José Martins (1926-2022) & Maria das Dores Vital

José Martins (19), José de Oliveira (21) & Mario Amorim (20) in 1945.  

As we have seen in earlier posts:

Jacinto Antonio Amorim & Placidina Maria Nazareth had at least 9 children:

1. João Amorim

2. Maria Nazareth

3. Adelina Nazareth

4. Firmino Amorim aka Danga

5. Joaquim Amorim (died when only 2 years old)

6. Aspasia Nazareth (accidentally electrocuted)

7. Emília Maria Nazareth aka Tia Nenê (1889)

8. Fernando Antonio Amorim (1895)

9. Virgílio Amorim 

Emília Maria Nazareth had two daughters from different men

1. Catarina Nazareth 

2. Virgilina Nazareth aka Chica

Catarina Nazareth, not yet 17, married Domingos Martins (22) on 12 January 1925, in Ourinhos. Martins was born in Ribeirão Preto-SP, in 1903; his father Christovam Martins and mother Rosalia Lopes hailed from Málaga, Spain. Catarina & Domingos had 5 children: 

1. José Martins (23rd July 1926)

2. Nair Martins 

3. Francisca Martins

4. Nadir Martins (19 July 1937 + 29 July 2009)

5. João Martins (1939) adopted by Virgilio Amorim and renamed João Amorim.

After Catarina Nazareth's untimely death at the age of 33, in 1941, Domingos who was 38 years old simply went away and abandoned all his children to the care of his mother-in-law Emília Maria Nazareth and her brothers Fernando and Virgílio. Domingos ended up marrying a Maria da Glória Gonzaga from Tarumã-SP and they had 4 daughters: Natália, Aparecida, Aldevina e Rita. 

Zé was raised by his grandmother Emília (Tia Nenê). After Catarina gave birth to Nair, in 1929, Zé was weaned and given to Emília, who lived with Chica, her youngest daughter. In 1932, Chica married a Black ex-soldier called Gilberto, they used to call 'Geriberto'. As Fernando Amorim moved to Marília with his family, Chica, her new husband Gilberto, her mother Emília and grandson Zé Martins went to work at a coffee plantation in Ribeirão Claro-PR, just across Paranapanema River. 

Ribeirão Claro-PR just across the wide Paranapanema River, where Zé Martins, his grandmother Emília, aunt Chica & her husband Gilberto went to work as labourers in 1932. 

José Martins in 1950, in Marília.

When Zé Martins was 22 years old, he met and married Maria das Dores Vidal aka Dorinha.

José Martins weds Maria das Dores Vital, born in Marília, on 19 April 1932; Her father was Miguel Vital and Maria Rosa Pereira, known as dona Rosa, her mother. Miguel & Rosa had:

1. Geny Vital, who died from a weak heart in her early 30s.

2. Nércio, born on 17 August 1930; died on 30 April 1961; 

3. Ernestina, went away and returned only 20 years later; 

4. Maria da Dores aka Dorinha born on 19 April 1932; jumped off a train on 28 January 1975;

5. Luzia Pereira, was born in 1948 or 1949; Luzia's father was not Miguel, hence her different surname. Luzia was nursed by dona Rosa who also nursed her granddaughter Maria Lúcia Martins.

Zé Martins weds Dorinha; the bride's baby sister Luzia Pereira is he flower girl. 

Maria Lucia dressed up as an Angel, in June 1951, when she was 16 months old.

This scrap of paper with names of the Pereira, Vital and other families related to Maria das Doris Vital, Maria Lucia Martins's mother - was found among the things left by my aunt Rosa Darin, after she died in 1995. As Rosa lived opposite the house where some of Dorinha's relatives lived on Rua 9 de Julho, next to Rua Bom Fim, in Marília, I guess someone belonging to one of those families made a point of writing down their names as a matter of discerning who was who. 

In a conversation I had with Maria Lucia Martins on 26 December 2024, she went through this list and pointed out who she still remembers:

1. Belarmino Pereira was one of Maria Rosa Pereira's brothers. He worked as a grave digger at Marilia's Cemitério da Saudade. 

2. Brasilina Pereira was dona Rosa's sister. She was relatively well-off.

3. Maria Antônia de Jesus Pereira is possibly dona Rosa's mother.

4. Nelson Vital

5. Miguel Vital married Maria Rosa Pereira and had a few children; 

6. Aparecida de Freitas; 

7. Maria Vieira dos Santos;

8. Zeferina Soares da Cruz;

9. Marta Marques.

left, Dorinha in the 1960s; right: Dorinha on 30 April 1973, two years before her untimely death. 

Maria Lucia & Dorinha, her mother Maria das Dores Vital, in Marília-SP, in 1971.

Maria Lucia in the 1960s; Celso, her boy-friend circa 1962. 

Edna Tsutsui on 4 February 1964; Marinalva around the same time. 

