Saturday 16 March 2024

OCTAVIO DARIN & SEBASTIANA MACERA

As his name infers Octavio Darin, born on 8 May 1909, was the 8th child of Marco Giovanni Battista Da Rin Zoldan & Pasqua Billò aka Erminia and sometimes Emilia Billò. 

I have seen Pasqua's name written on her children's birth certificate as Erminia and Emilia... and to my great surprise I only found out her real name was Pasqua when I saw her own birth certificate (Certificato di Nascita) I had ordered from an Italian agency. Apparently she didn't like being called Pasqua even though Italian males don't mind being called Paschoal. 

Tuesday 5 March 2024

LUIZ DARIN & CORINA LOPES

 

Luiz Darin holds Wandyr next to his wife Corina Lopes. 

I remember when I was a child, I used to listen to my mother talk about her large family with much interest. Mum whose name was Yolanda Darin, used to tell stories about all her five sisters and six brothers. I had met most of her siblings except for 3 of them: Rissieri, the oldest (born in 1899) who lived with his wife Elisa Surian in São Paulo... and 2 of her brothers who had died before I was born: Jácomo Darin aka Jacó (1900-1938) and Luiz Darin aka Luizinho (* 1st September 1905 + 26 November 1940). 

Luiz Darin was my grandparents' 6th child; he was the 4th male of the Darin clan. If one looks at this family one notices that it is almost divided in two camps: the fair group which were blonde and with green or blue eyes (which my Mother and Uncle Luiz belonged to) and the 'swarthy lot' like Uncle João, tia Nina, tia Rosa who were a little 'darker'... not really dark but darker than the 'fair lot'. 

As I didn't have the chance to meet Luiz Darin, I was surprised when I finally saw this photo and realized how much Luizinho resembled my Mother, Yolanda. Same sort of countenance, fair hair and a mouth that looked just the same. 

I don't know much about Luizinho's earlier life, but my aunt Rosa once told me, Luiz, who was already 30 years old met a 20 year-old dark girl called Corina Lopes at Santo Antonio's kermesse (it comes from Dutch kirk (church) and mis (mass) and fell desperately in love with her. Not long after they tied the knot on 29 September 1936. Luiz had just tuned 31 and Corina, who was born in Rio Claro-RJ, on 23rd December 1914, had not turned 22 yet. 

Corina Lopes's fatherArlindo Joaquim Lopes (*2 July 1887 +15 July 1967); Corina's motherMaria dos Santos Lopes (*23rd May 1897 +26 April 1943). 

After getting married they lived in a house on Rua Lima e Costa. Rosa said Luizinho got into the habit of drinking spirits but never got drunk. Rosa also said Corina had a brother-in-law by the name of Faria who would gossip to Corina's father saying Darin was an alcoholic good-for-nothing. Rosa also said that Faria himself became an alcoholic in no time. 

On 5 September 1937, Corina gave birth to a baby boy who would be called Wandyr Darin. I think Luiz worked as a projector operator at Cine São Luiz (this has to be confirmed) where his younger brother Octavio also worked. One a half year later, on 16 July 1939, Corina gave birth to a girl called Wanda.  

It was a few months after Wanda's birth that Luiz Darin started having health issues. No one knew exactly what the problem was but drinking only aggravated the situation. As 1940 wore on, his health only grew worse. So much so that his father Giovanni Battista thought they should take a train and find a cure in São Paulo, 500 km away. Rosa Darin also boarded the night train with Luiz and their Father. They all checked into a hotel next to Santa Casa de Misericórdia in Vila Buarque and after waiting two days Luiz was finally admitted but to no avail. He was already in a hopeless state and died on Tuesday, 26 November 1940. As it was very dear to transport the body back to Marília, it was buried at Cemitério do Araçá, on the following day 27 November 1940. 

