Maria da Glória Redondo was born on 27 October 1931, in a rural area of Gália-SP where her father Benedicto Redondo (born on 29 June 1907) worked in a farm. It's funny but only now I realize I never asked her about her early years. We know she was addressed as Glorinha by her family for she had been named after her paternal grandmother. Glorinha's mother was Maria Conceição (born on 15 August 1910). Benedicto & Conceição had 3 more daughters: Cota (circa 1935), Benedita aka Ditinha (circa 1944) and Mariza (1947).
We don't know where the Redondo family came from or when they arrived in Gália, but it was pretty common for people to migrate from place to place in the 20s & 30s as the railways stretched further into the indigenous people's land. As Marília was further away in the West and only became a municipality in 1929, I suppose Benedicto Redondo must have moved there in the mid-1930s when the town started to grow in a faster pace.
The fact is that by 1949, Benedicto, his wife and 3 daughters left Marília for São Paulo in search of better employment, leaving Glorinha, who had been working as a maid & cook at the house of a certain dona Letícia, local manager of a large cigarette company called Sudan with a branch in Marília.
We cannot be definite about dates but as Glorinha was an intelligent and resourceful young lady she must have started her employment with dona Letícia when she was 14 years old, in 1945, around the time her sister Ditinha was born.
It's around this time that Glorinha's path crossed that of my uncle João Baptista Darin, who worked as a truck driver for Sudan, the cigarette company.
João Baptista had to see dona Letícia to account for the packs of cigarettes he delivered at outlets in Marília and around neighbouring towns. One day, he noticed the pretty young maid and thought he might start a romance after she grew a little older. João was already a mature man having reached the ripe age of 36 in 1947. João soon fell in love with Glorinha and they started to date.
In 1949, when push came to shove, Mr Redondo gathered his family and took the night train to São Paulo leaving Glorinha behind. It was understood Glorinha would be married to João Darin as soon as possible. Glorinha waved goodbye to her family at the railway station, never to see them again in Marília.
João and Maria could have married before the Redondos left for São Paulo, but Giovanni Battista Darin, João's father, was on the process of building a new brick house on the same lot they had a wooden house on rua Campos Salles, 350, where the whole Darin family had lived since the mid-1930s. The old man who worked as an accountant (book-keeper) by then had saved enough money to pay for the building of a brand-new brick house that would be the pride & joy 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 activities on Sunday mornings and evenings. The house was not far from Saint Anthony Church, 4 blocks away from glorious Art-Deco Cine Marília and 3 blocks away from rua São Luiz, a major shopping thoroughfare.
João Baptista Darin & Maria da Glória Redondo got married on 13 October 1949, as soon as the house was complete. Maria must have felt like Cinderella when she moved into the beautiful brick house on rua Campos Salles, 350. She and João Baptista had the main bed-room in the house which looked out into a 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 a bedroom off a large kitchen with a great red-brick stove for burning logs.
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. Both kids were born while their parents lived on the beautiful brick house on rua Campos Salles, 350.
Maria Redondo told me in the 1990s, she still remembered when my cousin 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.
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 long to live which she was right.
I rang my cousin Beatriz Scarpetti and invited her to come along for this 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, so I performed this task with the utmost pleasure. Actually, I felt honoured to be able to 'go & fetch' my dearest aunt on this Thursday, 15 April 2004. This would be the last time I ever saw her.
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 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.
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 aunt 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 Batista, who had a few young children and needed her mother's help. My cousin Ecydir Darin ( ) was living there for he had been sheltered by Maria Redondo who did this in loyalty to Maria Corsini, her sister-in-law who welcomed Redondo with open arms when she was first introduced to the family on a Sunday night.
Soon after marrying João Darin Filho, Maria went up to the top of the Family's pecking order as she had daily contact with the Pater Familias. She actually played his factotum on a day-to-day basis. For almost 10 years, until late 1958, as he was still mobile, Maria helped her father-in-law with his book-keeping activity. Every morning, she went out to fetch accounting books at the homes of clients like Vidrik, a Hungarian leather goods outlet owner. He also kept the books of a vinegar factory and 4 shoe-makers.
At the first anniversary of Marco Giovanni's passing away, on 28 August 1960, Maria Redondo Batista was the very first lady-in-mourn among daughters, daughters-in-law and grand-daughters who discarded her black garments to wear regular clothes. That showed Maria was a leader and knew how to assert herself. She didn't have to wait for someone to tell her when to do it.
the last Darin
By February 1997, there were not many Darin members left. Rosa Darin had died in 1996, so Ecydir Darin (65) was the only person living in that house on rua 9 de Julho, 2008.
Rua 9 de Julho, 2008: Rosa Darin moved in with João Batista & Maria Redondo when they moved out of the house on Rua Campos Salles, 350, which was sold after we had already left Marília, some time in 1961 or 1962.
Maria da Glória died on 31st January 2021, in Marília, 9 months before she turned 90 years old. She managed to outlive all Darins even though she had been suffering from dementia for some years. At the end she came down with pneumonia, was taken to a hospital on Friday, having died on the Sunday.
As previously said, I hadn't seen Maria Redondo for 17 years. A Facebook friend who lived near my cousin Hermínia Maria Batista, told me some years back that Maria had dementia, having wandered away from the house where she lived with Hermínia and wouldn't know how to return. It took them some time until they located her again. Ever since that day, they had to leave doors locked for Maria might slip out again.
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