Maria Aparecida Martins, Lucia's half-aunt from Tarumã-SP, on 20 July 1983.

Talking about Cida Martins, we should now talk about this branch of the Martins Family who lived in Tarumã-SP, a town near Assis and Cândido Mota, not far from Paranapanema River which is the boarder between São Paulo and Paraná.

Domingos Martins ended up marrying Maria da Glória Gonzaga in Tarumã-SP and they had 4 daughters: 

1. Maria Natália Martins, born in 1942, (had daughters Adriana & Ida); 

2. Maria Aparecida Martins, born on 6 September1948; 

3. Aldevina Martins 

4. Maria Rita Martins.

In 1951, Domingos Martins who was 48 then, actually exactly 10 years after he had left his 5 children with Catarina Nazareth, fatherless in Avaré, up and went AWOL again. Now, he abandoned wife Glória and 4 daughters who ended up being raised by their  tireless mother. 

Tarumã at the centre of the map not far from Paranapanema River on the south, Marília on northeast, Ourinhos slightly northeast and Londrina-PR crossing the boarder into Paraná State. 

Maria Lucia at our house in Rio Pequeno, in 1977. 

Luiz Carlos & Maria Lucia in 1977. 

João Amorim, Osvaldo, Yolanda Darin, Clelia Hiroko Myiadara, Maria Lúcia, Rute, Sandra & Fernando in 1978.

Marília graveyard

 

Marília's Cemitério da Saudade.

This is an early shot of Marília's Cemiterio da Saudade built in the outskirts of town in the mid-1920s. My grandfather Giovanni Battista Darin arrived in Marilia with his family in November 1927. Less than a year later on 20th September 1928, his brother Francesco Darin (52) died and was buried near the main gate which shows prominently on the photo. Toni Darin's toddler Antonio Darin Filho died on 20 September 1929 and then Elisa & Rissieri Darin's only daughter Lilia Therezinha died a month later on 25 October 1929 and were all buried in the same grave near the main entrance.

Part of the Darin family was really scared of so many deaths in so short a time and decided to go back to São José do Rio Pardo where they had come from about 2 years before and the graves were left unattended.

In the 1940s the local Council (Prefeitura) built a new brick wall around the Cemetery and those graves near the entrance were either transfered or simply destroyed with the remaining bones being taken and thrown into a common grave they called 'Cruzeiro' (Crosses). At Dia-dos-Finados (All Souls' Day) on 2nd November people usually light candles near this mass-grave that burn the whole day. The grave-yard management makes sure the fire is put out before they close down at the end of the day.

Every time I visited Marília in the 1990s, I would pay a visit to Cemitério da Saudade. Actually, aunt Rosa Darin would attend a Catholic Mass on Mondays at 2:00 pm, so I made a habit of walking from her abode on Rua 9 de Julho, 2008, up to the Graveyard every week. After Mass, Rosa and I would wander through the lanes and I would ask all sorts of questions about the graves we passed by. I made a point of taking paper and pencil to jot down names and dates of those I had the chance to know during their lifetime or people who lived and died before I was born or too young to know better. Here are some of the notes I took during those pleasant visits:

Gesuína F. de Souza (*4 January 1900 + 12 November 1987) at the same grave Q 57; 159; Sebastião L. Ribeiro (*18 August 1918 + 18 December 1955) who was married to dona Gesuína's daughter Sebastiana, who worked at the waiting room (sala de espera) of Companhia Paulista de Estrada de Ferro after her husband died prematurely at 37. 

Sebastiana de Souza & her mother Gesuína F. de Souza plus Pedro and Paulo, moved to Rua Mato Grosso, some time after their father's untimely death, in early 1956. Pedro was probably one year older than myself (1948) and Paulo, probably one year younger than I (1950). Both were nice kids. I remember a few years later, maybe 1959, Pedro had to go to hospital to have an operation. I don't know what was his problem... but I remember I became really sad when I heard the news for I thought he might die. While Pedro was in hospital, I listened to Giselle Galo's 'Le Lac de Côme', played by the orchestra of Frank Pourcel, from an Odeon extended-play my Father had and almost cried. A few days later, Pedro was back on Rua Mato Grosso alive and kicking. I never forget this particular moment. 

Fernando, my older brother used to be friends with Jurandir, a boy 2 years older than he who lived in that wooden house that dona Gesuína would occupy later. Jurandir lived with an older sister called Iraí, who was married to a barber and had a baby. 

We moved into a house on Rua Mato Grosso, in 1954. After Antonia Amorim married Günther Karg, on 4 July 1953, and went on living in Baurú (she worked as a telephone operator for Companhia Telefônica, a Canadian utility company). Up until then we had all lived at a house on Rua Rodrigues Alves owned by my grandfather Fernando Amorim. Our grandfather was annoyed with the neighbours who had been living in the area since back when that was part of Marília's red-light district. Since Antonia had left home to go to live in Baurú, he planned to sell the house and move out.