Tote Gallardo is originally from Venezuela but he hasn’t seen his own country in over a quarter of a century. This 55-year-old has been travelling from one country to another with the hope of taking art to the children and for once, letting those who have no hope of a normal childhood feel the joy and innocence as they play with colours. A street art performer, Tote uses oil colours with his finger as a paintbrush and a mirror and a glass as his canvas to create 3D landscape paintings. He is in India to teach this art form to children but he has a bigger mission in mind.
“I have been to 78 countries covering the Americas, Europe, Pacific and Africa. India is important to me. Here, I visit orphanages, cancer centres and homes for differently-abled children who need help. I don’t go to underprivileged children because they need money but the children in the other sections need something to remind them of childhood. They need hope and a little smile, especially which I see when they are painting with colours,” says Tote. He has been to forests in Papua New Guinea, where he taught children belonging to a cannibal tribe, sat with children at the river bed in Nepal and explored creativity with street children in Anjuna, Goa
“I buy colours more than food. Now I am here in India and I want to teach them to paint. I was inspired right from my young age by Mahatma Gandhi as he was a simple man and I find similarities with the humbleness in his soul. I have a connection with his feelings for the poor. I also have heard about St Mother Teresa through documentaries and I saw the poverty in India. My mission is to teach 1000 children in India. When you are 5 years old, you want to play and draw and colour. When they are painting, for one hour, they are children and experiencing childhood,” says Tote who taught children on the streets in Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Delhi and now in Goa. He next plans to go to Mumbai and Kolkata and then either to Bangladesh or Myanmar.
What connects him to these children is his own story. “I have no family. I understand the feeling of these children because I too was in the orphanage without a family. I don’t want to go to the content children but those who are fragile and those who see no hope in living a normal life. I get happiness when they enjoy art and they may take up art if they like it in the future. In Nepal, one 12-year-old walked up to me and crushed my heart when he asked me, ‘Why are you helping us?’ It was the first time that a child asked me that. They feel that no one cares for them and wonder why a foreigner is helping them,” says Tote.
For his street art, he sets up a table for his colours and paintings. The donations or sale of the paintings is used to buy food, accommodation and the ticket to the next destination. “I love to have a connection with the local people. I hate tourists anywhere in the world. They are very indifferent to the country’s problems and only want to enjoy their holidays,” says Tote. He is currently conducting an art workshop for five days at El Shaddai in Assagao, where he is teaching children to paint and is quite happy with their progress. “Their paintings are really quite good,” he concludes.
But his mission of providing hope, is even better