Here's what I found at Araçá's office when I researched Luiz Darin's death:

Aos 27 de Novembero de 1940, enterrou-se o cadáver de Luiz Darin, com 35 anos de idade, casado, natural de Marília-SP (sic), filho de João Baptista Darin, falecido ontem, 26 de Novembro, às 8:00 horas, vítima de OBSTRUÇÃO INTESTINAL. 

It must have been really sad when Giovanni Battista (69) & Rosa Darin (25) arrived in Marília the following day without having Luiz (35) with them. How sad Corina (26) must have felt with two young children to raise: Wandyr (3) and Wanda (1 year 4 months).



Sunday 25 February 2024

Maria da Glória Redondo

 

Maria da Glória Redondo was born on 27 October 1931, in Gália-SP. She was born in the rural area for her father Sebastião Redondo (born on 29 June 1907) worked in a farm. 

15 April 2004 - The last time I saw my aunt Maria da Glória Redondo Batista:

Visit of Maria Redondo, widow of my uncle João Baptista Darin (* 18 April 1911 + 7 February 1984) at our house in Rio Pequeno

Less than 2 years before my dearest Mother Yolanda Darin Amorim died (on 13 February 2006), her sister-in-law Maria Redondo rang us at home asking me if I could go and fetch her at her sister Cota's home in Vila Gustavo (a northern suburb of São Paulo) for she longed to see Yolanda again. I reckon she suspected Yolanda didn't have too much time on her hands any longer in which she was right. 

I rang my cousin Beatriz Scarpetti and invited her to come along for it would be a once in a life-time chance to see an old relative and catch up with old times. Beatriz was glad to oblige, took a bus from Lapa, where she lived by herself in an apartment at Central-Park, and arrived at our place while I was still out having taken the long way to Vila Gustavo to bring our Special Guest  to Rio Pequeno. Tia Maria (that's how we used to call her) had arrived from Marília a few days before and was staying at her sister's. 

I always had a special predilection to aunt Maria Redondo since I was a child still living in Marília, 500 km West of São Paulo city, so I performed this task with the utmost pleasure. Actually, I felt honoured to be able to 'go & fetch' my dearest aunt. This would be the last time I ever saw her. 

Now, what comes next is what I remember of what happened that particular Thursday, 15 April 2004. I made a point of taking notes and writing it all down on the following day, 16 April 2004, the very day my grand-mother Erminia Billò would be 128 years old if she hadn't died on 25 April 1934. I asked most of the questions for I knew it would be a rare occasion to shed light on many aspects of the Family's past. And here it goes:

Maria Redondo's relationship with her sister-in-law Maria Corsini aka Mariquinha.

Maria said that as soon as she was introduced to the members of the Darin Family, a few months before she married João Batista Darin on 13 October 1949, Mariquinha started spilling the beans about the skeletons in the Family's closet.

First we should take a look back how Maria got herself into the Darin family. Maria worked as a maid for dona Letícia who was the local director for Sudan Cigarettes Company in which João Darin Baptista worked as a driver. 

As João had to see dona Letícia every time he made the rounds after having visited neighbour towns to deliver cigarette packets or collect money, he, one day, noticed the 17 year-old maid and thought he might start a romance. João was already a mature man having reached the ripe age of 37 in 1948João soon fell in love with Maria.

In early 1949, Maria's parents, Benedito and Conceição, and all her 3 younger sisters, Cota, Benedita aka Ditinha and Mariza left Marília for São Paulo in search of better employment. Maria was supposed to go with them, but since she had already got a steady job and was dating João Baptista with prospects of getting married, she stuck to her guns and said goodbye to her family at the railway station when they took the night train to São Paulo, never to see them again in Marília.

João and Maria actually could have married before the Redondo family left for São Paulo, but Giovanni Battista Darin, João's father, was on the process of building a brick house on the same lot they had a wooden house on rua Campos Salles, 350, where the whole Darin family had lived for almost 20 years, since the early 1930s. The old man had saved enough money to pay for the dismantling of the wooden house and the building of a brand-new brick house that would be the pride of the Darin Family for the rest of the 1950s. It was in a good part of town, being opposite to a Presbyterian Church which was abuzz with activity on Sunday mornings and evenings. The house was not far from Saint Anthony Church, 4 blocks away from glorious Cine Marília and 3 blocks away from rua São Luiz, a major shopping centre.

