Rua Brigadeiro Tobias, 613, 2nd floor - at Luz, São Paulo in 2020.
It's awesome to be able to look at a picture of what was my travel agent's office building through Google's GPS. Hers was a one-room office on the 2nd floor in which she had her desk in the centre of the room, a telephone and a couple of file-cabinets. There was a lift with scissor gate always parked on the ground floor. The outside of the building was plastered with plain-cement (now it's covered with off-white tiles).
I remember the first time I entered her office with the door that opened to the hall always open, with Ms Wielenska sitting at her desk with her back towards the window which looked onto rua Brigadeiro Tobias.
She was very meticulous in the instructions she gave her client regarding the various steps one should take to behave like an international citizen when one had to go through imigration and customs. Since the very beginning I felt we had a partnership: she'd give the plot and I would follow the lead. She asked me about my job history and I told her I had been working as a clerk at Sao Paulo's Bar Association for a year.
It didn't take Licia long to come out with a fautless plan on how to secure a US entry-visa for someone in my circumstances. As I had been working at that office for a year nothing more natural than to spend my yearly-vacation visiting the USA. I would spend 3 weeks in New York City and Washington, as there was a free-of-charge trip from NYC to Washington to those who purchased a Rio-NYC-Rio ticket. She told me I had to prepare myself psychologically for I might be summoned by the US Consulate to be interviewed personally.
Licia was a Capricorn, born on 16 January 1933. That's why we hit it off as soon as we started our business. She was a 38 year-old lady who had a 10 year-old daughter. I never knew much about Licia's private life but I knew she cared. Every time she spoke the word 'aeroporto' (airport) she mispronounced as 'arioporto' which is not really uncommon but made it more conspicuous in Licia's case due to her business being centred around airports.
Whenever Licia explained something related to air-fare prices and she had to show how much a cruzeiro was worth in US dollar she wrote the @ symbol. Like, Cr$... @ US$... is equal to: That was the first time I ever saw the symbol @ being used - 40 years before it became a daily affair with the advent of the Internet.
Nino & I
Ever since Nino & Myself left the Army in mid-1968, we drifted from job to job. I had worked as a typist for newspaper 'Folha de S.Paulo' for six months while Nino had been a clerk at Mappin, a great department-store in town which his own father had worked before retiring. Nino was notorious for not holding a job for too long. He was too unconventional to last at any position. He would start alright, become the star of the office but soon enough he would grow bored with the mortifying routine and did something outrageous. Then he would be invited to leave or he himself left with no misgiving. There was another time when he worked as a clerk at Club Athletico Paulistano, a social club for the upper class on Rua Honduras. I remember I went there to see him one day and he left the Club through a gate on Rua Estados Unidos, next to Rua Augusta. Needless to say he didn't last long there either. These 2 jobs was all Nino held during the time we were friends.
After a bad spell with no work, I was lucky to have found me a fairly good paying job as a clerk at Sao Paulo Bar Association (AASP) in April 1970, at Largo São Francisco, at the heart of the city. Once I settled there I was adamant to make that old dream of going to the USA come true.
At that time in 1970, Nino met José Luis aka Pepe, a Spanish young man who was on his way to California where he planned to establish himself for a few years. They had a hot romance in São Paulo and Pepe promised Nino he would wait for him in San Francisco as soon as he got settled there. I thought Nino would speed up our plans a little but I was completely mistaken. As soon as Pepe left for the US and the novelty wore off, Nino went back to his old bad ways of 'living for today'. So I made up my mind: I would stop talking to him about 'going to the US' and work my way towards this goal in utter silence.
We still met often but I was mum! Nino usually showed up at lunch time at Largo São Francisco; we would have a bite at some eating place and talked for 2 hours. Sometimes he showed up in the evening and we talked until we dropped. But I never breathed a word about my plans. I knew it wouldn't do any good. And I was right.
Around May 1971, I hit the big time when Fernando, my older brother, came home one day and said his friend Bernardo Cerântola who had gone to live in the USA, was back here. He and a friend of his had lived in the New York City area for a whole year (1970-1971) and told wonders about the place. I begged Fernando to ask Bernardo details on how he managed to make that trip.
