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Shakira · S1 E2
The Park
Father William's jewelry business collapses. He takes young Shakira to a park where orphaned children live. The moment that shapes everything she'll build beyond music
A Barranquilla street, early 1980s. William Mebarak takes his young daughter by the hand and leads her to a park where orphaned children with no shoes are sleeping in the dirt.
Shakira, Inevitable (Official Music Video, 1998). A song about being exactly who you are, no apology, no pretense. After the park, after the bankruptcy, who Shakira becomes is inevitable.
The Collapse
William Mebarak's jewelry and watch business goes bankrupt. Debt collectors seize the family's possessions and auction them off in the street. Young Shakira watches strangers carry furniture out of the house she grew up in.
“My father took me to a park where there were children who had nothing. Some had no shoes, some were sniffing glue. I said to myself, one day I'm going to help these kids.”
— Shakira (Oxford Union address, December 2009)
TAP TO REVEAL: Why is Shakira's breakthrough album called "Pies Descalzos" (Barefoot)?
The Lesson
William doesn't bring Shakira to the park to scare her. He brings her to teach her that dignity has nothing to do with money. Decades later, Shakira will build schools in the poorest communities in Colombia, Haiti, and South Africa, all under the name Pies Descalzos: bare feet.
What does "Pies Descalzos," the name of Shakira's breakthrough album and education foundation, literally translate to?
Pienso en Ti, Shakira (1995)
A ballad from Pies Descalzos, the album named after barefoot children. "Pienso en Ti" means "I Think of You," and on this record, the title hits differently. The girl who saw orphans in a park never stopped thinking about them. This quiet track carries a gentleness that cuts deeper than any of the bigger singles around it.
In a hotel lobby in Barranquilla, a thirteen-year-old girl performs for a Sony Colombia executive who was not expecting to discover anyone that day. Next: the audition, the record deal, and a debut album recorded before she finishes high school.
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