Nino & Me

I met Nino in early 1968, when both of us served the Brazilian Army at São Paulo's CPOR (Centro de Preparação de Oficiais da Reserva) on Rua Alfredo Pujol, in Santana.  We served as a soldiers and started our stint in the Army in the first days of January; I served as a Nurse and Nino as an Infantry soldier. We soon became fast friends during and after we left the barracks. Sometimes we stayed apart from each other for a few months but we always came back together again. 

Some time after we left the Army, I made known to Nino I had a plan to travel abroad to live in the USA. Nino jumped at the idea with passion. Actually, he told me his family had been on the verge of moving in with Portuguese relatives of theirs who lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts when, circa 1964, rumours abounded in rightwing circles Brazil was about to become a Communist country following the example of Cuba with its revolution of 1959. 

Nino hailed from a conservative, Presbyterian family of Portuguese extraction. Nino's real name was Antonio Gonçalves Filho. His nome-de-guerre at the barracks was Soldier Filho. His mother Jacira, was the guardian-of-the-faith in the family. I met her a few times and I thought she was a true Calvinist with a religious bias.  

I ended up traveling to the New York, USA by myself on 1st October 1971. Nino followed me four months later having directed his feet to San Francisco, California, where he was the guest of José Luís, a Spanish young man he had met in São Paulo earlier in 1971, who was on his way to settle in Northern California.   

I think the biggest thing I ever learned from Nino - and I learned a lot of things from him - was to buy me a cassette tape recorder - which had been introduced in the market recently (1971) and tape songs straight from radio stations instead of spending hard-earned cash buying vynil records which were expensive and difficult to carry around. 

Paribar at Praça Dom José Gaspar was Nino's favourite hangout circa 1969 & 1970.

Songs that remind me of Nino:

1. 'Woman, woman' (Garry Puckett & Union Gap); 

2. 'Soulful strutt' 1969 (Young-Holt Unlimited); 

3. My cherie amour - Stevie Wonder 

SAN FRANCISCO:

1. Horse with no name - America

2. Heart of gold - Neil Young 

3. Doctor my eyes - Jackson Browne

4. Betcha by Golly wow - Stylistics

5. Diary - Bread

6. Day dreaming - Aretha Franklin

7. Tumbling dice - Rolling Stones

8. Sylvia's mother - Dr Hook & Medicine Show

 9. Suavecito - Malo 

10. I saw the light - Todd Rundgren

11. I'll take you there - Staple Singers 

12. Taxi - Harry Chapin 

13. Walking in the rain with the one I love - Love Unlimited Orchestra 

14. Morning has broken - Cat Stevens

15. I've been lonely for so long - Frederick Knight

16. Mister, can't you see? - Buffy Sainte Marie 

17. Last night I didn't get to sleep at all - 5th Dimension 

18. Look what you done for me (Al Green) 

19. It's too late to turn back now - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose

20. Brandy (You're a fine girl) - Looking Glass

21. Me and Julio down by the school yard - Paul Simon

22. I need you - America 

September, October 1972 in Queens & Newark 

1. Everybody plays the fool - Main Ingridient

2. Candy man - Sammy Davis, Jr.

3. Black and white - Three Dog Night

4. Go all the way - Raspberries 

5. Saturday in the park - Chicago  

6. Listen to the music - Doobie Brothers 

7. Good time Charlie's got the blues - Danny O'Keefe

8. I'm stone in love with you - Stylistics

November 1972  

1. It never rain in Southern California (Albert Hammond)

3. If you don't know me by now - Harold Melvin & Blue Notes

2. Operator (That's the way it feels) - Jim Croce

1973 - 1974  

1. 'You make me feel brand new' 1974 (Stylistics); 

CPOR at rua Alfredo Pujol, in Santana. 

CPOR in the 1940s without those hideous sentry boxes at the entrance.

Pari Bar at Praça Dom José Gaspar was a favourite place with Nino in 1968, 1969. 

First Presbyterian Church on Rua Nestor Pestana in São Paulo. That was the church Nino used to go when he was a child in the 1950s.

