Episódio 1: Breaking Boundaries (Quebrando barreiras)

Nesse episódio, vamos conhecer dois americanos que foram pioneiros, ou trailblazers, e quebraram barreiras de raça e gênero em suas profissões.

Você pode encontrar a transcrição desse episódio em podcast.duolingo.com. Clique aqui para baixar o Duolingo, o aplicativo Nº1 do mundo para aprender idiomas. É grátis, divertido e funciona!

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Transcrição

Helena: Em 1961, Ed Dwight foi convidado pra se inscrever num programa de treinamento da Nasa, a agência espacial norte-americana. Ele soube imediatamente o que aquilo significava, pois não havia, nos Estados Unidos, nenhum astronauta negro.

Dwight: If I got into that program, I could become the world’s first Black astronaut!

Helena: Mas os chefes de Ed disseram pra ele não se candidatar. Afinal, ele já era piloto das Forças Armadas e poderia chegar ao posto de oficial — e daqueles de alta patente. A opinião dos supervisores era de que entrar pra Nasa seria ruim para a carreira de Ed... Mas ele decidiu se inscrever mesmo assim.

Dwight: I sent my application, although I didn't think I would get into the program. But a few days later, I got a letter that said I was accepted! Soon, there was a story about me in the newspaper. And in Kansas City, the place where I'm from, they had a huge celebration for me! I was going to be the first Black man in space!

Helena: Welcome, bem-vindas e bem-vindos ao podcast “Histórias em Inglês com Duolingo”. Eu sou Helena Fruet. Em cada episódio, você vai poder praticar inglês no seu ritmo, ouvindo histórias reais e emocionantes.

Os personagens falam um inglês simples e fácil de entender — perfeito pra quem tá aprendendo. Eu vou te acompanhar em cada episódio pra ter certeza que você tá entendendo tudo.

Siga nosso podcast no Spotify ou na sua plataforma preferida!

Hoje, vamos ouvir duas pessoas que deram passos muito importantes em suas profissões, quebrando barreiras, ou breaking boundaries.

Helena: Os Estados Unidos têm uma longa tradição de luta pelos direitos civis, ou civil rights. E uma parte muito importante nessa luta por igualdade é o direito ao emprego. Em 1961, a ideia de um astronauta negro era impensável. O Congresso dos Estados Unidos levou mais quatro anos pra aprovar uma lei de direitos civis proibindo a discriminação de raça ou gênero no trabalho.

Quando Ed Dwight recebeu a carta com o convite pra ser astronauta, ele não sabia que um homem negro poderia fazer isso… porque ninguém tinha feito antes.

Dwight: I was born in Kansas City, in the state of Kansas, in 1933. I didn't think about becoming an astronaut while I was growing up. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist. I told my dad about the idea, and he said, “No, you should become an engineer. That’s how you will make money.” He didn't think I would make a lot of money as an artist. This was during the Great Depression, after all.

Helena: A Grande Depressão foi a maior crise econômica da história mundial e afetou os Estados Unidos profundamente. O país sofria com o desemprego e a fome. A família de Ed não tinha muito dinheiro.

Dwight: My family lived on a farm next to an airport. My mom took me on walks to see the planes when I was little. I was fascinated! Eventually, I knew all of the workers at the airport, and they paid me to clean the planes.

When I was ten, I told the pilots that I wanted to fly. And they agreed to take me in the air with them.

The first time I flew in a plane, I felt like a bird. You can see everything up in the air!

Helena: Ed passava muito tempo no aeroporto, e sua mãe não gostava muito disso. Assim como o pai, ela queria que ele ganhasse dinheiro.

Dwight: My mom found a job for me. I started delivering newspapers. I had two different routes because there were two types of newspapers: one for the White people and one for the Black people. Kansas City was a segregated city.

Helena: Naquela época, muitas cidades dos Estados Unidos eram segregadas, ou segregated. Por lei, existiam restaurantes, cinemas, escolas e banheiros separados para pessoas negras. Elas não podiam dividir os mesmos espaços com pessoas brancas.