João & Maria got married on 13 October 1949, as soon as the house was finished. Maria must have felt like Cinderella when she moved into the brand-new brick house on rua Campos Salles, 350. She and João Baptista had the main bed-room in the house which looked out into the front garden and the gothic Presbyterian church across the street; the old-man Giovanni (78) known as Senhor Darin had a smaller room off the living room with a single window to a small rectangle space between the next-door neighbour's wall. João's sister Rosa Darin (34) had the bed-room off a large kitchen with a great red-brick stove for burning logs.

When my Mother and I visited her Dad during the 1950s, he stayed in bed most of the time so Mother went to his room first to say hello and have a little talk before she went on to salute her sister or sister-in-law. I remember I used to stay by my Mother's side listening to her conversation and I realized looking out my Grandfather's window that this 'dead-end space' reverberated people's voice in a 'funny' way. 

Maria Redondo told me she still remembered when Ivo João Darin visited Marília with Ruth de Mello in 1950, as part of their honey-moon. She said Ruth was a bit anti-social for she stayed in the guest's room most of the time not even taking meals with them. Some of Ruth's relations lived in Marília and apparently were well-to-do for they owned posh Casa Dias which was on Avenida Sampaio Vidal, the town's main drag. Maria said that even Nonno (our Grandfather) noticed Ruth's slight in not taking her meals with the rest of the family. 

João & Maria's first child was a baby boy born on 21st February 1951, who they named José Carlos Batista. When João Baptista Darin married Maria Redondo in 1949, there was a mishap with the Notary official who mistakenly thought Baptista was João's surname, not his middle Christian name. That should have been easily fixed the next few days, but João Baptista never bothered with it and in the end this new family adopted a brand-new surname: Batista.

To complete the little family happiness, Maria gave birth to a baby girl on 28 February 1953, calling her Hermínia Maria Batista. She was named after João Baptista's mother Erminia Billò and Maria's own name. These kids were all born during the time their parents lived on the beautiful brick house on rua Campos Salles, 350. 

My Mother (Yolanda Darin Amorim) used to visit her Father Giovanni Battista Darin at least once a fortnight so that house became part of my own upbringing. I used to like going there for the house was always filled with guests from various parts of town sometimes even out of town for the Darin Family grew larger by the 40s and 50s with 11 children having got married and had a lot of children some of them were already adults and had children of their own.

Giovanni grew older and more frail with the passing years having taken to his bed in the last couple of years. He didn't have a major illness of which I could talk about; he only was frail and developed bed sores for staying in bed for long periods of time. My Grandfather was revered by all and sundry especially by his offsprings. It was a great commotion when he finally died in the early hours of 28 August 1959.

I remember waking up in my bed on the morning of 28 August 1959. It was still dark, it must have been 5:00 am. The sound of the motor of a vehicle woke me up. It was my uncle João Batista Darin who had driven across town to tell his baby sister Yolanda that their father Giovanni Battista had (finally) died in the early hours of that day. That was to become one of the longest days in my whole life for soon we were on our feet to see how things progressed. I had turned 10 three months before and was a solid young man coursing the last year of Elementary Education. 

We lived in a wooden plank house of 2 bedrooms on rua Mato Grosso, 393. Grandfather's house was on rua Campos Salles, 350; it was on the other side of town, but it wasn't too far; actually 11 blocks away, but it seemed far because one had to climb a hill, then descend it and climb it again. We only had to go up and cross Avenida República, rua Pedro de Toledo, rua Nelson Spielman, then turn left towards rua Paraná, turn right and cross the railway line until we got to Avenida Sampaio Vidal, the main drag. At the top of the hill we would turn left, past rua Arco Verde, walked one block and turned right into rua Campos Salles, before we reached Cine Marília. Then we started descending the hill past rua 4 de Abril, rua São Luiz, rua XV de Novembro which was at the bottom of the hill and started ascending rua Campos Salles again up to the middle of the block where 350 was on the right side.    

