Rio Pequeno means Little River

Rio Pequeno is a suburb in the outskirts of São Paulo's West Side. It has been a dormitory place for the last 40 years. That means, people would work somewhere else and come here to sleep the night and go off to work the next day. That is what 'dormitory suburbia' means.

I wish I had photos of Rio Pequeno dating back to the 1960s but I only have pictures from the late 1970s onwards. 

I might be lucky and meet someone who might have older pictures... but I'm not very hopeful. Anyway, let's start blogging with the material we've got hold of now. 

My Mother & Myself circa 1978, having two football fields in the back. Half of this area has been land-filled and a public market aka 'sacolão' built in its place by the administration of Mario Covas (1983-1985) who had been appointed S.Paulo mayor during Franco Montoro's tenure as Governor (1983-1987). The football-field closer to Estrada do Rio Pequeno became what is known as 'Corinthinhas'. See the road in the back ground that climbs up the hill? It is Rua Rui Amaral Lemos. On the upper extreme left side of the picture there is a hill-side with trees: that's where condominium Parque dos Principes would be built.

Rute Darin (holding a transistor radio on her right hand) & Yolanda Darin on the same day in 1978. Vila Dalva lies on the hill-side in the background.

Rute & Yolanda at an amusement park that set up shop in Rio Pequeno. Sometimes a circus would pitch up their tent at this same lot that eventually would become Avenida Engenheiro Adolfo Graziani.  

Same vacant lot where circus and amusement parks would pitch their tent. 

Rute & Sandra posing on Rua Sebastião Mainarde. One can see the former bridge that ran on top of Rio Pequeno (Little River) on to Rua Angelina Russo linking Vila Dalva's side to Rio Pequeno itself. Further back one can see the sports-court belonging to Escola Estadual Daniel Paulo Verano Pontes.

Goats, horses and chickens used to roam free on Rio Pequeno streets in the 1970s. 

By the banks of Little River... literally! One can see Vila Dalva in the background.

At the end of Passagem Particular no. 14 (Rua Francisco Precioso today) there was this rickety wooden foot-bridge over Little River (Rio Pequeno) that led on to the other side - Rua Sebastião Mainarde, Vila Dalva. After mayor Paulo Salim Maluf (1993-1997) built Avenida Politécnica, most of these houses were torn down and Rio Pequeno was 'canalized' but not covered. One can still smell the stench coming out of its polluted waters today (2015).

Estrada do Rio Pequeno on the corner of Rua Francisco Precioso (former Passagem Particular n. 14) circa 1989, just across Panificadora e Confeitaria Vitapão.

Final stop of Rio Pequeno busses next to Escola Brasil-Japão circa 1989. When Luiza Erundina (Jan. 1989 to Jan. 1993) was São Paulo's mayor she passed a law which changed the bus colours according to 8 different regions: area 1 (northwest) became green; area 2 blue (north); area 3 yellow (northeast); area 4 red (east); area 5 forest-green (southeast); area 6 blue (south), area 7 wine colour (sothwest) and area 8 orange colour (west).   

a Lapa-Rio Pequeno bus turns right from Rua Angelina Russo onto Avenida do Rio Pequeno. Local busses had dark-red colour before Luiza Erundina administration (1989 to 1993).

art-work done by Marcelo 'Busovsky' Amendola show Rio Pequeno busses from 1970s & 1980s.

If you know more about the region try Wikipedia: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Pequeno_(distrito)

try this blog about Rio Pequeno: http://sampaguarupequeno.blogspot.com.br/

try this one about Favela do Sapé:  http://comunidadesape.blogspot.com.br/

and this:  http://faveladosape.blogspot.com.br/