Anamá Ferreira He arrived in Argentina from Minas Gerais in 1976, with a suitcase and advice: “Fix, and if you don’t work, you leave.” The initial idea was to be in Buenos Aires 10 days and leave for Paris to prove in the fashion world. Without any contact in the Old Continent, its only letter of introduction was its endless legs and its challengingly exotic beauty. In his homeland he had left his family, the absence of a deceased brother and an unfinished lawyer. But nothing expected was thought and day after day it was convinced that Argentina could be its place in the world. Friendly, seductive and comic, he ended up starring in the golden age of fashion in the ’80 with Mora Furtado, Teté Coustarot and Teresa Calandra, parading for Top brands such as Paco Rabanne and André Courrèges, and starring Vogue and Elle’s covers. The TV put its eyes on it and quickly became part of the original cast of the “News table” series, where its fame multiplied to the celebrity level. With all that resonance, he created his own models school, Anamá Models School, with which he continues until today.
Anamá does not live from his past glory or the VHS who have it as one of the key women of the national show of the last 45 years. Today the television program leads “Witch afternoon” On net TV, and entered the streaming code with its own program “We don’t supply” In Love / ST TV. Authorized voice of those who lived everything, and decorated as an outstanding personality of the culture of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, spoke with news.
News: For the majority, he is Argentina, born in “News table”; But the reality is that it is Brazilian and came to our country unintentionally.
Anamá Ferreira: Yes, I was born in Campobello, a city of Minas Gerais, southeast of Brazil. Then I moved to Rio de Janeiro to study law. I loved the race, and in fact I need just a year to finish it. In Buenos Aires I made a year in the UADE, and the other three in Brazil. They accepted me with all the papers when I arrived here, I took a lot but it was very intense and ended up leaving.
News: Brazilians do not like to leave your country, however, you left your hometown and after Rio de Janeiro.
Ferreira: I felt my life was somewhere else. But it was in parts. In Minas Gerais we did not know the sea so seeing the beaches of Rio and the carnival atmosphere motivated me to leave. And in Rio I discovered another life. I came from a very conservative, closed town. She was a tall, skinny, modern teenager, and that was not understood there. I suffered a lot of bullying. Nobody wanted to dance with me in the dances, they told me horrible things, I cried every night. He had a poster of an Argentine model called Kouka Denis that was famous, worshiped in Paris. He dreamed of his life. Rio de Janeiro felt it like a bridge towards the life I intended.
News: In Río began working as a model?
Ferreira: Yes. I had never worked before. The only thing I knew how to do in Mina Gerais was to dye machine, 140 words per minute, because in my city there were not many options. But in Rio I began to meet people from the environment. One night, at a party, a colleague asked me if I knew Buenos Aires. I said no, that I was going to Paris, in fact I had a contract and passage. But that girl told me: “In Buenos Aires there is not a single black model, it will do well.” He sold it so well that I started thinking about it. Paris could wait. And so I arrived in Buenos Aires.
News: How was your arrival in the country?
Ferreira: Alone, in micro. It was February 76. I went down in a box where Puerto Madero is today, at that time there was nothing. I became a friend of some girls in two minutes, I am very sociable (smile), and we went to a half weird hotel on Tres Sergeant street. But there began to activate what I call “the red thread.” One of the girls knew a woman who worked in the anteojito and she introduced me to a painter, who took me with José Luis Perotta, a very important fashion photographer. He told me: “You’re going to do parades, but advertising … I don’t know if black in advertising here.” And so it was, parade after parade. The first was on March 24, the day of the military coup. Imagine, on the street they burned collective, people shouted. It was all very confusing, but there I was, parading.
News: When was the click “I stay”?