I had a long talk with Maria Redondo on 13 February 1997, a Thursday, about those heady days in the late 1950s before Giovanni Battista Darin died. 

I was staying in Marília for a few days and usually slept over at tia Rosa's, who occupied a small 2-bed-room house at the back of Maria Redondo's house on Rua 9 de Julho, 2008. Maria hardly ever stayed in that house for she preferred staying at her daughter's Rita de Cassia who had a few children and needed her mother's help. 

By February 1997, there were not many Darin left. Rosa Darin had died in 1996, so Ecydir Darin was the only person living in that house on rua 9 de Julho, 2008. 


 had moved into with João Batista when they moved out of the house on Rua Campos Salles, 350 which was fsold after we had already left Marília, some time in 1961 or 1962. 


2008Maria died on 31st January 2021, in Marília, 9 months before she turned 90 years old. She had come down with pneumonia and taken to a hospital on Friday, having died on the Sunday. 

As previously said, I hadn't seen tia Maria for 17 years. A friend from Facebook who lived near my cousin Hermínia Maria Batista, told me some years back that Maria Redondo had come down with dementia, having wandered away from the house where she lived with Hermínia and wouldn't know how to go back again. It took them some time until they located her again. Ever since that, they had to leave doors locked for she might slip out again. 

Tuesday 16 May 2023

Roldão Ignácio Lacerda, my Father's cousin

My Mother had 6 brothers & 5 sisters; my Father had 3 brothers & 3 sisters...so I was used to meet 'uncles' and 'aunties' by the drove. Sometimes I didn't know whether the person I was introduced to was my cousin or uncle.

After we left Marília-SP and moved to São Paulo in December 1960, I had the chance to meet further relatives I had never heard of before. One of these 'new' relatives was this guy called Roldão, which was a cousin of my Father, João Amorim. 

Roldão's Mother was my Father's Mother's sister. Roldão was actually older than him by 3 years. The reason why I had never seen him in Marília was due to his having moved to São Paulo in the late 1940s and as he owned a bar in Penha he could hardly take time off and go visit his relatives 500 km away westward. Now, let me introduce Roldão Ignácio Lacerda properly and explain how we are related. 

My Father's grandparents were Florencia Rosa de Jesus & Quintino Pavão de Oliveira who had at least 10 children; all of them were born in or around São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ.

1. Olímpio Pavão de Oliveira * 26 July 1891

2. Altina Rosa de Jesus * 29 June 1893

3. Maria Rosa de Jesus * 6 June 1895

4. Altina Rosa de Jesus aka ALBINA Rosa de Jesus * 2 August 1897

5. Anna Rosa de Jesus * 8 September 1900

6. Augusta Rosa de Jesus * 20 May 1904

7. José Pavão de Oliveira * 12 April 1906

8. Joaquim Pavão de Oliveira aka Quincas * 19 April 1908 

9. João Pavão de Oliveira * 26 October 1910

10. Margarida Rosa de Oliveira * 30 June 1915

You may have wondered why there were two girls called ALTINA... Quintino, who was parcial to drinking of alcoholic beverage, pinga aka cachaça, was a bit fuzzy when my Grandmother was born on 2nd August 1897. He went to a Registry Office (cartório) to have the new baby registered and when the Official asked what name it would be called he said: ALTINA. In his fog he probably must have forgotten his second child had already been named ALTINA. When he got back home, Florencia didn't like what she heard but as they didn't have the means to rectify it, it was settled the second Altina would be called ALBINA... and that's how the family ended up with two Altinas. 

