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They used to put us on a special floor so we wouldn't bother the other
customers. One of the things I remember best was sitting at the bar watching
a group of Paulista businessmen and seeing one of the American kids I had
gone to the American school with from the age of 8 to 13 in São Paulo, who
had returned after college and was working for a São Paulo trading company.
He and his friends were on their first trip to the Northeast and looked on
it like a journey to Africa or some other exotic place. They couldn't stop
exclaiming over the beauty of the beaches and the quality of the fruit. São
Paulo was importing cantaloupes from other countries, but they thought the
Cearense cantaloupes better. I felt I was present at a turning point in the
history of Fortaleza, which resembled my image of a Southern city like
Savannah, GA, in many ways. Not long after I left in late 1966 they tore
down the Abrigo, the wonderful meeting place full of coffee stands and
little shops in the main Praça, where men in white linen suits congregated,
probably to do a lot more business than in their offices.
I haven't
been back to Fortaleza and the last time I was in Brazil was 1979. I'm not
sure that I would want to muddle the memories with all the changes that have
overtaken it.
Stories of the Savannah, anyone?
Peter Boynton
(CE and SP 65-67)
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