WEBVTT

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The first question I asked myself
and I ask you too is:

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What is poverty?

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Maybe some of you imagine
that poverty has to do with this,

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and with living
in a neighborhood like this.

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And in fact, since I was a kid
I believed that poverty,

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or they made me understand
that poverty had to do with this.

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I am the fifth of six children:

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Yomi, Mariela, Marcela,
Mauricio, me, and Oscar.

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We were born in San Juan. We came to
Buenos Aires for the moon and the stars.

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My father had been promised
a job, a home, a car, success.

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This is the only picture
I have of my parents together.

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Because Buenos Aires kills my father.

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He ends up dying
within a few years of being here.

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And there it began an eternal struggle

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to live with dignity

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and to improve our quality of life.

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We seized a plot with my brothers
in the middle of a settlement.

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We were poor,

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people who were living
in a usurped land.

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We sometimes even didn't have
anything to eat for dinner.

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However, despite all this,

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despite having lived
through discrimination,

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and my whole family
being pointed out for many years,

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there was something
I always loved and I always liked.

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I love music, I'm a musician.

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And I really discovered music through
a woman who when I listened to her

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it was amazing for me.

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I looked at her and
she was like an angel.

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I knew all her songs, all her lyrics,
all her choreographies.

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I learned all her songs,
I had all her cassettes.

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There were cassettes at that time.

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And for me she was a star, an angel.

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This woman was Gladys, la Bomba Tucumana.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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I dreamed with Gladys.

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Once I told my mom:
"Mom, I want to be Gladys."

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(Laughter)

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And she said: "Oh son, don't you like
Antonio Ríos or Alcides?"

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No, I wanted to be Gladys.

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And my mom told me:
"Well, but how about La Nueva Luna?"

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No, I dreamed of being
an artist like her one day.

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I always dreamed with her.

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I always dreamed of learning
to play her songs.

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A great friend from childhood, Edgardo,

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his mother, Olga, worked
in the neighborhood developing projects

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so that people like me, who lived
in these neighborhoods,

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could study.

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They had a project
in Crear Vale La Pena Foundation,

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in which they worked with art
in the context of poverty.

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My friend told me one day:

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"Daniel, why don't you stop
pestering around with music

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and sign up in the
community cultural center?,"

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where they gave free keyboard
and piano lessons.

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I said: "No, me taking piano lessons?

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Ridiculous. I have to go out
and give a meaning to my life."

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And he said to me: "But go,
sign up for the piano class."

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And I signed up for piano lessons.

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Saturdays at 9 am.

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I said, "Oh, how nice!"

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In this Foundation there was
a teacher, a concert pianist,

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Liliana Alpern, who gave once a week

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a couple of hours of free lessons

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to people who could not
pay for the class.

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I went to her piano class
when I was nine.

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And I saw Lili, my piano teacher,
in high heels, with a silk shawl,

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glasses, green eyes, blond hair.

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And I looked at her and she looked at me.

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She said: "What is your name?"

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"Daniel." "What are you doing here?"

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There was an upright piano beside her.

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I said, "I want to play that."

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And she says: "What do you want to play?"

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(Laughter)

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And I said: "Gladys, la Bomba Tucumana."

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(Laughter)

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And she said: "Who is that woman?"

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"What? Aren't you a music teacher?"

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"Yes, I certainly am,
but I don't know all the musicians.

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But if you bring a tape with her music,
I'll listen to it and I teach you."

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"Really?" I said. "Yes."

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I go to my house, grab the cassette,
I bring it back and Lili began:

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"B B B B B, C D, C D E,
E F G, B C".

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(Laughter)

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And I said, wow!

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She began to teach me and I felt
I was John Lennon playing "Imagine."

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(Applause)

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So awesome.

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Lili said: "Look Daniel,
you can learn this and much more,

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if you want to."

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"Really, Miss?"

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"Yes. You can learn
everything you want to learn."

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And the next Saturday I brought
La Nueva Luna, Los Charros, Gilda.

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I learned to play a band called
Los Palmeras, I dreamed with Los Palmeras.

