Ramiro Ribeiro was born in Marilia on 4 March 1938. According to records I found at Santo Antonio's vestry he was baptized as Romiro Ribeiro on 29 May 1938, having Jose dos Santos as godfather and Ana Amelia as godmother. Ramiro was known almost universally as Ramilo. Maybe because illiterate people would think that Ramiro was mispelt and decided to 'correct' what was actually right. So RAMILO it turned out to be.
Ramilo's mother Joana Ribeiro eventually married Joaquim Pavão de Oliveira aka as Quincas, who was my grandmother's Albina Rosa de Jesus's brother.
Albina Rosa de Jesus came from a large family in Sao Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ (now it is called Pentagna) and when she married Fernando Antonio Amorim, they moved to Ourinhos-SP in 1918, fleeing the Asian flu aka Spanish flu that had spread world-wide during the demobilization of troops that killed each other in Europe between 1914 and 1918.
Albina's baby sister Margarida and younger brother Quincas also made the trip to Ourinhos-SP and by 1933 everyone had re-located to Marilia where they lived in various places.
Quincas died on 11 August 1951, when he was only 43 years old and left Joana and Ramilo grieving.
Ramilo was 13 years old then. Mother & son shared a wooden-house on Rua Lima e Costa, 1075, with Margarida and her de-facto husband Domiciano, a half-breed from Ceará.
I remember visiting our second aunt Margarida (who was really my father João's aunt) in her shack on Rua Lima e Costa and then go around into the back of the lot to visit Joana who lived 'parede-meia'. They were all very poor but very friendly. My Mother always took some gifts and we sat down on tia Margarida's double-bed to talk. Margarida was a really thin woman, smoked straw cigarettes and had a funny laughter which mingled with her constant cough.
This was circa 1958 and Ramilo, who was 20 years old, was working as a shop assistant at Livraria Brazil, a great stationary place on Avenida Sampaio Vidal, just past Rua 9 de Julho, on the left-hand side of one going towards Paço Municipal (read further account below the photos).
Ramiro Ribeiro at Saint Anthony's vestry in 1957. Fernando Guarda is the priest at the centre.
Ramiro Ribeiro as an altar-boy at Santo Antonio circa 1957.
altar boys leading the procession down Avenida Sampaio Vidal.
Ramiro swinging the chacoal incense holder (turíbulo) - keeps on going ahead until they will reach Sao Bento's cathedral.
Suddenly, in December 1960, when I was 11 years old, we left Marilia and moved to Sao Paulo. I never saw those extended-family relatives anymore. I visited Marilia in 1963, but there was no time to see everyone.
Joana Ribeiro died in 1964. Two years later, on 30 April 1966, tia Margarida died in a hospital so that family nucleus made up of 4 people - Joana, Ramiro, Margarida & Domiciano - came to an end.
Not long after Joana's death or even before she died, Ramiro found work at DER - Departamento de Estrada de Rodagem - a government agency and moved to Sao Paulo. I remember meeting Ramiro by mere chance at the lobby of Cine Ipiranga on a Sunday afternoon circa 1964 or 1965 when that area was still up-market. He was always friendly sporting a big smile. We did some small talk and I went my way.
Actually, not long before Joana died she had adopted a boy they called Luiz Carlos and when Ramiro moved to Sao Paulo, he brought the boy along and raised him as his own son. From what I remember, Ramiro shared a place with Nercidio Silva, a friend of his from Marilia who also worked for DER.
In the mid 1970s, I couldn't precise the year, Ramiro went missing. He wouldn't show up at his work, he wouldn't come home to the place in Osasco-SP, he shared with Nercidio and Luiz Carlos.
After a week or so, Nercidio was notified by the Police to identify a body that had been found drowned in a river or stream. He asked my aunt Dulce Roza Amorim Coelho to go with him to the IML (Forensic Medicine Centre) in Osasco-SP. Dulce told me the body was bloated and in an advanced state of putrefaction. It was difficult to say whether it was Ramiro's body... Nercidio said that the green short was the same Ramiro wore the last time he'd seen him... and Dulce said she noticed that the body was in a certain position that she recognized as being Ramiro's typical body language. Even though they were not a 100% sure they thought it HAD to be Ramiro's body... And they must have been right because Ramiro never came back.
it's a tiny photo but one can see Ramiro croching on the left... at Mario Amorim's wedding at Santo Antonio's on 27 July 1958. The smiling boy in the foreground is my brother Fernando Amorim.
here's Ramiro inside Santo Antonio's attending Mario Amorim's wedding to Edes Garbellini; the boy on the left is my brother Fernando Antonio Amorim; my Mother Yolanda is in the background holding Sandra Helena who was only 1 and a half year old.
outside Santo Antonio's after Mario Amorim's wedding on 27 July 1958; João Pavão is standing on the right - wearing white trousers; the man in the back wearing hat is Virgilio Amorim who came all the way from Ourinhos-SP to see the wedding of his nephew; next to Virgilio is Domiciano who was married to Margarida Rosa de Jesus, my Grandmother's sister; the next man is Günther Karg, married to Antonia Amorim; crouching from left to right is Paulo Cesar de Oliveira also from Ourinhos-SP and João Amorim, my dearest father.
Edes Garbellini kisses her father's hand while in the background Domiciano & Margarida Rosa de Jesus watch - 27 July 1958.
Joana Ribeiro, Ramiro Ribeiro & Joaquim Pavão aka Quincas circa 1940.
Joaquim Pavão in the 1930s. One can but see his features were similar to his sister Albina.
Nercidio aka Nelson & Ramiro aka Ramilo at Nelson's house in Marília-SP circa 1980. They both left Marilia together in the late 1960s to try a new life in São Paulo. They worked at some road building government company most of the time. After working for more than 10 years, Nelson decided to go back to Marilia where he married and set up home. Ramiro stayed back in São Paulo and probably had been drinking more than usual.
Ramiro was still working at this road-construction company when he didn't show up to work anymore. After some time, the police found a dead body at Rio Pinheiros. My aunt Dulce Roza Amorim Coelho was summoned to recognize the body as being Ramiro's. I talked to her and she said she wasn't sure about the true identity of the cadaver because it was in an advanced state of putrefaction... but as the body's height was more or less the same as Ramiro everyone agreed that had been Ramiro's body.
Luiz Carlos Ribeiro watches Maria Lucia Martins' antics at my grandmother's Albina Rosa de Jesus' 80th birthday party on 2nd August 1980.
clockwise from top Regina Celia Amorim, Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, Sandra Helena Amorim & Claudia Amorim.
