Cecília

 

Cecília, one of her daughters, Maria Lucia Martins and Cecília's youngest son, at Christmas 1999.

Cecília's two daughters, Herself & Maria Lúcia and Cecília's youngest son at Christmas 1999, at her house on Rua Maso di Bianco, in Rio Pequeno. 

It must have been 1962, the first time ever I saw Cecilia; she was walking past our house on Rua Simpatia, 42, wearing her brown chequered school-uniform going to Ginásio Machado de Assis where she had classes in the afternoon; she coursed the 5th year (1st serie ginasial). 

I knew this private school for middle class kids for it stood close to where I worked as a factotum-boy during the day. It was located near the corner of Rua Simões Alvares and Rua Theodoro Sampaio, 2112. 

I worked on the 2nd floor of a small building which was mainly rented by families, except Dr. José Flavio da Silveira Miranda who had made a laboratory out of apartment #9, which looked onto rua Theodoro Sampaio, where noisy tram cars trundled up and down. I had been employed there since mid-1961, first only in the afternoons and as of 1964 onwards, full time. 

Little did I know that circa 1964, I would have the chance to become an acquaintance of Cecília's and eventually a friend. Cecília's father enrolled her a Colégio Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos at the top of Vila Madalena's hill. It was an eerie place for there were not many houses around except on Rua Jericó, where the great Max stood in its glory of being a brand newly-built school for it had just been opened in 1963, attracting lots of students who up to then went to expensive private schools.  

until mid-1969, when we moved from Vila Madalena to Bela Vista and Cecília got married to a man who had bought a lot at Jardim Esmeralda and moved away to Rio Pequeno.  Our paths went different ways until my family also moved to Rio Pequeno in early 1977. 

Olímpia is situated near São José do Rio Prêto... Urupês, where my friend Mariza Beraldi was born is south of São José... just in the middle of the State of São Paulo, Tietê River divides the state into Northern & Southern parts... going deeper south one reaches Lins, and further south Marília & Garça... 

a closer look at Olímpia-SP, where Cecília was born and lived her childhood...

As shown in the maps above, Cecília was born on 17 August 1949, in Olímpia-SP, a town not far from São José do Rio Prêto-SP. Her mother died in childbirth for what I understood or she died when Cecília was a baby for she has no recollection of ever having seen her own mother's face. Her father left the baby to be cared by his mother-in-law and ended up moving to big city São Paulo. 

She reminisces being happy living in her grandmother's house. They had a big family and sometimes they used to take her along when they went to catch birds in the bush and cook them for dinner.

One day, when Cecília was 5 years old, her father came back to fetch her. He had married a girl in São Paulo who accepted to take the role of her step mother. She had 2 more children (both daughters) who were raised alongside Cecília. 

Circa 1956, when she was 7 years old, Cecília was enrolled at Grupo Escolar Godofredo Furtado, a state-government-primary school on rua João Moura. where she stayed at least 4 years. She once told me she used to take a short-cut from rua Simpatia to rua João Moura, crossing Cemitério São Paulo. 

Next, Cecília was enrolled by her Father to study high-school at Ginásio Machado de Assis, on Rua Simão Álvares next to Rua Theodoro Sampaio, at the heart of Pinheiros.