New Bedford student, 12, wins global World Cup art contest

A 12-year-old New Bedford student has transferred his love for soccer and his home country of Brazil into art — and he’s won big for it. 

Leo Silveira, a sixth-grader at Nativity Preparatory School in New Bedford, recently won an art contest hosted by the FIFA World Cup and Hyundai Worldwide. Children enter by creating a design showing fans from one of the teams celebrating a World Cup goal. Participants choose which team they want to represent, and judges pick one design for each country. The winning displays will appear on the side window of that nation’s team bus. 

Silveira’s piece will appear on the Brazil national team’s bus while they compete. Plus, he gets to attend a game. 

In June, Silveira and his father will be flown to New York for the Brazil vs. Morocco game at MetLife Stadium, where he hopes to see standouts Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. and Hyan Carvalho Machado Silva play.

“I never thought I was going to watch a game, like never,” Silveira said. “The closest [I thought] I would get is probably on TV.”

Silveira drew inspiration from a photo taken at a game played by the Brazilian soccer team Vasco da Gama. Silveira’s drawing depicts a man from the team holding a banner reading “Vamos Brasil” — which translates to “Let’s go Brazil” — while Brazilian fans cheer on the sides. The meaning of the piece is that someone will support Brazil everywhere it goes, said Silveira, who moved to the United States about four years ago. 

“We can be all different,” he said. “But when Brazil plays or Brazil goes somewhere, we’re going to be following them. We’re going to be the same.”

Silveira’s idea originated from a class project where students could choose any topic they wanted to advocate for through art, said the school’s art teacher, Aleisea Guzman. They researched their topics and learned about the importance of being informed before sending a message, she said. Silveira chose racial inequality in sports, specifically soccer, Guzman said. 

“I picked the idea because first, it’s my team, so it is something in the history of my team,” Silveira said.

Silveira completed the original class project on cardboard. For the contest, he spent a week recreating that design using colored pencils. His older sister helped him with ideas, he said.

A media frenzy has hit the school since the competition announced Silveira as a winner, said Head of School Christian Garris. So far, it’s welcomed media outlets from The Boston Globe to Boston 25 WFXT to ESPN Brasil. 

“He’s handling it like someone much older would handle it,” Garris said. 

The school plays news-related pieces about Silveira’s art during recess, Guzman said, so students and faculty can watch.

His classmates and the school have been “celebrating consistently” since he won, Guzman said. The school plans to acknowledge Silveira’s success at its fundraiser June 4 at Cisco Brewers.

Silveria is currently the only Brazilian student at Nativity Prep, but Garris said he imagines “we might find some others now.” 

“To have students from so many different, diverse backgrounds in our school as part of our community, that’s really important to us,” Garris said. “And for him to feel comfortable enough to celebrate his heritage within our school, for his mom to come in and celebrate, that’s really important to us.”

His mother, Fernanda Silveira, said in Portuguese, which her son translated to English, that she thinks he draws well, but the main reason she thinks he won is because of his love for soccer. He plays soccer every day during recess, said Diogo Tavares, a media and communications fellow at Nativity Prep. 

Silveira also credits himself for bringing soccer to Nativity Prep. When he first got there about two years ago, he said no one would play, so he played by himself. Then, other students started to join, and now they play every day, he said. 

Silveira is also an altar boy at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fall River and plays piano and volleyball. 

Her son’s win has generated a lot of hope and support among Brazilians, Fernanda Silveira said. 

“Sometimes there’s a lot of bad news in Brazil, but now we have some good news,” she said in Portuguese. 

Silveira said he predicts Brazil will win the World Cup. He plans to enter more art contests in the future. 

As for how he’s feeling now: “Crazy. I’m representing the biggest country, the best country,” he said. “I am very proud of myself and very happy.”

Crystal Yormick is a Boston University journalism student and a frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light. Email her at cyormick@newbedfordlight.org.