I was born in April 1959 in São Paulo, and grew up in the region of Morro Grande, Freguesia do Ó, in what is actually a sub-region thereof called Vila Miriam; don't mix it up with Jardim Miriam which is a great suburb in the South zone of the city. Ah, don't forget Vila Miriam's name has been exchanged for Vila Marisa. Crazy things done by beaurocrats at City Hall.
I remember when I was a child, from 1963 to 1968, Mother & Father would take us, myself, my twin brother Jairo and younger brother Carlos to a church-on-the-top-of-the-hill to attend the Sunday evening Mass at 6:00 pm. I don't think I ever knew the real name of the church which was actually a chapel, Capela Santa Clara de Assis.
We walked all the way from home going up a steep hill until we got to the top where we entered a street called Raimundo da Cunha Matos with a textile factory on left-hand side. The whole top of the mountain was covered by a beautiful coffee plantation (cafezal). Keep on walking up past the textile factory there was a medium-sized cinema which showed movies on Saturdays and Sundays and the Chapel across the street.
Behind the altar of Santa Clara's there was a tremendous glass window from which one could see the green of the coffee plantation that extended up to the Jaraguá's Peak, the highest point in São Paulo's metropolitan area. The sun set behind the peak and after dark, a chapel attendant from behind a side mezzanine would go and draw (mechanically) the great white curtain as if it were the end of a movie session. Actually, I remember there were two mezzanines; one on each side of the altar. The one on the left-side sat the choir. Then the priest would start Mass. I never failed to be elated by this routine.
There was also a primary school sponsored by the Quarry either in the cinema building or at the church. I'm not sure about it.
Santa Clara was built in the early 1960s, following the dictates of the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer who had built a new capital city for the country: Brasília (inaugurated on 21st April 1960). The money for the church and cinema came from Thomaz de Mello Cruz, the owner of the Quarry - Pedreira Morro Grande - that existed on top of the hill. Mr Cruz's son-in-law built a textile factory (tecelagem) called Fabrica de Tecidos Santo Eduardo a little lower on the street hill.
Quarry staff had their houses uphill from the chapel. They all had large backyards and they seemed good houses. It was a perfect arrangement for a little town with work (quarry), basic education and entertainment (cinema) combined. Apparently Chapel activities went on up to 1979, for there are photos of children taking their First Communion then. It is a mystery why Chapel life was discontinued. Maybe it was connected with the declining work at the quarry. When workers started leaving, Chapel attendance fell.
Even though I never went to see any movies at the Cinema, I remember the place vividly well, for I had my Elementary School Graduation at the very Cinema in 1973. I still remember all the teachers sitting at a long table set up just bellow the big white screen facing the audience, while someone called each and every name of those graduates to receive their diploma. Parents and guests applauded while we climbed up the few steps to the platform next to the screen to be handed a tube and have our hands shaken.
After I grew up, I stopped going to Mass so I hardly ever went up the hill and its pleasant atmosphere. The fact is, the Quarry stopped its activities circa 1980. Even though some of the workers kept on living in those houses, the Chapel, the cinema and finally the textile factory were gradually abandoned and fell to ruin. The coffee plantation was left to rot. Rubbish was strewn around the place, rats came after scraps of food in the dumped rubbish and the place turned into decay and degradation.
Today, you can still enter the Chapel whose reinforced concrete stands the ravages of time. The cinema's doors were entombed. Cracks appeared here and there. I wonder how much longer the whole structure will stand. Crack-cocaine is used willy-nilly by vagabonds, homeless people and petty criminals who haunt the premises.
From inside the shell of what was a charming Chapel you can still see Pico do Jaraguá but the coffee trees are dead and gone and all you see is a huddled mass of unfinished houses and ugly buildings.
Santa Clara de Assis Chapel on the left; a cinema on the opposite side amongst a coffee plantation.
Cinema abandonado no Morro Grande, Grande Zona Norte; Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, 350, Morro Grande; fica na rua do ponto final do ônibus 917-m.
Morro Grande cinema's balcony.
Remains of a cinema built at Morro Grande (Freguesia do Ó) on Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, in the 1950s.
Rain water fills the gaps at the pedreira in Morro Grande...
Birdseye's view of Morro Grande & vicinity...
Rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos leads to the wilderness where the Church & Cinema are.
No Morro Grande, distrito da Freguesia do Ó, na zona norte, a rua Raimundo da Cunha Matos, há os destroços de um cinema construído na década de 1950.
Silvana Mariano, 47, que mora na região, não chegou a assistir a nenhuma sessão e ainda era pequena quando o cinema foi desativado no bairro. “Estudei no Colégio Santa Clara, há 35 anos, onde meus filhos também estudaram. Cheguei a comprar tecidos na tecelagem com minha mãe, mas nessa época o cinema já não funcionava mais”, relembra.
O local pertencia a Thomáz de Mello Cruz, dono da citada tecelagem. Ambas instalações ficavam próximas a uma pedreira (desativada desde os anos 1980s). A religiosidade do proprietário deu vida à Igreja de Santa Clara, (de fronte ao cinema) que servia como uma escola.
Se no passado, quatro andares reuniam espectadores com olhares atentos frente às telonas, agora tudo se resume em janelas quebradas, pedregulhos e paredes descascadas e pichadas. Senão como reduto de jovens, que brincam de esconde-esconde no local do qual desconhecem a história.
É o caso de William Moraes, 15, estudante, que frequentou poucas vezes uma sala de cinema, por causa do distância (a mais próxima fica apenas no distrito de Santana, também na zona norte) e do alto preço dos ingressos. “Se tivesse um cinema perto, eu poderia ir mais vezes com meus amigos, não só para assistir ‘Velozes e Furiosos 7”, afirma.
ESPECULAÇÃO
Em 2009, o antigo cinema foi ocupado por um coletivo cultural que sonhava em transformá-lo em um centro de cultura. A ocupação, no entanto, foi impedida e os artistas tiveram que se retirar, conta Dimas Reis Gonçalves, 30, que participou do ato. “Fomos convidados, ‘gentilmente’, a ir até o DP (Departamento de Polícia)”, afirma o ativista.
“Cheguei a falar com o pessoal do SPCine, que gostou muito da ideia, mas teríamos que fazer uma grande mobilização para ter financiador e comoção pública”, diz Gonçalves. O Circuito SPCine é uma rede de salas de cinema aberta e gratuita, instalada em alguns CEUs (Centro Educacional Unificado) e na Galeria Olido, pela Prefeitura de São Paulo.
Segundo ativistas e moradores, o interesse em transformar o lugar em um espaço cultural ainda é mera especulação devido ao desinteresse por parte do poder público, que não esboçou interesse no projeto.
De acordo com a assessoria da Prefeitura Regional de Freguesia-Brasilândia, até o momento, não há nenhuma proposta prevista. “Existe um movimento na região que é composto por ativistas culturais e artistas, que reivindicam a construção de um espaço cultural no local com o apoio da Supervisão de Cultura desta prefeitura, porém trata-se de uma área particular e não há nenhum projeto de compra da área por parte da Prefeitura de São Paulo”, afirma.
O Mural contatou a família Mello Cruz, dona do imóvel, para saber os planos em relação à propriedade, mas não obteve resposta. 4 August 2017. ronaldolages.mural@gmail.com
Train arrives at Lapa Station in 1960.
Estrada da Freguesia do Ó em 1928 - atual trecho inicial da Avenida Itaberaba. Vista do Cemitério da Freguesia do Ó, tomada das proximidades da Rua Javoraú (à esquerda) em direção a Rua Chico de Paula.
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