Wednesday 13 January 2021

Antonia & Mario Amorim

Ambition is a force which drives people in different ways and intensity. Among the 7 Amorim siblings born of Fernando Antonio Amorim and Albina Rosa de Jesus

Antonia (1921), 

João (1923), 

Mario (1926), 

Dulce (1929), 

Claudio (1931), 

Luiz (1934) and 

Maria Rosa (1938) 

we could surely say Antonia and Mario were the ones conscious of their socio-economic situation at a fairly early age and did their utmost to get away from poverty. 

Antonia who had been blessed by good looks managed to enter the work force of a Canadian multinational called Brazilian Telephone Company which established itself in Marilia in the 1930s. 

Mario who started working as a cotton picker, factory-hand and as a shoe-cobbler soon realized he had to have an education in order to climb the social ladder. Mario was the first and only Amorim progeny who entered and completed high school going on to enter Normal Course and become an elementary-school teacher. Not that he wanted to become a school-teacher which was a profession almost exclusively chosen by females, but to go on to further his education. 

In 1685, St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, established the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded what is generally considered the first normal school, the École Normale, in Reims, Champagne, France. 

The term "normal" in this context refers to the goal of these institutions to instill and reinforce particular norms within students. "Norms" included historical behavioral norms of the time, as well as norms that reinforced targeted societal values, ideologies and dominant narratives in the form of curriculum.

cousins José Martins, José de Oliveira & Mario Amorim.

Mario visits Ourinhos and have a portrait with his cousin Benjamin de Oliveira
Mario with two of his mates at Tiro de Guerra in Marília, in 1945.
Dulce with Gabriel, Fernando smiles lightly; Yolanda holds Luiz Carlos; Lulú just stares...
At Rua Goiáz, in the summer of 1951; Mario holds Gabriel. Fernando looks elsewhere.
Antonia smiles... Fernando is lost in his own world... summer 1951.
Dulce smiles; Fernando never looks at the camera.
Claudinho, Albina, Antonia holds Erica & Fernando looks at the camera; summer 1956.
Antonia Amorim & Paulo de Oliveira in Ourinhos circa 1949.