In the eighties she was a top-of-the-line mannequin. She shone on the haute couture runways and had a fantastic life. When she completed her cycle, she moved away from that world and began to shape what would be her new path. Today Nora Portela is dedicated to the rescue of vulnerable people and abused and abandoned animals.
“I am bossy and action. If I see an abused animal I go inside a house and take it out”, he assures. She has the gift of protecting and caring. She is an intense, strong woman, with arms to take. “Thank God life made me like this. I always tell everyone: ‘When you fall into a well, don’t look how you’re sinking, look how you can get out. It’s the best way to get ahead always’”. In her daily routine, she goes to places where helplessness becomes visible. “I see the reality, most people don’t have enough to eat, they experience abuse, there is mistreatment. This makes me strong and makes me see life differently, ”she acknowledges.
His fight is to make the forgotten of the system visible. “I give a large part of my life to this, I do it because I feel it. I lie in peace, floating. Giving is very generous for the soul and for others.”
He doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t drink alcohol and he doesn’t eat meat. He makes a living doing decoration work and is accountable to no one. Her daughters Chloé and Thais —from her marriage to Marcelo Bello, from whom she separated thirty years ago— live in Europe.
News: How did this constant concern for animals and people come about?
Nora Portela: Since I can remember I have been rescuing animals and helping people in need. In my previous house I had lizards, tarantulas, ferrets, squirrels, cats, dogs and I managed to rescue two sheep and a porcupine. Today I have forty dogs. Whenever I find a balled up animal I take care of it, I give it love, sometimes I give it up for adoption and in some cases I try to return it to its natural habitat.
News: How is your routine with so many animals? You have to be vigilant day and night.
Portela: I start at six in the morning and until noon I have to clean everything they dirty. Half of the dogs are healed and the others are blind, missing a leg or have epilepsy or have heart problems and I have to medicate them. Medication is at one, three and five in the morning. Two years ago I slept in a small room next to the kitchen to be closer to the sick dogs. When you do this with such passion you have to give up a lot of things.
News: What leaves aside in your case?
Portela: For example, the freedom to close the house and go on a trip. I can’t put just anyone to take care of so many animals. I am hyper organized and in one half of my house you can eat on the floor and in the other half there are sick dogs, next to a fireplace for when it’s cold, well cared for. And outside, in the garden, I have the healthy dogs divided into groups of seven. It is a lot of time and dedication.
News: And it has an NGO —Breath of Animal Life— whose godmother is Graciela Borges.
Portela: Yes, Graciela always helped me with my fight. With her we went to the Municipality of San Isidro to ask for a place for the rescued dogs, to take care of them and give them up for adoption. I was a zoonosis volunteer for many years in San Isidro.
News: What happened to your order?
Portela: They told me they were going to give me a place, they made me waste my time, they made me set up the NGO and they never gave me anything. They do give me a small subsidy that is enough for about four bags of food per month. I use a bag of 22 kilos per day that costs me between 4 and 7 thousand pesos. To that we must add the vet, the medicines, the kennels… Imagine what goes away.
News: It also receives donations for people in need.
Portela: Yes, I go to look for everything with my car and I take it to my house, I select the things and I distribute them by hand to people who need it. I bring little presents to the children in the hospitals. You change the twist of pain, of anguish, of loneliness. I am always asking. Now I ask for a pool for a blind little boy. I myself donated my refrigerator twice and other things from my house.
News: Collaborate with different organizations. No?
Portela: A while ago I helped in a deprived neighborhood of San Isidro. In addition, I try to go every week to the Materno Infantil, to the hospitals to see if I can help, I visit places with children with special abilities, grandparents, soup kitchens. My idea was to take the animals to visit people with special abilities. In the end, I couldn’t do it because I was overwhelmed with so many things. I only go with a dog.
News: Is that dog Jack, Gustavo Cerati’s border collie?
Portela: Yes, I had it as a baby, when he went on a trip he asked me to take care of it, and finally I kept it (His daughter Chloé was Cerati’s last girlfriend). With Jack we made a wonderful duo. We visit blind people, the grandparents who are in the Marín, the joy it gives them is wonderful. You have to honor the animals, you learn something from everyone. I don’t understand life without animals.
News: How is your life outside of all this?
Portela: My life is super simple, I enjoy being with myself in my house, quiet, and I also go alone to the movies, to have a coffee. I have such a rich inner life, I learned to find myself, to respect myself, to know what I want. I have lived another life, if I didn’t have the latest car, the latest watch, such a wallet, if I wasn’t in Punta del Este, I felt I didn’t belong. I had a lot, but that life no longer exists, I got rid of everything, I’m no longer interested. I have no ambitions. Today I chose a wonderful life and I want to enjoy every day. My fridge is always empty, but I am so happy with everything I can generate. That fills my belly, soul and everything.