Dwight: One day, while I was delivering newspapers, I saw something interesting on the front page of the Black newspaper. It was a Black pilot standing on the wing of an airplane. He was from Kansas City, like me! I thought, “Wow, I can't believe that a Black person is allowed to fly a plane!” The next week, I applied to join the Air Force. And I was accepted! My first destination in the Air Force was a base in the state of Texas. But soon, I realized that the other students didn't have a good opinion of me. They didn't think that I looked like a person who could do great things––because I was short and Black. So I decided to become an overachiever.

Helena: Um overachiever é alguém que faz um grande esforço pra se destacar e superar algum obstáculo.

Dwight: I made sure that I learned more about flying planes than any other student. And I worked harder than everybody else. Soon, people started noticing my hard work. By 1961, I was a captain at my base. That's when I got the letter from the Pentagon. I was asked to join an experimental test pilot program for NASA. At that point, the space agency was only three years old.

Helena: A Nasa tinha enviado o primeiro astronauta norte-americano ao espaço em 1961… um mês depois da União Soviética. Era a época da corrida espacial, ou the Space Race.

Dwight: This was an important time in American history. It was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, when many Americans were trying to get equality for the Black community.

President John F. Kennedy wanted to help the Black community, so he talked to the Civil Rights leaders. They thought that a Black astronaut could inspire many Black people who wanted to study math, science, and engineering. So President Kennedy told the Air Force to find a Black pilot for NASA’s new program. At the time, there were only 125 Black pilots in the whole world. And they wanted this pilot to be under 30 years old, have one thousand five hundred hours flying in jets, and have an engineering degree.

That was basically me!

Helena: No fim das contas, Ed respondeu à carta dizendo que estava interessado. Logo depois, ele recebeu um comunicado de Washington com seu novo destino.

Dwight: The Air Force sent me to the experimental test pilot school for aerospace pilots in California. I was the only Black pilot in the program. President Kennedy wanted me to be famous, so I talked to big groups of people all over the country! My face was also on the front page of newspapers and magazines all over the world. They thought I could be a symbol for both the Civil Rights movement and the Space Race. I felt really proud.

Helena: Ed se dedicou muito e passou dois anos se preparando pra ser astronauta... até a fatídica sexta-feira de 22 de novembro de 1963.

Dwight: President Kennedy was assassinated on that Friday. After that, everything changed. When Vice President Johnson became the new president, I was pushed to leave the space training program. I didn't want to leave, and it was really hard for me. But I did leave. I realized that NASA never really wanted a Black astronaut.

Helena: Até então, todos os astronautas dos Estados Unidos eram homens e brancos.

Dwight: It seemed clear to me that NASA wanted the world to believe that the first seven astronauts in space were heroes, like Superman. And of course, Superman is a White guy.

Helena: Demorou mais vinte anos pra Nasa enviar a primeira pessoa negra ao espaço (aliás, junto com a primeira mulher). Mas Ed não deixou de lutar pela igualdade de direitos.

Dwight: After my career as an astronaut ended, I moved to Colorado, I worked for the IBM computer company, and then had a lot of different jobs. But I missed the excitement of being an astronaut. I wanted to find another dream. So I decided to return to the first dream I ever had: being an artist.

Helena: A estreia de Ed no mundo das artes aconteceu graças a um encontro com George Brown, o primeiro vice-governador negro do estado do Colorado.

Dwight: One evening in the 1970s, George Brown came to a party at my house. He really liked the art that I made. He told me that the state wanted an artist to make a sculpture of him to put in Denver, the capital of the state of Colorado. And he said to me, “You’re going to do it.”

Helena: O problema é que, embora soubesse pintar, Ed não sabia esculpir. Ele recusou a oferta, mas George Brown não parecia aceitar “não” como resposta.

Dwight: George said to me, “Ed, Black people have been in North America for 350 years. We built this country when we were slaves. But nobody talks about all of the amazing things Black people have done. If you go to a museum, a gallery, or a city square, you won't see statues of Black men or Black women. So, you should spend the rest of your life showing what Black people have done in history.”

