São Paulo Trees

This Ipê Rosa Tree (Tabebuia Pentaphylla) stands at Riachuelo street, close to Vinte e Três de Maio street, in Downtown São Paulo. This picture was taken on monday, august 23. After some days of cold, in a hot and sunny day of winter, the tree still had its pink flowers (it starts to blossom in june).

São Paulo

One of the things I like the most about São Paulo are these small bars or cafes around the city, sometimes completely out of the commercial areas, that offer nice small food. I like particularly those run by immigrants bringing delicious things from abroad.

I´ve just found this "Caminito" establishment where we can eat Argentineans Empanadas and drink a nice wine or a coffee, near home at the Planalto Paulista District.

From Kumamoto to São Paulo

On June 15th, 1929, my maternal grandparents, Yoshitaro and Mitsue K., with their 5 children, stepped up the stairs of the Manila Maru Ship, in the Port of Kobe, and embarked on a long journey through the Pacif, Indian and Atlantic Oceans to Brazil. They all arrived safe and sound in Santos on August 12th.

In Japan, they lived in a small village in the surroundig area of Kumamoto, from where he could see the Aso Volcano. In Brazil they spent their first years working in the agriculture area of the city of Lins, and then in the city of Bastos. In Lins their first brazilian child was born, and in Bastos the two youngest daughters (the first being my mother). Later on they established themselves in Tupã, where I was born, and when some of the descendants had already left for the big city.

Today members of the family still live in cities like Lins, Bastos and Tupã, but also in distant cities of Brasil such as Arapongas, Belo Horizonte, Uberlandia, Patrocínio, Cuiabá and Ribeirão Pires. Others live in the United States in the cities of Boston, Los Angeles and Tampa. And some of the brazilian descendants made the way back of grandpa and grandma and are now living in Japan.

The family is already in the 5th generation in Brasil and most of the members live now in the city of São Paulo. On last August 16th, 53 of us got together in a family reunion in São Paulo to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the arrival in Brazil. Three daughters of Grandpa and Grandma still alive, including the two brazilians and Aunt Sachie, who was in the Manila Maru, and could tell us, 80 years after, how the trip was and how she amused herself, as a 6 years old child, to spend the time on board.

Istambul and São Paulo

I am reading the excelent "Istambul - Memories and the City" by Orhan Pamuk. On chapter five, named "Black and White", he writes: "Accustomed as I was to the semidarkness of our bleak museum house, I preferred being indoors. The streets below, the avenues beyond, the city´s poor neighborhoods seemed as dangerous as those in a black-and-white gangster film. And with this attraction to the shadow world, I have always preferred the winter to the summer in Istambul. I love the early evenings when autumn is slipping into winter, when the leafless trees are trembling in the north wind and people in black coats and jackets are rushing home through the darkening streets. I love the overwhelming melancholy when I look at the walls of old apartment buildings and the dark surfaces of neglected, unpainted, fallen-down wooden mansions; only in Istambul have I seen this texture, this shading".

Then there are dozens of pictures of Istambul in black and white, along the book.

I use to walk a lot in downtown São Paulo, on my way to the courthouses, where the old buildings go high and leave few space for the sunlight. I like it specially in the wintertime also, when the light that gets through is weak, with no much contrast, making it a beautiful scene to take pictures. Since I began taking pictures when I was like fifteen, I have liked black and white pictures. And that´s one of the reasons why the book caught my attention.

I have never been in Istambul, though I tried it once when I was in Europe in 1995, and felt Istambul was so close. Some years ago an Istambul native, friend Ali A., stayed in our home while visiting Brazil, and then I could talk and learn a little about the city.

I think about the many differences and similarities between the two cities. São Paulo has no Great Past like the one left by the Ottoman Empire and has no Bosphorus, that is so important to the function of the city and to the lives of the people. Here the "grandeur" of the City started with the coffee culture in late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottoman Empire was going down. Here the many rivers that run through the city are abandoned and polluted. Both cities though are situated in "emerging countries" where modernity lived together with some poverty and both have lived economic crisis during the eighties to turn over to lead the country´s economy now.

Pamuk talks about a certain melancholy of the people in Istambul that he calls Hüzün. We brazilians also have a certain melancholy that came as a portuguese heritage, according to writer Moacyr Scliar in his book "Saturno nos Trópicos" (Saturn in the Tropics).

In this post I share some pictures I have taken in São Paulo, and wait friend Ali to tell us if he sees something that reminds him of Istambul. And else what do you prefer, the city in color or in black and white?