Florência Rosa de Jesus & Quintino Pavão de Oliveira

 

João Amorim, 10 with his grandmother Florência Rosa de Jesus, 64, in 1933.

Florência Rosa de Jesus was born on 11 March 1869, in Valença-RJ. 

Quintino Pavão de Oliveira was probably born in 1869.

Florência & Quintino were married on 4 October 1890, at the Registry Office of São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ. In the 1990s, when I went to Pentagna-RJ, which is the name São Sebatião is known ever since the 1950s, I was given the Registry Books to research at my own pleasure. I took advantage of the great opportunity and made a point of paying careful attention to the signatures of both the bride and bridegroom. Florência as an illiterate young woman simply wrote an X as a signature, but Quintino's signature was neat and clean.

Not much was talked about Quintino in later years, for soon he became addicted to alcohol and must have led an irresponsible life. Suffice it to say, when Florência had her 3rd daughter on 2nd August 1897, Quintino went to the Registry Office to register the new girl and when asked what would her name be he simply said 'Altina', which was the name of his first daughter born on 29 June 1893, who was 4 years old. One could not say this was an act of an absent-minded man but the act of a man under the influence of liquor. 

Even though Quintino was mostly under the influence of pinga or cachaça, apparently he was not a violent man for Florência remained married to him until 1915, when she had Margarida, her last child. They lived together for 25 year at least. 

Circa 1918, when it was time to migrate to São Paulo, Florência took Margarida (3) in her arms and moved away with all of her children. Quintino, who was 49 years old then was left behind. Some say Quintino had been admitted to a psychiatric ward of a hospital in Barra do Piraí-RJ; others say Quintino ended up in a hospice in Varginha-MG. Anyway, Quintino died in March 1923, at the age of 54.

Quintino Pavão's background: it's been said that his father João Pavão de Oliveira was born circa 1848, in the Azores Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America. It was said João was born in Ilhéu, but I have noticed that this is a word commonly used in the Azores to designate a small island. Tereza Maria de Jesus, was Quintino's mother's name. We don't know when Quintino's father migrated to Brazil.

We cannot pintoint the exact date of the Great Migration of all these people from the mountainous region of the State of Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo, to finally settle in Ourinhos-SP, near the great Paranapanema River which separates São Paulo from Paraná in the south. As the Spanish Flu pandemic was one of the reasons for leaving Rio de Janeiro, I settled the date to 1918, but it may as well be 1919 or even 1920. 

Once the families Amorim, Pavão de Oliveira & Rosa de Jesus settled in Ourinhos-SP, Florência with her children went to live near her son-in-law Fernando Antonio Amorim and her daughter Albina. It was a great family. By the 1930s, Albina's household had two matriarchs: her mother Florência which was addressed as 'Mother' and Albina herself who was addressed as 'Little Mother' (Mãezinha). To complicate matters, as João Amorim (born on 24 September 1923) was baptized by his grandmother Florência, he used to address her as 'Madrinha' but could only utter 'Dindinha' and that's how Florência became known as since the late 1920s: Dindinha! 

Florência Rosa de Jesus' background:  her father was Antonio Pinto da Rocha and her mother was Altina Rosa de Jesus (the original). These are Antonio & Altina's children:

1. Florência Rosa de Jesus (1869)

2. Antonieta Rosa de Jesus

3. Estevam Pinto da Rocha

Altina Rosa de Jesus (the original) died sometime after having had 3 or 4 children. Antonio Pinto da Rocha married again (we don't know the bride's name) and had 5 more children:

1. Francisco Pinto da Rocha married Carolina and had Antonio, Benedicto & Maria

2. Antonio Pinto da Rocha Filho married Balbina and had Jovino

3. Luiz Pinto da Rocha married Cigana Nenzinha and had Osvaldo, Álvaro, Aristides & Lalá

4. Manoel Pinto da Rocha who never married. He was blinded of both eyes.

5. João Pinto da Rocha married Rosa dos Anjos and had 10 children: 

1. Jovino married Isabel and had Elita

2. Jovila married Herminio and had Nilton & Eunice

3. Rubem Pinto da Rocha married Maria José and had Roberto, Rosa Maria, Renato & Rubens; having migrated to Curitiba, Paraná some time in the 1950s. 

4. Alcides married Mercedes (Cearense) and had 4 children

5. Euclides (still lives in Rio State)

6. José married Odite

7. Maria de Lourdes, born in 1921; never married

8. Nair (never married) 

9. Ernane, born on 12 November 1927;

10. Amélia, born on 26 January 1929, married Antonio Felício and had 6 children and still lived in Valença-RJ in the 1990s.   

Most of these people were born and raised in the region of São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ which is now called Pentagna-RJ; some lived in Rio Preto-RJ and others were born or lived in Valença-RJ. 

In 1951, after having lived in Ourinhos & Marília for more than 30 years, Fernando Antonio Amorim, my grandfather, took a sentimental journey to São Sebastião do Rio Bonito and brought along Maria Rosa Amorim, his youngest daughter who was 13 years old then. Maria Rosa told me that Rio Preto (Black River) ran behind the house of Rubem Pinto da Rocha, who was actually her grandmother's Florência Rosa de Jesus's half-brother. 

Rubem Pinto da Rocha ended up migrating to Curitiba-PR with his wife and 4 children some time during the 1950s. From then on Rubem kept in contact with his relatives in Marília, and that's how I ended up meeting my great-grand-mother's young half-brother some time in the late 1990s.