CHAPTER FOUR
LOS ANGELES, CA USA
“The man who acquires the ability to take full
possession of his own mind may take possession
of anything else to which he is justly entitled”
Andrew Carnegie
New Destination: Los Angeles, California. July, 1980. With the name, Mrs. Dominique Welch, the sister of his woman acquaintance in Goiania, in his pocket, he returned to Jaguariuna to tell his mother that he was going to a seminar promoted by the company in Los Angeles. He dared not tell her he was going to the US without any plans. She would have a heart attack! So he was off to the USA.
His plan was to fly to Miami and catch a train to Los Angeles, but when he arrived in Miami he learned that flying was cheaper than the train. He had one thousand dollars on his pocket, and had spent three hundred for the plane ticket. So finally he arrived in Los Angeles.
Like many newcomers Tony was amazed with L.A. It was very different from home. The cars were different. The people were different. And one of the most amazing things was that cars would stop for pedestrians. Unbelievable! Even in Hollywood (considered a bad neighborhood at the time), you would start crossing the road and all the cars stopped! It was a dream come true.
Because Mrs. Dominique Welch was traveling in Europe that week, Tony had to wait a week until she returned.
Even though he barely spoke English he had lots of fun. His European appearance caused some people to confuse him with a local, and he would laugh about it.
One day he went to the local McDonald’s (at the time there were none in Brazil), and he asked for a hamburger, and the person asked him, “Is it for here or to go?”
He understood that to mean, “Where are you from?”
So his answered, “From Brazil, From Brazil.” The confused counter person simply shrugged and handed him the bag! Later he laughed about it.
Finally Dominique arrived. He was expecting an old lady, but when this beautiful girl with tan skin, driving a Mercedes convertible showed up, he couldn’t believe she could be his friend’s sister. She was totally different than he had imagined!
She drove him to the tallest building in Los Angeles, where her lawyer husband had his office. It was like being in a movie.. The surroundings were so beautiful; here was all the technology, all the glamour of Los Angeles!
Dominique introduced him to one of the firm’s attorneys who worked for her husband, explained to him Tony’s intention to stay and work in the USA and asked him what the young man’s options were.
The attorney advised him that the best option was to return to Brazil. I guess he gave the wrong advice, considering that he was speaking to Tony Lima.
Later that day Dominique took him to the office of Bank of Brazil, which was nearby, and introduced him to the secretary of the bank who told him he must meet some people from Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil, who could help him.
In the morning of the following day Dominique drove him to Monrovia, near Pasadena, to meet the people referred by the secretary at the Bank of Brazil.
When he arrived one of the people, Henrique, told Tony, “You got no time to lose, you must get the Social Security card” and took him to the local Social Security office. In an amazing coincidence they learned that this was the last month you could get Social Security without restriction to work in the USA. If he had waited a few more days, he would not be able to get it.
Henrique invited Tony to live with them until he found a place to stay. He also helped him to get a job as a dishwasher at a nearby Japanese restaurant called Shogun. He gave a loud, “YES.” He would make four hundred dollars per month plus two hundred dollars of tips. That’s it: Tips! The Japanese people would share everything at the restaurant. Unbelievable! All this cultural learning was fantastic. Another, much needed benefit was free meals.
Well, he had a job now. So he decided to buy his first car in the USA. It was a beat– up 1969 Ford LTD. But he was thrilled with it. It had automatic transmission, power steering, air conditioning. This was a new luxury for him.
So the next step was to look for a place to live permanently and also to look for additional jobs. In the local paper he saw an ad to sell Amway products. He had no doubts, called for it and met an American couple who lived in the nearby city of Alhambra. They were a middle age couple with no kids, so they offered him an opportunity to work and to rent a room in their house, even though he only spoke a few words of English.
The American couple would take him to all the Amway meetings, where most of the people were Americans; he did not understand anything, but he was amazed at the new things he discovered. The houses, the carpets, the kitchens, the ceiling, the people, etc. again everything was so unique and so different for him. It was so interesting to perceive the values by someone who never had these before and yet so many people took it for granted.
There was a time in one of the Amway meetings, when they were talking about goals for the money to be earned by selling Amway products. When someone asked Tony what he would do with it, he had no hesitation. He said, “I want to buy a Chevy TransAm.”
Everyone looked at him surprised. He did not know how the auto finance system worked in the US where you walk into the dealership and with little or no money drive the car home, especially a cheap American car. But for him this was the great thing!
However, selling Amway products was not his future. It was a very interesting concept, but for a person who did not speak English and knew few people, it was very hard to make it.
