
all the things I had,

quite a few,

I was healthy, my daughter was healthy,

I had a couch to sleep, which is a lot.

And since that day

I focused on taking portraits
of people who live in the streets.

I found in them the family that I needed,
the support I needed.

Their stories made me
appreciate all the things I had.

And I started gaining followers,

I always uploaded the picture
along with their names

and a bit of their story
if I found it interesting.

I found in them the family I was missing.

Until one day I met this guy, we talked,

I took the picture, paid him a dollar

and before I left, he told me,

"Do you know the only thing
I'd like to do before I die?"

I say, "No." And he said, "Oktoberfest!"

"Oktoberfest?"

He told me he was of German descent,

and he had always dreamed
of visiting Germany.

We laughed and I went to work.

And on my way to work --

At the time I had
like 5,000 followers on Instagram.

On my way to work, I got the idea,

if every follower
I have donates one dollar,

which is what I paid for each portrait

I can take this guy to Germany,

I can make a book out of the experience.

And I started dreaming about it...

And without much thinking, I uploaded
his picture with the headline:

"Who wants to take
this guy to Oktoberfest"

I opened a Paypal account,
I created a site called One Dollar Dreams.

And suddenly a lady from Japan
sent me 100 dollars,

and a guy from South Africa sent me five

and another one
from the United States sent me two.

And I realized I had
a good idea, a big idea.

My father died around that time

and I have a friend who lives
in Colombia and he says,

"Why don't you come and stay?

Forget about your problems.

I bought the ticket with miles
and I went to Colombia.

In Colombia I took pictures.

While my friend was at work,
I went out and took pictures,

I listened to stories
and wrote down names.

And I found a completely different reality
from the one in the United States,

like in any other Latin American country.

The reality of the people who live
on the streets is very different here.

I met this guy

who asked me for money to buy shoes

and as I knew he was going
to spend the money in something else,

I went with him to buy them.

Here he is trying the shoes

and here he is happy with his new shoes.

I kept taking pictures until I met --

This is how people sleep in Colombia.

And it is part of the landscape,
we don't notice it.

See how people keep on walking,
he doesn't exist,

he is just another piece of rubbish.

Look how close that bus passes by...

Until I met this guy, whose name is Alex

Alex came from a small inland town

to Medellin to play
the guitar on the buses

and he was addicted to crack cocaine.

He went to buy drugs and when he finished,

they cut him with a knife
and they stole the drugs,

his guitar, his shoes, everything.

He'd been living on the streets
for three days,

his feet were swollen, he could not walk

In his hand he had a card
from a rehab center.

He told me he couldn't handle it anymore,

he had asked the police
to give him a ride to the center

and they ignored him.

Then I asked him
if he really wanted rehab.

He said it was what he wanted the most,
he could not put up with it anymore.

So we took a cab and I took him to rehab,

I became his guardian

and Alex was there for ten months
until he went out and got a job.

I went back to Austin and the agency
sent me to Mexico for a commercial shoot.

After that I stayed
over the weekend with a friend

and I took pictures in Mexico.

That boy is the first picture I took.

He was painted as a clown,
asking for money at the traffic light

and his parents were at the corner
drinking wine and waiting for the money.

This is Mexico,
many children on the streets.

And I kept hearing stories
and telling all live through Instagram.

And gaining followers and people
gave me encouragement.

Again, it helped me a lot
with my own personal story,

and also as I've always
worked in advertising,

I like ideas, I am passionate about ideas
and solving problems,

but I'm not passionate about selling
Monsanto snacks, do you understand?

So I found in this project something
that really filled my life.

I had to go to edit the spot to LA

and I had to do it
from Wednesday to Thursday,

I didn't have any money, so I stayed
over the weekend on the streets.

And I spent the weekend in LA
sharing the experience live

through Instagram

I took pictures in LA
and then I went back to Austin.

There I found this man.

This man was a chef and was unemployed.

I took him to a store,
I bought him a chef set,

a set of knives and we went together
to different restaurants

and I offered the restaurants advertising

through my social networks in exchange,
so he could get a job

and he got a job
in the first place we went.

Then I got invited to give a speech
in Uruguay, I went 10 days in advance.

I took pictures there,

and for the conference

what I did was to take a guy
from the street.

This guy, Sebastián.

And I did the opposite
to what I did here today.

I dressed him as an advertiser,

he got a hotel room and new clothes,

he was among the people
during the festival

and then I realized the same happens
in reverse in relation to appearance.

If you are well dressed, no matter
if you're alcoholic or homeless,

people respects you.

Then I went to Spain to visit a friend,

it's great to have friends
all over the world.

I took pictures in Madrid for 10 days

and through Instagram a journalist
asked me for an interview.

After the interview, she offered me
her apartment in Barcelona

and I went to Barcelona
and stayed 10 days.

Taking pictures in Barcelona.

All this is Spain.

Many pictures in Spain.

Then I got an invite from El Salvador
and I did the same.

I went 10 days before to take pictures,

but for my talk,
what I did was I got in touch

with the mother
of a person of the audience,

without him knowing and I dressed
his mom as a homeless,

I took pictures of his mom
dressed as homeless.

Then when I was showing
the photos as I'm doing now,

suddenly this guy's mother
appeared on screen, this one.

Nobody knew but him,

now he will no longer see
the homeless the same way.

Why? Because when
that person is a relative,

our perspective changes.

When is someone we love.

And those people on the streets
are brothers of someone,

someone's children,
someone's mother, all of them.

After that I returned to Austin

and wanted to do a larger study
of the United States

because I only had done Austin and LA.

I had no money,

and as usual, I took my car
and left with thousand dollars,

the same amount of money
I had when going to London.

I spent two months on the road,
I traveled ten thousand miles.

I went to Las Vegas, LA,
San Francisco, Denver,

Saint Louis, Detroit, New York,

Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Key West,

New Orleans and I returned to Austin.

People opened their houses for me,

they gave me money, food,
and a lot of support.

In San Francisco I invited
a homeless guy to come with me

and we traveled together
for a month and I left him in Key West.

The trip was a success.

And finally, I want to talk about luck.

About its importance.

Because we often discriminate
people for their appearance,

but we don't consider it's all luck.

You are very lucky to be here today,

listening to this talk and well dressed.

Luck is a major factor,

not only in what we get from life

but also in the decisions we make.

Because that conditions
what you can decide later.

For example, this hat that I have

is the result of an alcoholic
and abusive father.

This hat.

This jacket is my brother
that gave me glue when I was seven

This is its meaning.

These shoes that I have
are never going to school

Catalino's shoes, painful,
very painful shoes.

This shirt I'm wearing

is all the times I've been hit

by friends, by those good friends.

And finally, these pants
are my mum who worked as a prostitute

and was never home.

We are all equal, as you can see.

We may have very small differences.

But I always try to be thankful
for what I have,

and not concerned for what I'm missing.

(Applause)

This --

This underwear

is being born in the Sanatorio Británico

assisted for the best doctors.

That's its meaning.

This shirt is having gone
to a private Marist school

from preschool to high school.

Martín Jáuregui: Wait, I'll help you.
We keep applauding right?

(Applause)

Pachi Tamer: Ironed by my mom.

She ironed it yesterday night.
She is somewhere around here.

These pants are the result
of starting a degree three times

and having my parents that supported me
until I found what I like.

(Applause)

(Applause ends)

And finally these are my shoes,
which I use every day.

They represent my mom's effort

because at 74 she keeps working

so a fucking divorce doesn't leave me
living on the streets.

These are my shoes.

Thank you all for walking
in them for 18 minutes.

Thank you mom. Thank you all.

(Applause)