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And she taught me all the music
I wanted to learn.

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Pretty soon, I had learned
everything I wanted.

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And Lili said, "And now,
what do you want to learn?"

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I said, "That's it, I've learned
to play what I wanted to learn."

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And she says: "Look, Daniel,
with these same chords

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there is a guy named Beethoven.

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Do you know who Beethoven is?"

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I told her: "Yes, a dog from a movie."

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(Laughter)

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"No, dear, Beethoven is not a dog.

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Beethoven is a musician
who plays 'Für Elise'".

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And she showed me "Für Elise".

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When I heard "Für Elise" I fell in love.

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And I said, "Lili, can I play that?"

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And Lili said, "You can play that
and much more, Daniel.

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Everything you want to play."

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And there I learned at age nine
to break with the first poverty.

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That is the poverty of culture.

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I just thought that music was...

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(Applause)

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I thought that music was
what I heard in my neighborhood,

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but I didn't know
other kind of music existed.

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So I learned to be not only
a musician, but at age 14,

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Lili puts me another challenge,

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with a partner who we played
the piano together, Marcela Tula,

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the two attended her class.

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"Now you, after five years of taking
free classes at the cultural center,

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must begin to teach others."

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And I said, "No, me, Lili?
I can't teach others".

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"Yes, you can teach others."

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"But Lili, I have nothing to give."

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She said: "To give, you don't need
to have something in your pocket.

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All you have to do
is to be willing to help others."

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Then I started teaching
in my neighborhood.

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With Marcela, we both
learned how to teach.

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We gave classes to young people,
the very beginners in the neighborhood.

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I went from being the kid who hung
in the street corner to mess up,

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to be "the neighborhood's Professor".

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I would pass by and people would say:
"Professor, Professor".

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Then I'd pass by like four times!

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I'd go to the grocers and they would say:

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"How are you, Professor? Take a candy".
And I'd grab about five.

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The grocer's daughter was my student.

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And there I learned to knock down
another poverty,

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which is the poverty of dignity.

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The poverty that is lost because,
by living in the contexts we live,

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we think that poverty only
has to do with hunger,

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and feeling cold at night, but no.

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Poverty has little to do with economics.

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It has to do with what you do
to design your life project.

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What you do to say who you are,
regardless of the degree,

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or the position you have in a company.

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Who you are as a person.

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And that is what I learned at age 14,
to start teaching in my neighborhood.

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When I was 17...

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(Applause)

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At age 17 I began to coordinate
the community cultural center

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with activities for young people.

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It was not anymore
just learning and teaching.

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What we did with a group of young people
was to form them and start thinking

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about our community,
how our neighborhood

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could do activities
to improve the quality of life,

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not only of those who studied,
but of our community.

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We did events in neighborhoods,
we celebrated Children's Day,

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looking for the needs
in our neighborhoods

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and we began to improve,
not only our lives,

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but the lives of our neighbors.

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At age 25 I leave this Foundation,

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because I felt that in it

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I had gone from student to teacher,
coordinator, executive director,

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I even prepared young people
in political issues.

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And I began to understand
that I had to knock down another poverty.

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Then I started working
with a civil organization

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called Inicia.

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And what we did in Inicia
was to work in a prison,

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because the son of a friend of mine
was there in the unit

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and we went to visit him.

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When I went to the prison
the first thing I saw

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were those drawings that you see
behind the young men,

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it was like an art gallery.

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They were drawings where they had drawn
everything they wanted.

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I looked at Cristian with Olga
and we said, "Hey, Cristian,

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what do you do here in the unit?"

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"Nothing".

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"How's that, Cristian?"

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"Nothing. On Monday nothing,
nothing on Tuesday, nothing on Thursday."

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"What if I proposed you a workshop where

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you can think about the mistake
you made, why you are here

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and you can think of a project
for when you leave prison?"

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And Cristian replied:
"Would you do that for me?"

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"Of course."

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Then we started a workshop
where we talked about leadership,

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so they could lead their life project.

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We had a book: "The New Leaders,"

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which belonged to this organization.

