Eva Wilma

Eva Wilma Riefle’s story kicks off with roots tangled across continents. Her dad, Otto Riefle, bailed on Pforzheim in the Black Forest, Germany, just before the Nazis started running the show—he was a nineteen-year-old metalworker who hopped a ship to Rio in 1929, probably clueless about what he was in for. One year later, São Paulo stole him from Rio, and by 1933—smack in the middle of Carnival—he bumps into Luiza Carp. Luiza, a pianist with fingers as quick as her wit, grew up in Buenos Aires, but her family? Jewish, straight out of Kiev, Ukraine—back when the Soviets still had everybody by the throat. The two hit it off, sparks fly, Eva gets conceived faster than you can say samba, and her parents tie the knot before she shows up. Fast-forward a bit, Eva’s own family tree branches out across the arts. Her first husband, John Herbert, was no slouch—together they had two kids: Vivian Buckup, who went on to direct films, and John Herbert Junior, a musician with his own thing going. Grandkids? Oh yeah, five of them—Miguel and Mateus from Vivian, then Gabriela, Francisco, and Vitorio from John Jr. That’s a family lineup that reads like a credits roll: metalworkers, pianists, filmmakers, musicians, and a dash of diaspora drama on top. The whole saga is steeped in migration, music, and a pinch of carnival chaos, giving Eva’s life a backbeat that never really let up.