1st Presbyterian Church on the process of being dwarfed by a high-rise building. 

Rua Nestor Pestana. 

I've been thinking about the many times Nino & I met during our lifetime. As I usually refer to Nino every time I think about a song from the the 1970s, I suddenly thought about the Stylistics' 1974 hit 'You make me feel brand new'. I remember distinctly well, listening this song when I visited Nino when he lived in a room on rua Ruy Barbosa, in Bela Vista. We had been apart from each other for a few months and I think this was the last time Nino and I met on a friendly basis. 

Our friendship always had ups and downs and whenever Nino sensed I was sort of pissed off with him he would make himself scarce for a time, then one fine day he would pop up again, I would have forgiven and forgot and we started all over again. This was until I finally made up my mind I didn't want to see Nino anymore in my life. 

I felt Nino didn't have a goal in life. Besides, he started to drink a little more than he should. I thought we were going nowhere. Nino could never hold a job probably would soon slide into something more sinister than the usual 'live one day at a time'.  

Visit to Cemetery Chora Menino in Santana, on 19 August 2025

I have just arrived back from a visit to Cemetery Chora-Menino where I went with my sister Rute to try and find Nino's date-of-death. As I have been thinking more than usual about Nino lately I decided to go and visit his grave on this Tuesday morning. Before embarking on this search I made sure I knew which bus to take once I stepped out of the train in Santana and the proper address of such a place. Through the Internet I knew I had to take bus 971R-51 from Santana bus terminal. It is a short ride of less than 10 minutes to the Cemetery on Rua Nova dos Portugueses, 141, Imirim-Santana. 

After entering the grave-yard through a side entrance, I asked a local worker where the Administration building was. After making inquiries of a female clerk about Nino's grave, she consulted her computer and straight away said Nino's remains were still buried there at Quadra 5, terreno 15, left side. I wanted to know Nino's date-of-death and she came with the answer right up: he died on 14 January 1977, a Friday night and was buried the following day 15 January 1977, Saturday. From what I could gather reading a short notice at Folha da Tarde, Nino was shot right in his eye by a man who worked on a bar on rua Santo Antonio, next to where 'Minhocão' is. 

Leaving the office I soon spotted the same old man who had helped us find the office and I asked him for directions. He took us right up to the tomb which had only one plaque bearing the name of Marta Alice Gomes Favetta. I noticed there were vestiges of 2 other plaques which seemed to have been ripped from the tombstone. It is a common practice for robbers to go into cemetery at night to take away copper or bronze inscriptions from graves and sell them at junkyards. 

When we were at the office I also inquired about my cousin Regina Celia Amorim, who died on 2nd January 1997, and was buried at the same Chora-Menino. The lady at the counter told us Regina's remains had been transfered to Block H, # 414. Block is lingo for 'wall'...small square places on walls where they deposit only bones of long-deceased corpses. The same man showed us where we could find Wall H... we went there, found # 414, but it was empty. I mean there was no identification as to who that square belonged to. I surmised Regina's daughters who lived mostly in Baurú-SP after her death must have transfered their mother's remains to a cemetery closer to their city. 

Leaving the cemetery we went down to rua Alfredo Pujol, entered rua Benta Pereira, turned left on Rua Mario La Torre, turned right on rua Francisca Biriba, till we reached number 32, a small house where Nino used to live with his family. I thought some of his relatives would still live in the house but after ringing the bell and waited for some time I realized there was no one at home. We went back to rua Alfredo Pujol, took a bus to Santana and back to the underground. 

I arrived home about 13:00 hours (2:00 pm)... and I started thinking about Nino again... then I realized that 2:00 pm was the time I used to get back home from CPOR General Quarters when myself and Nino used to serve the Brazilian Army in 1968. It is funny how I suddenly went back to 1968, as if Nino was still alive and I was just back from the barracks. What a funny sensation. That was a long time ago when I lived on rua Simpatia, in Vila Madalena.

Oh, what a day it has been!!!