Friends Forever: Luiz Antonio Amorim, my favourite cousin

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Luiz Antonio Amorim, my favourite cousin

When my cousin Luiz Antonio Amorim was born in Marília on 9 August 1961, I who was then 12 years old had already left the so-called 'maiden-city' (cidade menina-moça) for the capital city São Paulo. I only had the chance to meet him when he was already a teenager in one of my visits to Marília. We weren't contemporary: I was born in the late 1940s and Luiz Antonio was born in the early 1960s.

I travelled and lived abroad in the 1970s. When I was back in Brazil in 1977, I remember visiting Marilia and meeting a lot of my younger cousins whom I hadn't met before due to my having lived abroad and due to the age difference factor. I met Luiz Antonio... I thought he was a nice young man like all the others I had been introduced to.

Then, I travelled abroad again for most of the 1980s. When I was back in Brazil in the early 1990s, I started visiting Marilia more often and that's when I really came to know Luiz Antonio better and realized we had a lot in common... even though he was a Leo and I a Taurean.

Luiz Antonio and I had a passion for politics... left-wing politics. But it was not only party politics that bound us together but a whole philosophical approach to life. I used to spend a few days in Marilia each time and we talked for hours and hours on end. I usually was a guest at Uncle Luiz and aunt Eunice so before we fell asleep in our separate beds we went on talking until we dropped.

Luiz Antonio Amorim in April 1991... about the time we started a beautiful friendship.

Luiz Antonio with a Workers Party little flag. His political work was our main bond. It felt good to know I had a cousin who had a lot in common with me... even though I was 12 years his senior.