Ferreira: The key parade was that of Charlie Grilli, on April 5, 1976. It was an explosion. I left in all newspapers and magazines. “Who is that girl?” They said. I didn’t know anyone, but they started calling me everywhere. I became a friend of Mora Furtado, Virginia Elizalde, Teté Coustarot. Then they introduced me to Luis Puenzo, who called me to advertise Gancia. I went to casting, I stayed. It was weird for the time to see a black model in an advertising, but I never thought I couldn’t. I’m always thoroughly, no matter what they say about me. I am a formula 1, or I go to 300 kilometers per hour or I am nowhere.
News: The fashion atmosphere how did you treat it?
Ferreira: At first they saw me as “the exotic.” They were all hegemonic models and me. Until one day I said: “Enough! I am not exotic. I am a normal person.” Because I have character, I’m brave. I planted. I didn’t want to be tagged. It was a model, point. Like anyone. And that opened a different path. I always worked, I never lacked anything. I had my passage to Paris saved, but Buenos Aires chose me before. And I also chose to stay.
News: The Brazilian has an adaptation problem, feels the lack of the beach, heat, samba.
Ferreira: It is not my case. Not even with the language. I always understood. I always had that facility. And when I arrived, I lived it naturally. I felt that in Argentina I could develop. Before they made me bullying, they looked at me weird, but then all that was transformed and exploded in this country. The break was in Rio, when I met a Top designer. I planted in front of him and said: “I am a model, I want to work with you.” He tried a haute couture dress and told me something that I never forgot: “With those legs you can show all the dresses you want.”
News: The Argentine television of the 80s was the paradigm of machismo and the reification of women, however, it shone.
Ferreira: Machismo existed and was strong, but I did not suffer directly. I entered a bright and unforgettable litter like that of the brothers Meza, Gianni Lunadei, Alberto Fernández de Rosa, Adriana Salgueiro, Carmen Barbieri. Grace Jones was also fashionable and I cut my hair like her. She was sophisticated and hit the people. Andrés summoned me to make “Andrés’ portraits” on Channel 13, which was a TV Top program. We were ten divine models, every Sunday night. They had a lot of respect, we were as unattainable.
News: Most of the figures of that time fell into excesses and ended badly.
Ferreira: I was always afraid. I met everyone, humorists and musicians. The worst combination, but I always knew when it was time to return home. In my exit groups were Charly García, the grandparents out of nowhere, Sumo, Riff and all of television, Sumale Monzón, Sandro, Olmedo, Porcel and the one you imagine. I was on the beach that afternoon when the grandparents fought with Charly in Mar del Plata. But I always stayed out. I never got high. I didn’t even drink alcohol. Not because I was holy, but because I saw what the drug caused. They told me “mask”, but I didn’t care. Today I appreciate it. I always say the same thing: “The night is pretty and very funny, but you have to know when to go to sleep.”
News: He was a mother at 43. How did that experience live?
Ferreira: It was a miracle. He had done many treatments and was not pregnant. I went to Salta, I received the Virgin, and a month I was pregnant. I worked on Channel 13, did “360: Everything to see” with Julián Weich. I was the first to appear on television with a belly. At that time it was not shown, he hid. But I measured my belly every day and I was on the channel until I stopped. Taina was born and changed my life. I gave him the values that formed me: effort, education, independence. I invested everything in their training. While others put money in properties, I opted for their education. Today speaks four languages. It gives me a lot of pride.
News: Did you never think of returning to Brazil?
Ferreira: My mistake was not to work beyond. Because there they hardly know me. But I never considered going back. I have a marriage to Argentina. Sometimes we argue, but it is an eternal love.
News: If he confessed his own and others, would more than one scandal explode, right?
Ferreira: Yes, but I am a grave. The same would be more outside than their own. I was married for a long time. Now I’m single. The subject is rare. Men costs them. The women of 70 are divine and they do not, age of the head and body, and they intend to go out with 20 -year -old girls who love them for their money. In Tinder they blocked me, they denounced me for using my photos, they said I was a liar because it made me go through “Anamá Ferreira.” I look for someone informed, to read, respect. I don’t want them to keep me. I want someone to share, with whom to grow. If not, I’m still alone. Because I am very good too.
