Letter received from José Afonso da Silva

We received a sincere message from the doctor José Afonso da Silva about Sebastião Verly’s material published on this portal in the category “Remarkable People” under the title “Zico do Nereu”, which is how he is affectionately called in Pompéu, his city of birth. We also published a photo from his graduation day with a bachelor’s degree in law, in 1957, at the School of Law of Largo de São Francisco, University of São Paulo. The photo was handed down by Dr José Afonso’s first cousin, Madam Elza Afonso, a resident of Pompéu.

“To the editors and readers of the Metro Portal,

I read the material regarding me on this Portal. I am much obliged to the author, Sebastião Verly. There are two things that I would like to make an observation about:

1)    A story is developing that I learned to read at the age of 15 years old; this arose from an interview I gave to Visão magazine in 1963; I said to the reporter that I had finished my basic schooling at the age of 15; he seems to have understood that I said I learned to read and write at 15; there wouldn’t be much to that, there are circumstances in the interior of the country where this was, and maybe still does, frequently happen. The author, therefore, has no responsibility in this. It is information that often goes around. But, the good truth is quite different, and I always try to clarify as such, because in fact I was actually alphabetized while very little, between 6-7 years old. We lived on the outskirts of Buritizal, today Silva Campos, district of Pompéu, in a rural region called Queima-Fogo my father’s cousin gave my brother Hélio and I elementary lessons and when he passed away, my aunt Dita came over and proceeded with the lessons and when she passed away, my mother gathered a few more children for tutoring and luckily, on our return to Buritizal, upon enrolling me into a school group I already knew how to read, write and do the four basic operations, that’s why, the first grade teachers advanced me to second grade within a month’s time.

2) And here I’d like to take advantage of another piece published in this website, again by the author Sebastião Verly regarding Tomaz de Oliveira Campos. Because one of the teachers from the school group was his first wife, Madam Olenita, the other was her sister making her Tomaz’s sister in law; with the death of Madam Olenita around 1936, Tomaz married his sister in law, Madam Olenita. Both were my teachers at the Buritizal School. Tomaz was very fond of me, as I worked for him for a long time. He had a haberdashery in Biritizal, nextdoor to my parent’s shop. But, around 1936 to 1938 he began buying up fresh dairy cream and handled remittance for a butter factory, I believe in Pitangui. The Factory wasn’t his. I was the one who went out and collected the fresh dairy cream from the farms at the start of the harvest season, mounted on a mule with two 25 liter cans, one on each side, and later with a cart pulled by pack of bulls hauling nine or ten 50 liter cans. I left Buritizal going east, went around the surrounding farms collecting cream and arrived from the west. I did this for three years, starting at the age of 11 to 12 years old and Tomaz paid me a salary correspondent to that of a man. For this I was very pleased to see a printed article about him.

3) The other issue is of Chico Campos, who, as Verly said, was born in Dores do Indaiá, but his father, Dr Jacinto Álvares da Silva Campos, who was a judge if I’m not mistaken, was Pompean, in fact the oldest school group of Pompéu is called Jacinto Campos. However, his birthplace being Dores do Indaiá was by mere circumstance, because he was basically Pompean and gave credit to this by living in Pompéu until his death.

Atenciosamente.

Sincerely,

José Afonso da Silva”