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And it had chapters like:
"Personal transformation,"

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"The common good", "Ethics" or "Values."

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Each chapter we read it with the inmates,
the 48 who attended the workshop.

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And not only that,
we would create a comic

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and each of them could put in the comic
what they learned from that chapter.

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But not only that,

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we invited the authors of the book

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and we reflected upon the workshop
we were giving.

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So that the prisoners could also think
some way of a life project

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once they were out of there.

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And then I knocked down another poverty,
the poverty of prejudice.

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We think that people
who are deprived of their liberty

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not only deserve to be there,

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but they don't have the ability,
nor the dignity

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to be able to change their future.

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Yes, they can change their future.

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All they need are opportunities.

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And what I was providing there
was an opportunity.

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But not only with this I knocked down
the poverty of prejudice.

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Then I got to work on another project

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with a colleague, an acquaintance
from the gastronomic industry,

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who had a restaurant chain
in down San Isidro.

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He said: "Dani,
in front of my restaurants

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is the settlement Martin and Omar
and I don't know what to do,

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because every time
I pass by they tell me:

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'Hey, mustache, got work for me?',

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and I don't know what to do".

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Then we created a program
called Cocina para Integrar.

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What did we do?

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This man would teach the women
from the settlement to be chefs,

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so that they have preparation not only
as people engaged in odd jobs,

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but also in a trade
in the gastronomic industry.

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And then I broke another prejudice,
I broke another poverty.

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The poverty of thinking
that people who are living

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in contexts of vulnerability
can only work doing odd jobs.

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No, they are professionals 
who also can be formed in trades,

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as that of being a chef.

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On this path I met with another person 
who also helped me

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knock down another of my poverties.

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We met during a talk we gave together.

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He had a company which developed
products with design,

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shoes with a different design.

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He gives his talk, a young company
which exported worldwide.

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I give my talk and he says:
"Dani, you have to work with me."

00:14:22.496 --> 00:14:26.082
And I said, "Tomás, what do you want me
to work on in your business?"

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"You have to do in my company
what you do in the neighborhoods.

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You have to work in my neighborhood
which is my business, my community,

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with my employees."

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"What do you want me to do?"

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"I want you to be
the Human Resources manager."

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And I said, "But, Tomás, 
I don't even know how to clear salaries."

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He says, "I don't care,
you will learn that,

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what you know is to listen
and to be with the people."

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After working three years with him,
he proposes me to be even more than that.

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And today I am the Culture
and Happiness manager.

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In the private sector I work as --

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(Applause)

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Not only I work in the neighborhoods,

00:15:11.390 --> 00:15:13.496
to improve people's quality of life,

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but also companies start
to think that all the people

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working in a company can improve 
their quality of life.

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They have to work happy
and work on their company culture.

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But this was not last.

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The last big project
that I have with three friends

00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:34.200
is to build a social enterprise
called Creer Hacer.

00:15:34.930 --> 00:15:37.010
What is Creer Hacer?

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It is a social enterprise

00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:43.866
where we work with the private,
public and social sectors.

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We build a bridge for these three
sectors so they can improve

00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:50.206
the quality of life of any person.

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We have lots of projects
with this institution.

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To strengthen the NGOs
that want to be strengthened.

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We have a project called Barrio Abierto,

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replicating a model very similar to this,

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but in the middle
of a settlement, like La Cava.

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In the middle of La Cava we will make
an event called Cava Abierta.

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Six speakers will come to share
their story, very similar to mine,

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and they can share with their neighbors
that they decided to take a step forward,

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they decided to improve
their quality of life.

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(Applause)

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You may ask me today,
what is your wealth?

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My wealth has to do with this,
to have formed a family,

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with my wife, with my brothers,
with my friends.

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To be the parent of Lautaro and Catalina,
which is two months old.

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And I want to tell you this:
any of you here

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can be a Liliana Alpern.

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Anyone of you can consecrate time
once a week to someone else,

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so that they change their lives.

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(Applause)

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Regardless of your economic poverty
or your economic wealth,

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don't make of your life a poor life.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)

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(Whistles)

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(Applause)