Singer opens up about difficult
childhood October 12,2008
by lisa hodge
picture: Getty Images
Date of Birth: 2nd February 1977
Pop
superstar SHAKIRA went from spoiled rich kid to hardship when her
father's jewellery business went bankrupt - and the change in fortunes
gave the singer a first-hand view of a life she'd never have known if
her family hadn't failed.
In a telling essay Shakira has written for the upcoming issue of Newsweek
magazine, the star recalls the family upheaval, which helped to turn her into a
champion for the poor in her native Colombia.
She writes, "When I was seven-years-old, my hardworking father's
jewelry business went bankrupt. I didn't know what the word 'bankrupt'
meant, and when my parents sent me to stay with family friends in Los
Angeles, while they addressed the situation, I assumed that I would
return home to my normal routine.
"But, when I returned, it
seemed everything had changed. Our two cars that I had ridden in to
school or to play with my friends were gone. The air conditioner that
cooled us during the brutally hot Colombian summers had been sold. Our
color television had been traded in for a smaller, black-and-white
version. Foods that I loved were replaced with the bland staples a
mother buys when food becomes sustenance instead of something to be
enjoyed.
"We had gone from being middle class to poor almost
overnight, and from my 7-year-old child's perspective it was hard to
imagine anything worse. I can still viscerally remember the seeming
desperation of that moment."
But the hardship made Shakira stronger and she quickly realised she had taken
so much for granted.
She adds, "My parents found ways to put our situation in perspective
and to show me how fortunate we still were, especially given that,
previously unbeknownst to me, so many families and children had so much
less.
"Most vividly, I remember my father walking me by a park
and watching the street children who lived there. They were my age and
their faces didn't look all that different from mine or my friends, yet
these children truly had nothing. They lived in the dirt, in tattered
clothes and with bare feet, scrounging through garbage for anything to
eat. Many sniffed glue to dull the pain of their existence.
"At that moment, I promised myself that if I was ever able to help, I would."
Since finding fame and fortune, Shakira has set up her own successful
charitable foundation in Colombia, Pies Descalzos, to help the nation's
poorest children. Earlier this month she announced plans to take her
charity global.
http://www.ahlanlive.com/celebs/739-shakira
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