By 1920, most of this family ended up migrating to São Paulo state trying to get away from the Spanish Flu Pandemic (which actually started in China or Kansas, USA, according to different sources) that was wreaking havoc in Rio de Janeiro state.  

On the move to São Paulo, Altina, who was already married to a man called Quintino (like her father) went astray from the pack and ended up going to a different place. Everyone else headed to Ourinhos-SP, which had a great coffee plantations in which most of these people found employment. That was the last time they saw Altina. Some decades later Fernando Antonio Amorim who married the second Altina aka Albina made an effort to find the long-lost sister-in-law sending letters to radio programmes specialized in finding long lost relatives but to no avail. 

Let's zoom in on Maria Rosa de Jesus and see what happened to her. Maria married José Ignácio Lacerda in São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ and had 3 boys:

1. Jacinto was born in 1919, and died in infancy. Soon after the couple joined the rest of the family and moved to Ourinhos-SP. 

2. Roldão Ignácio Lacerda was born on 23rd November 1920, in Ourinhos-SP;

3. a 3rd boy was still born in 1921 or  early 1922 and due to the fact of the baby having been dead for a few days Maria ended up dying too. 

As soon as José Ignácio saw his wife had died he up and went away abandoning little Roldão who ended up being cared for by his grandmother Florencia Rosa de Jesus who lived with her still not married children José (14), Joaquim aka Quincas (12), João (10) and Margarida (5).

Pavão de Oliveira/Rosa de Jesus family members gravitated around Albina Rosa de Jesus who had been married to Fernando Antonio Amorim since 1918, before they left for Ourinhos-SP. Fernando who was a dutiful man - after working as a labourer at coffee or cotton plantations - managed to work as a chauffeur for Jacinto Ferreira de Sá who had been a local landowner and mayor of Ourinhos since its becoming a city on 20 March 1919.

In July 1932, Fernando's luck suddenly came to an end and he became unemployed. Jacinto Sá lost his job as Ourinhos mayor when troops from Rio Grande do Sul stormed the town and deposed him. São Paulo state lost its sheen (power) when Getúlio Vargas became President of Brazil. It took a while for Fernando to make his next move. By 1933, he had moved to Marília-SP and let a house on Rua Minas Gerais to settle the family. 

Albina's mother Florencia with her 3 kids and her grandson Roldão soon joined her daughter and son-in-law Fernando in Marília. José Pavão had died suddenly when he exerted himself too much on putting out a fire and came in contact with cold water afterwards. People said José died of 'stupor'. 

Fernando Antonio Amorim had all sorts of jobs in Marília. He owned a grocery store for some time but probably wasn't cut out for this sort of business. He then started selling imported women's fashion magazines - known as 'figurinos' by the populace - from town to town in the state of São Paulo and Northern Paraná. 

One day, in one of his many business trips, Fernando bumped into his former brother-in-law José Ignácio Lacerda who lived in Brotas-SP and had a formed a whole new family by then. When Fernando was back in Marília he told Roldão he had met his father by chance. Roldão got all worked up and wouldn't know peace-of-mind again until he went and met his real father.  

Roldão took a train and went to Brotas, met his father for the 1st time in his life and also his half-brother Aparecido Lacerda aka Cido. He decided to stay in Brotas and Fate made he meet a tall girl called Aparecida Coniglian aka Cida, whose father was a military man. Cida would soon become his wife. Roldão & Cida got married in 1944. Roldão was 24 years old, Cida was 19 (born in 1925). They had 3 children:

1. Antonio Ignácio Lacerda (30 January 1945) born in Brotas-SP

2. Diva de Lacerda (6 October 1946) in Barra Bonita-SP

3. José Carlos Ignácio Lacerda (10 February 1950) in Penha, São Paulo. 

Now we come to a junction where I don't know how but Roldão and Cida, after getting married and having had their first child (Toninho) in Brotas-SP they moved to Barra Bonita-SP circa 1946... and before the 1940s were up they moved to São Paulo and settled at Penha where they lived for the rest of their lives. 