In the meantime one of the roommates had left the apartment of the Brazilians “gauchos” (name given to the Brazilians born in the state of Rio Grande do Sul) and they invited Tony to live with them. He accepted immediately because it had been hard for him struggling with a foreign language and not hearing his own native tongue.
Things at work were going well. He was promoted to a busboy now. The old busboy, a Brazilian kid, had quit because he was going to vacation with his parents. Tony wasted no time, worked very hard, and got the admiration of most people at the restaurant. At the same time he changed his visa from tourist to student.
One day the restaurant promoted a party and offered a contest for all employees.
The winner would receive a TV set for the best performance of the employees; it could be as a singer or a comedian. So Tony decided to be a comedian. Now, try to picture this, someone who barely speaks English trying to imitate some Japanese cooks, who also did not speak English. It was hilarious! Everyone laughed so hard that the first prize was unanimous. He won. Hands down. He was very happy. Can you imagine his feeling? Being new in the USA, at the job, barely speaking the language and winning first prize!
One of Tony’s decisions about learning English was that he would learn ten new words everyday; he did worry about the pronunciation but the meaning of it. It seemed to work well and after six months he could communicate well.
When the Brazilian kid returned from vacation, he was expecting the get the busboy job back, instead the manager gave him the dishwasher position. The kid was enraged at Tony and started a war with him. Tony decided not to fight back and quit the job.
In the following week he got a job as an assistant cook in another restaurant nearby. The manager told him to start the following week.
So he decided to go to Las Vegas with some friends. After all he had a new job and some money saved by now.
When he got to Vegas he could not believe his eyes. Even though he has seen a lot of Vegas on TV. Yet in reality it was awesome. All the lights, all the people, the impressive casinos, this was a real “mirage” in the desert. He was amazed to see what could be accomplished, this fantastic, magical oasis in the middle of nowhere!
After a great weekend he came home very motivated to begin the new job. Not only did he have a new and a higher position, but a better salary as well.
At the new job he got a surprise. The manager told him that she hired someone else. His heart sank. He was so disappointed. So he had to get another job, and started to apply at all the restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. He would walk around Valley Blvd, a long street in Los Angeles, going to every shop filling out applications. Nothing. It seemed that all doors had been shut.
By a month later in December he still had not been able to find a job. Finally he saw an ad in the local paper for an opening to work at the Salvation Army to collect donations in supermarkets and pharmacies. Wow! Finally he got a job. He was relieved because he had completely run out of money by now. His parents had called him and asked him if everything was OK. It seems that parents know when the kids need help. Not wanting them to worry he told them everything is OK.
So to survive without money he would get some donations, which people would put in his hands, a steady supply into the Salvation Army bucket. He used two dollars a day to buy hamburgers until he got his first check.
He persisted in finding a permanent job, until he finally got not one, but two new jobs. One job was as an assistant cook at the Sizzler Restaurant and the second was as a dishwasher at the Elks Club in Monrovia.
He worked hard day and night, starting at 4:00 AM and not finishing until 11:00 PM Slowly things were getting in place. A while later he got a new job as a bartender at Shakey’s Pizza that helped him a lot with the English, because he would talk to lots of people now.
In early 1981 some new “gauchos” came from Brazil to visit his roommates. They were a group of 12 with a crazy idea: They would purchase motorcycles 750cc (the biggest motorcycles available at the time by Japanese manufacturers) and they would drive all the way to Brazil. What a wonderful idea, he thought! I want to do it! Although he was in no position to do it at the moment, he convinced his roommate Celso that they, together, would go in July of 81.
Wonderful! All planned now, Tony and Celso bought the motorcycles, Tony got a Honda 750F and Celso a 750K (for motorcycle lovers). Now Tony is this skinny guy weighing about 140 lbs, 5’8” riding a bike weighing about 500 lbs. What a combination! Having bought all they needed in the way of maps and supplies, they were ready to go.
A week before departure Tony and his roommate, Celso go bowling with Celso’s girlfriend and her two sisters. His girlfriend had just learned to ride a motorcycle and she was riding one of Celso’s (Honda 400F), with one of her sisters in the backseat. On their way back home from bowling, at about 1:00 AM they were stopped by a traffic light and they got to the side-by-side position. When the traffic light changed to green Celso’s girlfriend drove off first, just in front of the other’s eyes a van coming from the opposite side crossed the street on the red light and hit her right in the middle of the bike. They were taken to the local hospital, his girlfriend with only bruises, but her sister broke her leg in three places and had to go to surgery.
So Celso decided to put off the trip and Tony decided to ship the bike by boat to Buenos Aires, Argentina and flew back to Brazil.