Helena: Ed fez a estátua do vice-governador e começou a fazer aulas de escultura na universidade de Denver. A partir daí, ele dedicou sua carreira a fazer esculturas de líderes negros.

Dwight: I've made more than 130 memorial statues during my career. I've created sculptures of people like Harriet Tubman, who helped Black people escape from slavery, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an important Civil Rights activist, Duke Ellington, a famous jazz musician...

I wasn't allowed to be the first Black man in space, but I've used my artistic talents to show all of the amazing things Black Americans have done. So, in a way, I did achieve my dream.

Helena: E Ed responde rápido quando perguntamos qual é sua escultura preferida.

Dwight: Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States.

Helena: Enquanto Ed Dwight passava a infância obcecado por aqueles aviões que voavam tão rápido, alguns estados mais a oeste, algumas décadas mais tarde, uma menina chamada Bequi Livingston vivia fascinada por... incêndios! Ela passava os verões com a família no Novo México e amava a natureza. Depois de terminar a universidade, ela se matriculou num curso para ser bombeira florestal, ou wildland firefighter.

Bequi: On my first day of training to become a wildland firefighter, the office manager was very surprised. I don't think she expected me to be a woman because she offered me a job in the office! And I said, “No, no, I want to be a firefighter.”

Helena: Em 1979, havia poucas mulheres bombeiras nos Estados Unidos, e menos ainda no interior, apagando incêndios florestais.

Bequi: I’m pretty small. Most people think firefighters are big and tall. So, when the office manager saw me, she said, “Oh, honey, you're too small for this job.” But she didn’t know me. Yes, I am shorter than most people. But my nickname is “Bulldog”—because I'm small but strong.

Helena: Bombeiros florestais carregam mochilas muito pesadas quando andam pelas montanhas e trabalham com ferramentas do tipo serras e picaretas pra manter as barreiras anti-incêndio.

Bequi: You have to be strong to be a wildland firefighter. You spend a lot of time doing hard physical activities. You also have to walk up and down mountains with a lot of weight on your back. So, you have to be very strong––physically and mentally. It’s a difficult job.

Helena: Bequi entrou no programa e passou o inverno de 1979 se preparando para ser bombeira florestal. A maioria dos colegas tratava ela bem. Mas alguns simplesmente não aceitavam o fato de ela ser mulher.

Bequi: I worked with some men who didn't think a woman should be a firefighter. But after they saw that I was good at the job, and that I didn't need help, they accepted me. That summer, I got my first job, fighting fires in the state of New Mexico. I loved it, and I was good at it!

Helena: Nos anos 80, as mulheres eram só 37% dos trabalhadores em período integral nos Estados Unidos. Ainda faltava muito pra alcançar a igualdade de direitos. E alguns bombeiros não gostavam de ter Bequi por perto.

Bequi: One time, when I was getting ready to fight a fire, another firefighter pulled me off the truck! He said, “I’m not going to let a woman do my job.”

Helena: Bequi sabia que era sim capaz de fazer o trabalho. Ela não se deixou vencer pelo machismo e tratou de ignorar todas as críticas.

Bequi: I was really strong and fit, stronger and in better shape than some of the men. During a job in 1986, I was leading a team of firefighters on a hike up a mountain. I was walking very quickly. When we took a break, the men on my team put some rocks in my bag. They wanted me to go slower, because they couldn't walk as fast as me! I didn’t even notice! Because, like I said, I was a bulldog.

Helena: Bequi sonhava em ser bombeira de elite, uma categoria específica que em inglês se chama hotshot. São os bombeiros que vão até o foco do incêndio quando ele tá ativo. Eles ficam na linha de frente, se expondo ao perigo, ou in harm’s way.

Bequi: There are only 11 teams of hotshots in the United States. They’re the firefighters who work in the hottest part of the fire. And they fight the biggest fires. Hotshots aren't afraid of the job. They aren't afraid to be in harm’s way.They aren't afraid of getting hurt, and they have to be very healthy and strong.

