Jardim João XXIII

Parque Cecap - Guarulhos

O conjunto residencial chamado de Parque Cecap foi financiado e construido pela Caixa Estadual de Casas para o Povo ou Companhia Estadual de Casas Populares em 1968. O projeto que é inegavelmente inspirado nos traços de Oscar Niemyer, que revolucionou a arquitetura mundial, mas principalmente a brasileira depois da construção do Parque da Pampulha e Brasilia. Os blocos de apartamentos foram projetados pelos arquitetos Vilanova Artigas, Paulo Mendes da Rocha e Fabio Penteado. 

As obras foram interrompidas na década de 1980. Até então já tinham sido construídos 10 condomínios com nomes dos vários estados brasileiros: Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Bahia, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Alagoas e Sergipe. Há um grande terreno baldio entre os condomínios Minas Gerais e Espirito Santo denotando que ai foi abortado um projeto que originalmente levou nome de (talvez) Goiás.

Nove dos condomínios tem 480 apartamentos cada, e o Codomínio Santa Catarina é menorzinho com 360, totalizando 4.680 apartamentos. A população é estimada em 18 mil pessoas. Cada bloco tem 3 andares e 60 unidades (apartamentos); cada uma tem uma vaga para estacionamento de carro no patio.

Avenida Odair Santanelli goes all the way to Terminal Rodoviário... Condos Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Bahia are on the right-hand side.

Guarulhos - Nazaré Paulista - 9 April 2016

I often used to travel to Nazare Paulista when my dearest friend Jaime Carlos da Silva aka Jaime Ponciano lived on a rural property near that ancient city. But since he died on 6 August 2009 I have stopped those trips except for a couple of times when I visited his parents and siblings. I have never actually lost contact with Jaime's siter Roseli Silva aka Tati and her kids Vitoria & Moises but my visits have become less and less regular. 

On Saturday, 9 April 2016 I made a point of traveling to Nazare again. I had tried it 2 weeks before but could never reach my destination due to some misunderstandings as to where to get the Guarulhos-Nazare bus. There were a few changes in the last couple of years since I last took that trip. 

In the meantime they have built a brand new bus-terminal - Terminal Rodoviário de Guarulhos - near Parque Cecap from whose plataform Viação Atibaia have a daily bus service to Nazare at 6:30 and 11:30 in the morning. 

Condominum Bahia is the block of flats nearest to the Terminal Rodoviario.

even though we're supposed to be in Autumn at Condo Bahia it feels like Spring... 

Avenida Odair Santanelli runs from Parque Cecap's Centro Comercial up to Alameda dos Lirios where the Terminal Rodoviario is. There are 4 blocks of flats along its course: Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, a vacant lot where (probably) Goiás should have been plus Espirito Santo and Bahia. 

Hospital Geral - General Hospital - at the back of Cecap's  Condo Bahia on Alameda dos Lirios.

Terminal Rodoviario de Guarulhos is actually a white elephant. It remains deserted most of the day... waiting for something to happen.

there is an eerie ghost-town-like sensation inside the Terminal... 

Not a living soul around in the Terminal at 11:15 PM.

apparently platform #6 is the only one used... this bus belonging to Viação 1001 bound for Rio de Janeiro was the only one I saw while I waited for the bus to Nazare Paulista leaving at 11:30. 

outside the Terminal taxis wait for no one...

Waiting for the bus to Nazare Paulista for about an hour at such a deserted place as the Terminal reminded somehow of the times I lived in the United States in the 1970 where I used to feel so free wherever I went. 

It was hotter than usual for an April day and I went out of the Terminal to find something to drink. After walking down the street up to Condo. Espirito Santo I thought I'd better return because I could get too hot and don't find proper refreshment. As I was approaching the Terminal again I saw a small market and went in. I bought myself a bottle of Gatorade for 3.27. Tangerine, my favourite. I felt happy somehow and sat myself down at the waiting place next to the bus platform and started thinking about my friend Jaime Ponciano when he used to live so near by. Ah, those years in the early 1990s were so good.

Talking about Gatorade I remember the first time I ever heard about it and didn't even know what it was like. It was in 1971 listening to Paul Simon's first solo album. 'Papa Hobo' was a lovely song about wandering away and Detroit. Somewhere in the bridge of the song Simon says: 'Sweep up / I been sweeping up the tips I've made / I been living on Gatorade / planning my getaway / Detroit, Detroit / got a hell of a hockey team... '

Jaime then shared a flat at Condominum Minas Gerais with his young sister Roseli who had had a small girl called Vitoria. Jaime's parents used to live in another flat not too far. Jaime taught kids how to paint and painted himself his canvas or T shirts at this flat that doubled-up as residence too. It was such a nice place. We used to buy Italian bread and eat it with cheese, blackberry jam and caffé-latte. So good!

I used to love those visits because Guarulhos International Airport was so close-at-hand and I felt a sort of elation just knowing I was so near a departing place (Paul Simon's getaway?) and fly some plane that would take me to New York, Buenos Aires or Sydney. It was so good to hear the roar of planes taking off.

Sometime along the line the Silva family left Parque Cecap and moved to a rural property Seu João, Jaime's father had in Cuiabá-de-Cima, around Nazare Paulista, some 20 km North into the mountains.

Then it was harder to pay a quick visit to Jaime where I always had so much fun. Visiting Jaime was a bit of paradise on earth. First thing he would do was roll up a joint which he lighted and we puffed away. Then we would talk about art or life or play the guitar and sing along those songs we had already taken the lyrics and chords. Jaime was a serious fan of Brazilian rock'n'roller Rita Lee. He also liked samba very much and tended to switch over to samba with the passing of time.

'Cá te espero' (I wait for you here) is a quaint name for a restaurant... on the road Guarulhos-Nazare. 

on my way to Nazare Paulista... 

Guarulhos-Nazaré Highway...

the friendly bus conductor collects money from the passangers at Viação Atibaia bound to Nazare Paulista. 

As soon as I got off the bus at Vicente Nune's main road's second bus-stop I was greeted by Vitoria who had parked her car near the curb and was waiting for the Guarulhos bus to arrive. Vitoria took me to her mother's house 50 metres up a road that forks up from the main drag. There is a court-house at the corner where Moises works. Moises is Vitoria's younger bother. I was glad to see Roseli and see that everything's right with her who has had a rough patch raising two kids on her own. 

By the way if you wonder who Vicente Nunes is, well, it's a town (more likely a suburb of Nazare's) just across D. Pedro I Highway (Rodovia Dom Pedro I) from Nazare Paulista.

It was really good seeing Tati again. We talked non-stop trying to make up for the time we didn't know about each other. 

Photo taken from Atibaia's highest peak shows Nazare Paulista in the foreground and the long bridge that spans the resevoir. One can see part of São José dos Campos' skyline in the background.

Marcio, Roseli, Vitoria & Luiz Amorim...

Roseli aka Tati blows the candles with all her might.

Marcio & Tati; Tati & her son-in-law Felipe.

Roseli da Silva aka Tati has her birthday on the 5th of April, so her daughter Vitoria prepared a half-surprise birthday party for her and here are some of the snapshots taken at Vitoria & Felipe's house in Vicente Nunes, Nazare Paulista. Marcio & his wife Valquiria were also present. Vitoria's young brother Moises took the pictures on the night of 9 April 2016. 

Fernando Sabino & Clarice Lispector.