Freedom -- of sorts. Freedom from beatings by a drunken father. Freedom from fighting with seven siblings for a crust of bread. Freedom to hope. Cristiano, now 16, fled the abuse and violence of his home at 6. Surely the streets of glamorous, wealthy Rio de Janeiro offered a better life than the wretched slum west of the city where he was born.
In the streets Cristiano found only a freedom full of cruelty. During the day he survived by shining shoes and stealing watches or purses. At night on the sidewalks of Cinelandia, the main square in the center of...
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