Barcelos was born in Porto Alegre, in the Vila São José do Murialdo neighborhood. He worked as a taxi driver and graduated in Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University. Barcellos started as a reporter for the Porto Alegre newspaper Folha da Manhã, having also written as a freelancer for the magazines Verus, ISTOÉ and Veja and the newspaper "Coojornal", of the Rio Grande Do Sul Journalist's Union. In 1979, Barcellos reported about the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua; in the book "Nicarágua:a revolução das crianças."