Monday 15 March 2021

Baurú & São Paulo folks visit relatives in Marília in February 1968

Sandra Helena Amorim (11), Günther Karg Jr (12), tia Antonia Amorim Karg (46), tia Maria Rosa Amorim Bellini (30), Osvaldo Luiz Amorim (15); kneeling on the hot asphalt are Rute Maria Amorim (6), Altina Rosa Bellini (8), Arthur Bellini Jr. (4) & an unidentified child.
back row from left to right: Maria Rosa Amorim Bellini, Yolanda Darin Amorim, Osvaldo Luiz, an unidentified girl; front row Rute Maria, Sandra Helena, Angela Maria Bellini, Altina Rosa Bellini; kneeling on the ground: Arthur Bellini Jr. and Alberto Luis Bellini.

Tuesday 2 March 2021

Albina Rosa de Jesus died on 5 March 1984

 

This is most certainly the last photo of my grandmother Albina Rosa de Jesus - here with her second oldest daughter Dulce Roza Amorim some time in late 1983, at Dulce's garden on Rua Ignacio Pereira da Rocha, in Pinheiros, São Paulo. Albina would die a few weeks later on 5 March 1984

Albina, Dulce, Celso & Sonia Tanganelli and Paulo Cesar (at his wheel-chair); on the front row are Gabriel's twin boys, Sergio & Ricardo plus an non-identified girl.

Avó Albina ahead in years, she'd only live one-and-a-half year after this shot. Her body language reveals to me she was living some place different than the one she as. She has that far-away look of someone seeing a ship far away at sea. 

Today, 16 November 2023, I was thinking deeply about my Grandmother Albina... She didn't have a place of her own. Since my Granfather died in 1969, her house on Rua Mato Grosso, was 'dismantled' and she lived mostly at my aunt Antonia house in Baurú and sometimes she'd stay with Maria Rosa at the other side of Mato Grosso...but she had too many children, like 2 girls and 2 boys. I was wondering how comfortable she felt when moving from Antonia's, Maria Rosa's, Dulce's and in shorter stays at Yolanda's, Francisca's and Eunice's.

Albina was from a rural outfit. She had lots of brothers and sisters who mostly worked in coffee, cotton or sugar-cane plantations. The boys didn't manage to live too long mostly bogged down in alchoholism when adults. Anna actually outlived Albina; Maria Rosa & her husband got detached from the rest while still at a city junction at Luz Railway Station when migrating from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo and was never to be found... And Margarida died in her late 40s.

Schooling in Marilia

 

III Grupo at Vila São Miguel on Rua Bartolomeu de Gusmão - 1957.
III Grupo, 1962
Colégio Sagrado Coração de Jesus in 1959; Regina Celi Coercio, Maria Eugênia Tanuri Caetano, Esmil Delboni, Maria Amelia Cavichiolli, Regina Menin Gartner, Latife Baaklini & others. 
Dislene de Oliveira writes: Encontrei meu boletim. O nome da escola é Escola Mista da Vila Palmital. Professora Neide Aparecida de Oliveira (de óculos) à esquerda. 

Álvaro B Muzzi writes: Estudei na Escola Municipal da Vila Palmital, em 1944 e 1945. O endereço era na Avenida República, logo após a rua Osvaldo Cruz, uma casa de madeira. Minha professora foi Sizina Lacerda e Silva. 

Albertino José De Souza Souza writes: Estudei lá também. Me lembro que chamávamos de Escolinha da dona Neide. O prédio está lá Rua Pedro de Toledo, perto da rua Osvaldo Cruz.

Walter Pereira writes: Tomaz Antônio Gonzaga: eu no segundo ano de 1950, professora dona Elizabeth. Tive de deixar a escola p'ra vir p'ra São Paulo com a família. 19/7/1950. Muitas saudades dessa época. 

Bairro Tiverón, Marília, 1928.

I Grupo Escolar de Marília, in 1933.