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As we have already seen, EMILIA MARIA NAZARETH aka TIA NENÊ was the 7th child of my paternal great-grandparents Jacinto Antonio Amorim & Placidina Maria Nazareth. She was born in 1889, in São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ. Tia Nenê aka Sá Nenê, was 6 years old when Fernando Antonio Amorim was born in 1895.
In February 1908, when Emília was 19, there was a commotion in the area of São Sebastião where she lived with her parents and siblings. Early one morning when everyone was up to go to work, a bundle wrapped in some cloth was discovered on top of a tree stump near their street. To everyone's surprise, the bundle turned out to be a baby-girl which had been born only a few hours back. It just didn't die because February is the height of the Brazilian summer. The police was summed up and a great big search was put in place to find out whose the baby's mother was. The Police knocked on everyone's doors to find out whether they could find a young lady who had just lost a few kilos recently.
It didn't take too long for the Police to zero in on Emilia who had to admit that the child was hers. She had given birth to the girl with no help from anybody and decided to get rid of it to save her reputation. The little girl was eventually baptized and given the name of Catarina Maria Nazareth, born on 2nd February 1908. Emília said Manoel de Aragão, who worked as a drover (tropeiro) was the father, but he never acknowledged his part so little Catarina was raised by mother Emília and grandmother Placidina.
When Catarina was 4 years old and her mother was 23, Emília became pregnant from a Black man (his name has never been mentioned). Emilia's sisters Maria, Adelina and Aspasia wouldn't hear of their younger sister having a child of a Black man inside their home so Emilia had to have her second daughter out in the open, just like the first time although for a different reason. Thank God it was summer again, otherwise it would've been a messy business with both mother & child risking their lives.
On 3rd December 1913, Emilia Maria Nazareth gave birth to Virgilina Francisca Nazareth, since birth known as Chica, who was unlucky to be of a darker skin than a mixed blood child could be. So life went on for Emilia and her two daughters until 1919, when the whole family left the State of Rio de Janeiro and moved to Ourinhos-SP, near the boarder of Paraná, where everyone worked as labourers at coffee or sugar-cane plantations. Emilia was 30 years, Catarina (11), Chica (6) when they arrived in Ourinhos.
As time went by, Catarina, not yet 17, married Domingos Martins (22) on 12 January 1925, in Ourinhos. Domingos, who worked as 'carroceiro' (cart man) was a fair man with blue eyes having been born in in 1903 in Ribeirão Preto-SP; his father Christovam Martins and mother Rosalia Lopes were both from Málaga, Spain. Catarina & Domingos Martins had 5 children:
1. José Martins, born on 23rd July 1926, even though he was registered on 10 September 1926.
2. Nair Martins, born (probably) in 1929; married Joaquim Maciel; died in 1965 (36 years old);
3. Francisca Martins - born circa 1931.
4. Nadir Martins, born on 19 July 1937; died of a heart attack, on 29 July 2009, in Baurú-SP;
5. João Martins, probably born in 1939; João was 1 year old when Catarina died, so her uncle Virgilio Amorim ended up adopting João Martins who had his surname changed to João Amorim, the same name of his mother's cousin João Amorim.
After having 5 children or maybe more, for we don't know whether she had still-born babies or children who lived only a few days - Catarina was frail and dispirited. They had moved to Avaré-SP, 115 km away east of Ourinhos and probably lived in squallor for I was told Catarina contracted tunga penetrans known as 'bicho-do-pé' which is a sort of flea which burrows under the skin of humans and if not treated it can cause blood poisoning aka septcemia. They said Catarina walked barefoot near their pig sty. Catarina was taken to a hospital but never recovered having died at 33, in 1941.
Soon after Catarina died, Domingos Martins took a trip somewhere never to return, leaving all 5 children at their own devices. This is actually a male trait: when the going gets tough one might as well, fuck off. Hearing the news of Martins' desertion of his children, uncle Fernando Amorim traveled from Marília to Avaré to try and sort the whole mess. José (14) went to live with his grandma Emília, in Marília. Nair (12) and Nadir (4) went to live with Fernando and his family in Marília. Joãozinho (2) was legally adopted by Fernando's younger brother Virgilio Amorim who had only daughters and longed to have a male child. I don't know about Francisca Martins' fate, who was 10 then. She probably went to work as a handmaid for some next-of-kin in Ourinhos. Nair lived with her great-uncle Fernando Amorim for a few years. She went to primary school in Marília where she learned to read and write. By the time she was 15, Fernando thought Nair was unruly and could not follow instructions so she decided to go back to Ourinhos to live with another relative; probably went to live at the same place where Francisca had been living for the past 3 years. Dulce Amorim told me, Nair used to write back to Marilia (from Ourinhos) telling about her new life...until she herself got married to Joaquim Maciel and had a few children.
