Matteus was raised by his mother and domestic grandmother, abandoned by his father and received R$300 in university scholarships until ‘BBB 24’

The Brazil of Brazil, as Beatriz’s catchphrase says in “BBB 24”, is home to profiles of the most different types, and life stories that are often confused, due to such similarity between them. Just change the name of the characters. The reality show is a cross-section of these small Brazils that brings together people like Matteus Vargas and Davi Brito in the same space. If the second is a clear favorite to take the edition’s prize, the first already appears as a big underdog in this race.

The gaucho who put Alegrete on the map is called a plant by his opponents inside and a prince outside. He has also been appointed as an agroboy. The young man, however, doesn’t have a crown, much less a piece of land. Until entering the program, he lived on R$300 from a scholarship from the federal university where he studies Agricultural Engineering. And as in so many Brazilian realities, whether in the North or South of the country, where he came from, Matteus was raised by women after his father abandoned his pregnant mother at the age of 17.

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“I had my mother’s help to raise Matteus. At the time his father left me to be with someone else, I was four to five months pregnant. I remember I didn’t even leave the house because I was so embarrassed, imagine, a small town like Alegrete. I just wanted to hide”, remembers Luciane Amaral, 45 years old, her brother’s mother: “When I met my ex, my father had died three months ago. So, it was only my mother I could count on” .

Dona Neuza França, the 91-year-old grandmother, whom Matteus venerates, put the food on the table and the diapers for her grandson. “My mother was a maid for years, she also washed clothes outside by the river, carrying bundles and a basin on her head”, says Luciane.

When Matteus turned 4 months old, Luciane decided to try life in Porto Alegre, as the capital could offer more job opportunities. She left Matteus with her grandmother and followed in the hope of giving her son a better future than hers. “The problem was that I couldn’t bear to be away from him. Besides, things were difficult there, so I came back.”

Luciane raised Matteus for a long time with the help of Bolsa Família. Afterwards, she got a job as a sales promoter at a supermarket in Alegrete. But, on several occasions, even adding together what she earned, plus her mother’s side jobs and a minimum wage pension that her father left for Dona Neuza, it was barely enough to cover the household’s expenses.

“I won’t be ashamed to say it, we often go through necessity and eat at other people’s houses because we don’t have any at ours”, he reveals, crying, remembering the times of sacrifice.

Matteus grew up far from his father, Giovane Vargas, and was 50 years old. He met his son when he was born, he registered, but according to Luciane, she had to ask for Matteus’s rights in court: “At the time I got R$100 a month from him, which barely paid for the diapers.” The father tells his version. According to him, the relationship ended because he needed to leave Alegrete and find a job: “There was nothing here, I was 22 years old, with a son about to be born. How would I manage to support him?”, he explains.

The fact is that the brother had as a reference his stepfather, Luciano, with whom his mother has been married for 24 years, and his grandmother. It was because of her that he signed up twice for “BBB” until he was chosen for this edition. It was also because of her that he agreed, almost out of necessity, to participate in beauty contests in which his mother wanted to enter him.

“He didn’t even want to do it. He was embarrassed, Matteus was always shy, very much like him. There was no such thing as showing up. So I put him up to compete. He must have been about 16 years old. But, poor guy, he lost. He lost, like that. , about three competitions, He was very skinny, so bad. Until it worked and he took off”, observes Luciane, proud of the boy’s beauty, who already has a legion of suitors to be her daughters-in-law.

Giovane agrees with Luciane when it comes to her son’s beauty. Not by chance, Matteus narrowly missed becoming Mister Brasil. He was vice. But his father remembers that the catwalks were not the future engineer’s goal. He really wanted to be a football player.

“It was the only time I saw Matteus with blood in his eyes. Because they made fun of him on the field, some boys came in to really hurt him. And he got up and continued firm. I think he only gave up football because he didn’t have the means to go to a big city, train and invest in your career”, says his father.

Both he and his mother point out a predominant characteristic in Matteus: resilience. Even with his paternal abandonment, he has a good relationship with Giovane, especially after the birth of his younger sister, Lorena, aged 6, with whom he is in love, and with his stepmother, and he did not rebel when he was a teenager when he had to work in the fields. to help around the house while friends had fun and charted a promising future.

“Matteus has a very pure heart. When they say he’s pretending to be someone else in the house, it outrages me. Because I know who he is. It’s not because he’s my son, but he’s a real man, hard to find out there “.

That must be why Deniziane was hooked inside, now Cunhã, and out here, thousands. Matteus is still romantic, the type who still sends flowers.

“He was flirtatious, you see. I’ve even lost count of how many girls he’s been with. But dating, really, only twice. Once, he got engaged. But it didn’t work out because he wants to graduate before getting married, having his little things, and fulfill the dream he always had”, points out Luciane.

Among these dreams, one could imagine that Matteus wants a big car, a large apartment to live alone, designer clothes, a clock that keeps the time. None of that. The 27-year-old has nobility to even dream.

“He was focused on winning the prize to give his grandmother a little place she always wanted, to raise chickens and a cow. He said he can’t see my mother leave this life without fulfilling her wish. And I know he will do it. When he walked out the door, he told me: ‘Our lives will change from today onwards, but I will always be your son and grandma’s grandson.” And Luciane cries once again for the prince she created in the middle of the swamp that was the life presented to her: “Seeing the man he has become, after everything we’ve been through, is the greatest reward.”