Helena: Se naquela época já era difícil ser mulher e trabalhar como bombeira florestal, entrar pra um grupo de elite era quase impossível.

Bequi: Women weren’t allowed to be on hotshot teams until 1976. After that, some women did become hotshots, but not many. I wanted to join a team called the Smokey Bear Hotshots, but there were no women on this team.

Helena: O urso Smokey Bear é um personagem de desenho que ilustra campanhas para prevenir incêndios florestais desde os anos 40. Ele foi inspirado num urso de verdade que tinha sido resgatado de um incêndio no Novo México e que também deu origem ao nome da equipe em que Bequi entrou.

Bequi: The superintendent of the Smokey Bear hotshot team didn’t think women should be hotshots. He would not let a woman be part of his team. But in 1988, the team got a new superintendent. And this new guy personally contacted me. He asked me to apply to be on the team. During my career, that superintendent was one of the few people who really wanted to help women firefighters succeed.

Helena: Esse comandante, ou superintendent, acabou sendo um dos maiores defensores de Bequi ao longo da sua carreira.

Bequi: In 1988, a friend and I became the first women to join the Smokey Bear hotshots. I achieved my dream! And it was an amazing job! We started out fighting fires in the state of Minnesota. During the rest of the summer, we worked on a lot of fires in the western U.S. The most memorable fire we fought that summer was in Yellowstone National Park, in 1988.

Helena: Yellowstone, um dos maiores parques dos Estados Unidos, sofreu vários grandes incêndios em 1988. O governo enviou milhares de bombeiros pra apagar o fogo, e Bequi foi junto. Um dia, a equipe dela estava na floresta e foi cercada pelas chamas.

Bequi: It was really scary. The fire was so loud, like a train! My boss told us to get our equipment and walk quickly back to the safety zone. But within an hour, the fire was all around us! Planes couldn't fly near us because of the smoke. No one was hurt, but it was a very dangerous situation!

Helena: Bequi acabou passando apenas um verão com a equipe do Smokey Bears, mas continuou combatendo incêndios com outros bombeiros em diferentes regiões dos Estados Unidos. Bequi: I met my husband while I was on that hotshot team. He was a helicopter pilot. And he was helping our team with a fire. After working with a hotshot team that summer, I got a job fighting fires in California. One day, when I was working, I got really sick. Soon, I realized that I was pregnant! I took a break from fighting fires for a few years. But after my kids were born, I went back to firefighting.

Helena: As coisas mudaram muito desde que Bequi começou a apagar incêndios. Hoje, existem quase 100 mil mulheres bombeiras nos Estados Unidos.

Bequi: Today, I think things are a lot different. There are definitely a lot more women fighting fires now, but not as many as there should be! It’s still not very common for them to be on hotshot teams. There are usually only two or three women on a team of twenty people.

So, in 2012, I started a program called Women in Wildland Fire. I wanted to help more women become wildland firefighters.

Helena: O programa de Bequi ajuda mulheres a se prepararem física e mentalmente para o desafio de ser bombeira florestal.

Bequi: In the program, I tried to help women by telling them what to expect during the job. We talked about everything that happens––good things and bad things. We talked about the hard parts of the job––physically and emotionally. I told them: you might experience discrimination... or worse. But we're lucky now because there are ways to get help if something unfair happens. When I started fighting fires, women didn't have a lot of help in bad situations. But things are better now. And I think that's amazing!

Helena: Bequi Livingston se aposentou e mora em Albuquerque, no Novo México. Sua história foi produzida por Stephanie Joyce.

Ed Dwight Jr. hoje é artista e mora em Denver, no Colorado. Sua história foi produzida por Rebecca Rosman.

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“Histórias em inglês” é uma produção de Duolingo e Adonde Media. Assine nosso feed no Spotify ou na sua plataforma preferida. No YouTube você também encontra uma versão em vídeo desse podcast. Eu sou Helena Fruet. Thank you for listening!

Créditos

Esse episódio foi produzido por Duolingo e Adonde Media.