So this is the saga of Catarina Nazareth and her husband Domingos Martins who went AWOL.
In 1920, when the whole family migrated to Ourinhos-SP, Chica was 7 years. In 1926, when Chica turned 13, she started working as a handmaid for Sá Lodi, mother of Manoel de Oliveira, who was married to Anna Rosa de Jesus, Emilia's sister-in-law's sister, Albina.
On 16 December 1932, when Fernando (37) & Albina (35) moved yet again, this time to Marília, his sister Emilia (43) came along with her youngest daughter Chica (19) who by this time already had a baby boy born in Ourinhos called Álvaro, of an unknown Black man.
Virgilina Francisca Nazareth (*3rd December 1913 + 5 January 1952) soon met a Black man called Raimundo Andrade da Silva, born in 1901, who adopted Álvaro, and went on to have 2 daughters and another boy:
Virgilina aka Chica & Raiumundo's children:
1. Alvaro (Chica's first child, probably born in 1930, in Ourinhos, when she was 17 years old)
2. Regina Andrade da Silva (born in Marília, probably in 1938)
3. Guiomar Andrade da Silva (born in Marília, probably in 1942)
4. Milton Andrade da Silva, born in Marília, on 18 April 1945.
In conversation I had with Dulce Roza Amorim on 20 November 2006, she told me a few things about Chica's family. Raimundo showed up in Marília circa 1934, from 'nowhere'. No one knew where he came from. He had a shack by a brook that ran through the low northern section of Marília, called Alto Cafezal, running parallel with Rua Bom Fim. He owned a horse and managed to buy a cart which he loaded with wood he'd cut in his backyard and delivered to households around town. There was no cooking gas in the 1930s. Apparently, Emilia aka Tia Nenê, also lived with Chica and Raimundo near this brook.
Dulce said Chica would only visit Murim's house (nickname of Fernando Amorim, her uncle) after dark for she was afraid she'd stained his reputation for having business with a Black person. Slavery had been abolished only 45 years before and Blacks were deemed as sub-humans then. She'd have a cup of coffee and off she went on her way.
Chica worked as a handmaid during the day while Raimundo kept busy with his 'lenhadora' (firewood) business. They lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Chica became very frail and died of malnutrition on 5 January 1952, only 38 years old. Regina was 13, Guiomar was 9 and Milton only 6. The children were supervised by their grandmother Emília who was 62 years old.
Raimundo outlived Chica by 4 years. Raimundo Antonio da Silva died of hyper-tension on 29 October 1956. Regina and Guiomar were adopted by a white family who belonged to a Lutheran Church in Marília. Milton, who was 10 when his father died was kept by his grandmother (Tia Nenê) who died
In the lack of Emília Maria Nazareth's photographs I took the liberty to post a photo of her mother, Placidina Maria Nazareth, lying in an open coffin at Ourinho's cemetery, in 1923, a few moments before being lowered 7 feet into her grave. This is Placidina's only extant photo. For some unique reason I happened to be present when Emília died in a bedroom in her brother's house on Rua Mato Grosso, 397, on .... 1956. My family lived in a house just in front of Fernando & Albina's abode. One day I thought I had someone shoutin 'Tia Nenê is dying!!'. It was Nadir Martins' crying, her own flesh and blood, actually her granddaugher. I rushed to our grandparent's house, climbed the steps to the front porch of a wooden house, for I knew Tia Nenê had been staying for the last few days. I don't remember whether I saw her alive, but I'm pretty sure I saw her body for a prolongued stretch of time. Actually, I think I saw Tia Nenê when she was still grasping for air on the verge of dying... or maybe it is my imagination playing with me. That's why, this post-mortem photo of Placidina reminded me of her daughter Emília...
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