Two days later, Fernando came home with a scrap of paper with the address of a travel-agent in town who took care of all the paper-work. I went to see her immediately, had a long talk with her; I must confess I liked Licia at first sight and decided to do whatever was to be done to get mission accomplished. Mind you, I kept Nino in the dark about the whole thing. I was afraid he would find fault on the project as he was known to do and abort the plan.
I was in a really happy and excited mood in the ensuing days. I asked Licia the price of the air-fare; US$ 1,600 which was a lot of dough in 1971. She said I could pay on instalments. But that was not exactly my main concern at the time. I had to put Licia's plan into practice. The first thing I did after talking to Mum & Dad, was to have a little conversation with Yvone Biolcatti, my boss at AASP. I told her about my plan to travel to the USA and try to stay there the longest possible. I told her I would have to get a letter from our employer stating I intended to visit the US during my 4-week annual leave in October. As Yvone was exectutive secretary to the board of director she had some clout and explained my plan to Dr. Antonio Carlos Malheiros. He wanted to see me personally, so I was summoned into the room and told him the whole thing. He was sympathetic to my plan and agreed to sign a letter addressed to the US Consulate stating I would visit their country as a deserved vacation from work. That must have been August 1971.
I went back to see Licia with Dr. Malheiros' letter, my passport and proof of income from the bank from which I got my monthly pay. Licia sent it all to the Consulate and waited for their reply which didn't take long. By early September I went to the US Consulate at Conjunto Nacional, on Rua Padre João Manuel corner with Avenida Paulista to be interviewed by some official there. I think I was interviewed by the vice-consul himself. I remember he smoked a pipe, which was unusual in Brazil. He seemed to be a calm person and I felt at ease with him. He asked me whether he could pose the questions in English and I said yes! He wanted to know why I wanted to visit the USA.
I had all figured out before I got there. I told him I admired the American democracy; I said something about Abraham Lincoln and righteousness, even though I didn't use this exact word. I think the vice-consul was positively impressed by my discourse which was given in Portuguese. I felt he was rather friendly towards myself; after a while he told me to wait outside. I went out and sat in the main room with other people waiting. It didn't take long for my name to be called out by a clerk at a counter. She gave me my passport back with an Entry Visa to the USA valid for 3 months. All of a sudden I was walking on clouds. I said 'Thank you' and left the office almost like Gene Kelly in 'Singing in the rain' or Julie Andrews in 'The sound of music'.
It was a little before noon. I walked Avenida Paulista, turned right on Rua da Consolação, walked two blocks down, turned left at Rua Maceió and right again at Avenida Angelica, where my Father worked in the back lot of an Orthopaedic Clinic. From his workshop in the back I could see the back of Teatro Record, on Rua da Consolação.
This is where I leave off describing how I managed to get things fixed up to travel to the USA. I ended up staying there much longer than 3 weeks but this I have told somewhere else in this blog.
After coming back from my American experience in late March 1973, I kept in contact with Licia paying her a visit whenever I needed to exchange dollars into cruzeiros. Every time I tried to go back to the US, Licia was the one I headed to. Some time in the latter part of the 1970s, Licia decided to visit the USA herself. She flew 'low season' to visit Newark, New York and Washington. It must have been January or February for while Licia walked on the icy sidewalks she slipped, fell hard on the floor. She ended up breaking a leg and was in deep trouble for she had to pay top dollars to have her leg fixed and plastered. Her winter holiday was over and she flew back to Brazil as soon as she could.
Licia told me she had dinner with Tia Eugênia. They seemed to like each other and probably made business too. Licia also had a special friendship with Haroldo Cunha, who had been living in 'America' for quite some time. These are the only people I remember Licia quoting.
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Hotel Terminus was impounded by the federal government of President Getúlio Vargas in 1943, maybe due to overdue taxes. The owners built a new hotel on Avenida Ipiranga but the shine was gone.
Uma foto dos artistas modernistas de 1922, no hall do Hotel Terminus, é constantemente informado (erroneamente) ter sido tirada durante a Semana de Artes Modernas de 1922. O que obviamente não é verdade pois o hotel foi inaugurado alguns meses depois desse evento.
Rua Brigadeiro Tobias which starts off Praça do Correio in 1947. See Água Raza bus #60.
