Belem Beggar

Belem Beggar, December 31, 2025

I realize now that the Belem Beggar was a fake. He seemed real to me when I saw him in the summer of 1990, “standing” on the sidewalk of Avenida Presidente Vargas.

It’s hot and humid in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon every day. It’s only 120 miles south of the Equator. Lots of diseases in the Amazon. The bacteria thrive in the hot and moist environment. If you cut yourself, it’s a life threatening wound.

I noticed lots of locals missing limbs as I walked around Belem. They were all beggars. After a while, I noticed that the beggars had their own hierarchy. The most crippled, missing the most limbs of interest, were at the top. The foot and hand amputees were at the bottom. The cripple with no arms or legs was at the top, but he only worked alone.

The Beggar of Belem, with no arms or legs, must have been put in place by someone. The amputee midget couldn’t walk. Hell, if he fell down, he couldn’t get up. Someone put him on Avenida Presidente Vargas Boulevard with a beggar bowl in front of him.

I’d give him some Cruzeiros, and he looked up at me with a smile kinda grimace. He never spoke. Now, I think it was some kind of robot ahead of its time. The idea that the quad amputee was a real man put out to collect money like a spider’s web was very depressing to contemplate. Belem was depressing enough.

The life of the quad amputee Belem Beggar is something I don’t like dwelling on. But it does make me think.
TJM