Adélia Donadon do Amaral

Description:
Ms. Amaral was born in 1936. The granddaughter of Italian immigrants, she spent her childhood in the countryside around Jaboticabal. She lived on her paternal grandmother´s small farm, which she remembers fondly. Adélia took a course in industrial sewing and cutting. In 1953 she married; and in 1955 she moved to São Paulo City with her husband, in search of better working conditions. There, she worked as a dressmaker in dressmaking and tailoring shops. In 1959 she began working in the civil service, having taken a civil service exam for the Immigration and Colonization Department. Since then, she has been dealing with immigration issues in the state of São Paulo. She retired in 1997, but has been working at the São Paulo Land Institute, acting as a guardian of the institution's memory. She was recently widowed. Now, Adélia has a son and a dream: to know the home of her forefathers.

Birth
My name is Adélia Bento Donadon do Amaral, I was born in the town of Jaboticabal, in the state of São Paulo. My father was named Vírgilio Donadon and my mother Carlota Irma Muzetti. Both are now deceased. They were children of Italian parents, but they were born here in Brazil.

Paternal family origins
My paternal grandparents came from northern Italy, from the province of Venice. My grandfather was from Treviso and my grandmother was from Venice. My grandfather´s name was Giovanni Donadon, and in Brazil people called him João Donadon. My grandmother was called Maria Luiza Cartaginese.

About my paternal grandparents, I know their date of arrival. They landed here on November 14, 1887. They came to Brazil because of the difficult living conditions in Europe ; they were peasants there. They registered at Immigration with America as their destination. Arriving in Brazil, they were housed by the state government and then sent to a coffee plantation in the municipal district of Itu. Once there, they had to enter into contracts and agree to stay there for a period of two years. From there they went to Campinas. Afterwards, they took up permanent residence in Jaboticabal. In Jaboticabal, the family grew. So much so, that today it is difficult to describe with precision the number of people belonging to the Donadon family.

As my paternal grandparents are from northern Italy and because there is a long tradition there of organizing many festivals, they were also deeply religious. Here in Brazil they followed this tradition; and our home became the customary gathering place for these festivities. There was a large room for the musical evening parties but first we recited a third of the rosary. Another tradition, besides reading and writing, was that the children had to learn to play a musical instrument to be considered capable people. According to steamer Savoie's November 14th, 1887 disembarkation data at the port of Santos, the Donadon family at that time consisted of Inocente Donadon (age 60), his wife Regina Montini (age 55) and their children: Giovanni (age 35), his wife Maria Luiza Cartaginese (age 21), Pietro Paulu (age 23), Adriana (age 19) and Mariana (age 31). Mariana was married to Luigi Bortolato (age 36) and they had three children: Helena (age 13), Giuseppe (age eight) and Luigia (age 3). Pietro Paulu married Ana Briesa in Jaboticabal. Adriana also got married to a man from the Seno family. Afterwards, Adriana moved to Olímpia because her husband's family was from that town.

After arriving in Brazil my grandparents, being immigrants, faced many difficulties. First, they went to live on a farm in Itu in the hope of finding a decent dwelling. The owner had promised them that they would find one; but the opposite happened. They found nothing there, just forked sticks to build their houses. And that was what they did. They slept on corn straws that served as mattress. My grandmother was pregnant at the time and the first child was soon born. It died soon afterward due to their precarious conditions, physical as well as financial. At childbirth, she was helped by a woman with few instructions on what to do and on how to care of the child, and because of this the child died.

Working with immigrants is really gratifying; and it makes me very happy. They left their homes in search of new ways, their goal being "to make America" and be able to enjoy a better life in all aspects. Here they were a family. All of them workers, fighters, living in peace, harmony and passing this on to the whole clan. I feel a deep gratitude for them, especially for my paternal grandmother because I was born and brought up and very close to her. My grandmother spoke in dialect, even with me; and my grandfather was already deceased when I was born. But he is very clear in my mind, because my parents always talked about him. That is, they often referred to my grandfather Giovanni.

Maternal family origins
My maternal grandparents also came from Italy, from the region of Tuscany. They were born in the town of Pontremoli. My grandfather was called Enrico Muzetti and my grandmother, Adélia Magnani. As had already happened to my paternal grandfather's name, the name of my maternal grandfather was changed from Enrico to Henrique.

My mother's family was more prosperous than my father's. They owned farm properties; and they were also more prosperous in terms of culture. My grandmother spoke various languages correctly besides Italian. She married very young, but my grandfather did not belong to the same social class, he came from a family of four brothers: Giuseppe, Carlo, Benjamin and Enrico. He was the only one called to fight in the war, in northern Africa. At the time he was already married, leaving his wife with a daughter and also carrying another child in the womb. In African territory he ended up escaping to Brazil; because besides fighting during the war, all of them lived in tents and were many times attacked by enemies armed with clubs, ready to kill. Because of all this, his escape was inevitable. He left with some fellows, and took only his carbine with him. And this carbine was kept with him for a long time before it was stolen from his house. His journey to Brazil was turbulent because he was, first of all, a war fugitive. So to arrive here he had to hide in the holds of ships--he was also a great adventurer of remarkable courage--in the hope that it was possible to lead a more decent life in a new home.

