Florestan Fernandes, 100 years old: a self-portrait of the sociologist as a young man.

By Cynara Menezes, for the Journalists for Democracy - In January 1995, when Fernando Henrique Cardoso assumed the presidency, I suggested to FSP that we interview the Workers' Party federal deputy Florestan Fernandes about his former student. The sociologist had been FHC's professor at USP, and I went to his office in the Chamber, I confess, with bad intentions: I wanted to elicit criticism from the master about his pupil. It was his last month as a parliamentarian, after two terms.

But Florestan, ever the gentleman, was generous with the toucan and spared him any attack. At the same time, he gifted me with four delightful hours of conversation, during which he recounted his entire life story, from childhood onwards. I published it. the interview about FHC In the newspaper, and in August of that year, when the sociologist died, I had the honor of returning his kindness by publishing another text in his honor, with his account of his childhood and adolescence.

In the week that Florestan Fernandes would have turned 100, which he celebrated on Wednesday, July 22nd, I am republishing his memoirs here.

Former congressman became a sociologist by chance*

Florestan Fernandes was a self-made man of the intellectual milieu. The incredible personal trajectory of the sociologist, son of a domestic worker, would, in itself, make for an academic treatise. In January, a week before leaving Congress, he received the Sheet In his office for an interview. Read below excerpts in which he talks about his youth.

THE ORIGIN
“I was part of a Portuguese family, of peasant origin and culturally backward, that came to urbanize in Brazil. My grandfather died of tuberculosis and the family fell apart. My mother came to the city and the only thing she was qualified to do was work as a domestic servant.”

I started working when I was six years old. I worked as a shoeshine boy, a carpenter's assistant. I worked as a tailor, but it was hard work and doesn't enrich a person. I went to work in a restaurant, in the kitchen, and at night there were customers who wouldn't eat the food there if I didn't cook it.

CHILDHOOD
“I started working when I was six years old. I worked as a shoeshine boy, I was a carpenter's assistant. I felt very comfortable as a carpenter in a small factory. I didn't have any imperative tasks, I was part of the machine. I worked as a tailor, but it was hard work and doesn't enrich a human being. I went to work in a restaurant, in the kitchen, and at night there were customers who wouldn't eat the food there if I didn't cook it.”

MATURE
“Above the bar, an adult education course called Riachuelo was set up. It was difficult to get permission from the bar to leave three times a week to do the military training, during peak hours. But since I was a good professional, they allowed me to go. In the course, my group and I founded a small academy, we had discussions, a little newspaper.”

THE GYMNASIUM
“The preparatory course allowed students to complete five years of schooling in three, and it gave them the right to take the exam at the official high school, which was five years long and included Latin. We completed the three years and went to take the exam at the state high school in São João de Boa Vista. But, unfortunately, another course offered a compensatory sum to the high school teachers if they tolerated the deficiencies of a group of students. They were outraged, and the result was that there was a very rigorous exam. We lost four classmates who we wouldn't have lost otherwise, and so the following two years were easy because we were considered geniuses.”

AT THE UNIVERSITY
"After finishing the course, I could go to the university's college, which operated within the university itself, or take the entrance exam to get in directly. Out of modesty, I applied for both. In the qualifying exams, just to give you an idea of ​​what the Faculty of Philosophy was like, I was examined by the two Bastides, Roger and Paul." (French sociologists)The book they gave us was The Division of Social Labor"It's Durkheim's theory, which students still fear in graduate school today. There were 30 places, 29 candidates, and six accepted. I came in fifth."

DENTURES AND BOOKS
“In the meantime, there was the problem of how to support myself. I ended up going to work at the American Dental Company, whose owner was a young friend of mine. We sold a product for making dentures, and we made a lot of money doing it. He because he was handsome, and I because of my books. I read a lot of novels, and I lent them to the nurses.”

Being a student and contributing to newspapers was a projection you can't quite gauge. When Oswald de Andrade met me for the first time, he made a rather stupid joke. He said, 'Are you Florestan Fernandes? I thought you were some crazy old man.'

SOCIOLOGIST BY CHANCE
“I even considered studying chemical engineering, but I ended up in a course that happened to match my calling. It matched it so well that in my first year I had to do research on folklore in Professor Roger Bastide's class. It was my culture of origin, so I knew where to find the material. I combined folkloric and sociological analysis, a huge undertaking. He was delighted.”

FOREST AND OSWALD
I was invited to contribute to newspapers. Folh"I wrote three articles about the representation of Black people in popular culture, and the commentary varied over time. Being a student and contributing to newspapers was a projection you can't fully assess. So much so that when Oswald de Andrade met me for the first time, he made a rather stupid joke. He said, 'Are you Florestan Fernandes? I thought you were a crazy old man.'"

Text originally Published in Folha de S.Paulo in August 1995