Rio Pequeno in Sao Paulo: July 2014

Our street in Rio Pequeno used to be called Passagem Particular 14, when my family moved in early 1977. Our street was not paved and it could be very muddy when it rained and very dusty when dry. We were sort of lucky because soon after Prefeitura (Mayoralty) paved the street and asphalt was laid down.

There was no running water in the region either. We used to have a water-well in the backyard. Actually the well had been dug in the back yard and Father built a little room on top of it where my alcoholic younger brother could live. Everyone had a well in their back yard.

When Prefeitura finally installed underground pipes for piped water everyone shut their wells throwing all sorts of rubbish in. I remember Janet and Irineu, a youngish couple who lived just across the street from us refused to shut their well and kept using their well-water.

Rute, the youngst member of our family in front of the house. The VW was my Father's and the boy was a next-door neighbour named Ronaldo.

That's me trying to tell Rute the right aperture of the Nikon lenses. Ronaldo keeps himself into the picture.

My father João, cousin Dulcineia and our my father's mother Albina. If you look hard you'll find there's a horse in the background. This horse belonged to 'seu' João who lived on the left-hand-side of our house. 'Seu' João sold fruits & vegetables from a cart pulled by this horse who had a little improvised stable in the empty lot that existed between our two houses. This lot belonged to a man who lived in Carapicuiba-SP. He finally sold it to us in the mid-1980s.

a letter sent by Jaime Carlos da Silva from Guarulhos-SP.

Our house used to be painted a very bright orange hue. This is Clelia Hiroko, our sisteer-in-law.

That was Passagem Particular 14, Rio Pequeno circa 1979.

Myself & Rute. If you look hard you'll notice there is a foot-bridge where people crossed to get to the other side of Little River (Rio Pequeno). In the early 1990s, mayor Paulo Maluf's administration built Avenida Escola Politécnica. Those houses were demolished and now we have a lot of cars and trucks spewing fumes all day long.

My father João and Douglas, one of our neighbours.

Betty Tobias holds her son Vladimir aka Dimí next to the house she lived with her parents and siblings.

our neighbours Djanira, Ico and their daughter Fabiana. The one on the left side is Antonio, Djanira's brother.

This was the side of our street that ends at Rio Pequeno... the actual Little River that runs at the end of our street. My cousin Reinaldo Amorim, wearing glasses looks intently at whatever they are doing to the van. The fellow with a cigarette in his mouth is Macalé, whose family lived on the other side of the street.

Sergio Paixão, a boy who lived just across the street with his mother Janet and father Irineu.

My sister Sandra with Angelica, a childhood friend of Rute's who came visiting sometimes. One can see Sergio's house in the back. A Portuguese family lived on the left-hand side where one can see a sign written 'Barbeiro' (barber shop).

Sandra & Rute. See that little figure on the left? It is Fatima, the youngest in the Portuguese family. See on top of the opposite house? That's a vine that the Spanish owner of the house on the next street trained to go up to the top of this house.

These children used to live somewhere around here. I took this picture but don't actually know their names.

Leandro smiling away... Ricardo trying to be funny in the back... the guy on the right might tell a couple of things...

See a man holding a broom in the background? He was signore Salvatore. He had been born in Naples (Napoli) and arrived in Brazil as an adult. He was married to dona Caterina who had a heart condition. Both are now dead and their house was sold by their only son; Sandra and her friend Ofélia and mother Yolanda. See a man inside the gate? He was 'seu' Dito (Benedito) who lived just across the street and did minor jobs for my Mother. 'Seu' Dito was married to dona Cynira (still alive in 2014). They had a large family and had lived at Vila Madalena (like us) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 'Seu' Dito told me he had lived in Rua Fradique Coutinho. Unfortunately, seu Dito had a liver complaint, was operated on and died still relatively young. He was a nice fellow who used to collect magazines with printed lyrics. He also had an old collection of 1950s Readers' Digest.

That's the end of our street. These are my sister Rute, my mother Yolanda and Sandra. Little River actually runs under those bushes. The houses in the back are on the other side of Little River. There used to be an improvised foot bridge that linked both sides of the suburb. The other side is known as Vila Dalva.

This is Mother wearing her blueish-green sweater coming down Our Street when she still went out to buy bread at the bakery on the corner. Mother died in 2006. She had just become 87 years old.

Our Street as it looked in 2002 during Football's World Cup.

The houses have more bars than they should... but then again one lives in São Paulo, where one lives in constant fear of being mugged. Here's one of our neighbours Cauã and Lúcio.