As his older brother Giuseppe was already married and living in Brazil, in the town of Jaboticabal, he also decided to go there, becoming a farmhand at a sugar mill for a long time. Then he sends a letter to his wife, asking her to come to Brazil and to bring her brother with her because he was a learned person and here in Brazil, he would certainly prosper due to the shortage of people with a certain level of education. My grandmother left with her brother named Medório, and her second daughter. During the travel there was a major outbreak of cholera and Medório died, being thrown into the sea. She proceeds with the journey but when she arrived in Brazil, at the port of Santos, it was not possible to disembark because of the cholera epidemic. The ship was then directed toward Flores Island. Her daughter had been contaminated, and got sick and died after arriving on the island. Since the ship would leave for Europe in just a few hours, she asked the island's inhabitants to bury her daughter, since she would now return to her country of origin all by herself. She stayed Europe for more than two years, waiting for news from her husband. The husband then asks her to come back to Brazil, where they would start a new life since what had happened was life's own product. Their children were born here, with my mother being the second among five. They proceeded with their farming life, always doing their best to prosper, and living in the same town.

The parents
Luigi Bortolato, my father's uncle, bought a small farm property named Serradinho and by doing this he became my maternal grandfather Enrico's neighbor. As it was the custom at the time to give parties as often as possible, my father's uncles used to invite the neighbors for small dances and it was on one of those occasions that my parents got to know each other. They courted for two years and got married in 1919, their first daughter being born in 1920, followed by more four children, with me being the last one. My brothers and sisters are: Mézio, Domingos, Arminda, Honorina Maria and Argemiro Henrique, but the last two ones are deceased. My parents went to live with my paternal grandparents. My mother and my grandmother got along just fine, there were no quarrels between them, they were two wonderful people who really respected each other. They worked hard. It was heavy work such as, for example, milking cows, working the fields, etc.

Childhood
For 11 years I lived on my grandparents' farmstead. Those were really good times, with my grandmother as a central figure. She was always everywhere, always leading the family, but we left the place soon after her death. And the small farm bought by my parents was very distant from hers. For some time, I stayed in town in order to finish the elementary grade, at that time called elementary school. Then I went back to the small farm, but always with the purpose of going ahead with my studies. That´s why I studied at the Industrial School for three years, its course was later recognized as secondary grades. In order to study, I walked from the farmstead about four kilometers. We were used to taking such a long walks. It was a quiet life; no one escorted us because violence was not a matter of concern to us. Most of the children were relatives and harmless people.

We used to play a lot with our neighbors who, besides being relatives, also had their farmsteads. We were separated by a small street, called Barreiro Street (“Mire Street") due to the fact that there were various brickyards in the area. Regarding toys and games, one of our favorites was the so-called “little school;” because we loved mimicking the teacher. Of course we also played with dolls, played hide-and-seek, ring-around-the-rosy, etc. Our house was a very simple one, but very spacious: a very large living room leading to the bedrooms, which were four in number and very large. There was also a pantry and a very good kitchen, besides the back yard, one barn for agricultural products, corral, etc. There was a small river crossing the town. The larger one, the Mogi-Guaçu, is approximately 15 kilometers from the town. We did not play in the river. There was a small lake close to our house, but we didn´t really have the habit of going there. We did not play there. We were not in the habit of going to the river. In fact the small lake was a brickyard in the beginning and they kept excavating, removing all that gravel to make bricks. And you know very well that the house where I lived had been built with bricks from that brickyard; it looked more like tableware, that gravel. And then water started springing forth and they simply cast the brickyard aside, and that was it. Then we were very much afraid of such small lake, we were always afraid of it. It was because we were not very used to having water so close to us. Lagoons and swimming-pools, things like that we did not have.

We used to wake up very early, especially my father. He used to go to the farmstead's neighboring area, with his small cart pulled by an animal. He bought milk and sold it to a butter factory in the town. And because barter was a very common practice at the time, he simply bartered the milk for surplus milk—that is, whey cream. And with this he fed the animals. With the whey he had animal feed for his cattle and for the pigs he used to breed. Of course the factory still paid him a specific value and even gave him the whey back. Already in the first hours of the morning he left home with his animal. Very, very early, at three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning. When he came back after doing his task, he kept on working, growing cereals on leased land; because the farmstead had 19.36 hectares. 80% of this land was a coffee plantation, with the remaining percent being for grazing. There were also the improvements, even so, the area for family subsistence was thus very restricted.

My mother and my older brothers worked the fields. I stayed at home doing housework and taking care of the animals. In the morning, besides studying, I also had my learning period. Then afterward we left the farmstead, because I had already left school at the time. At that moment we went to live on a small farm, not so far from the town. Today it is not, but at the time it was. There we helped with the work, a little bit in the field, a little bit at home. We had to help, to fully cooperate with the family, because life was difficult. So much work to do. At harvest time it is difficult and complicated; because sometimes it rains, and sometimes it doesn't. So my father used to hire the right people. Land preparation was our work, since we were the ones who sowed the land. We also cooked delicious sweets. Our pantry was always full of food. Sweet food, and salted food as well. We even made the sugar at home, as hard squares of raw brown sugar, sweets in large shallow pans. Sausage...Pork was cooked and kept in its own fat in order to prevent deterioration since there wasn't adequate refrigeration at the time. Of course people eat a lot in the countryside, since when people working in the country eat very well the foods did not spoil easily because they were quickly used.