2023-11-20 12:03:13
As is known, São Paulo Futebol Clube was born in 1930 from the merger of the football department of Club Athletico Paulistano with the entire club of Associação Atlética das Palmeiras. The first club was the greatest football champion in São Paulo until then, and the second team owned the best football field in the capital of São Paulo, in Chácara da Floresta.
By inheriting not only the sporting and patrimonial capital of two giants of amateurism, but mainly by welcoming the passion of thousands of fans deprived of the original love they had for those teams, the São Paulo fan base was born massive: it has always been a mass club , popular, especially because the club is not restricted to a single portion of the population.
São Paulo was not a club belonging to just one colony or just one social class. It wasn’t just a club based on one location or one worldview. It was a club for everyone. As one of Tricolor’s first mottos said: “São Paulo, in São Paulo, for Brazil”.
This is not just speech, the kind that opposing fans make when labeling the members and directors of this newly born São Paulo as an elite club, from the São Paulo coffee society at the beginning of the 20th century. Although it was formed by many names with these characteristics, Tricolor has always been multicultural and pluralistic.
From the team’s first games, players of all colors, races and creeds, national or foreign, were present, without restrictions. Bino, a black athlete, for example, was a crucial figure in winning the first state title in Tricolor’s history, in 1931.
The fans, however, were an even more special case. As press records and organs linked to rival supporters attest (and this since the time of Paulistano), the São Paulo people were also widely dispersed among the lower social classes and, in fact, among the most disadvantaged: the black population, which only 42 years before the founding of Tricolor had he managed to obtain the abolition of slavery.
For this reason, the rivals called the Paulistano fans, and later the São Paulo fans, popoqueiros – a class that survived with the income obtained from selling food at the stadium doors and which was essentially made up of black people, who did not have many employment options in that society.
Il Moscone newspaper, February 2, 1935
Il Moscone newspaper, January 12, 1935
If São Paulo was born in Boaventura in 1930, the same cannot be said when it was rebuilt from scratch, from a rented basement in the city center, in 1935. The reborn Tricolor is the fruit of the passion of its fans, who didn’t let the club die. And more than that: a reflection of these people.
The Sports Gazette, March 15, 1937
From 1935 onwards, its leaders began to be known and recognized as “poor people”, in comparison to those from traditional Paulistano. Much is known, including the story of Porphyrio da Paz, who invested practically everything he owned in the club, to the point of being evicted for being late with his commitments. Nothing that wouldn’t be resolved over time, as he hummed what would become the official São Paulo anthem.
Correio Paulistano, May 14, 1936
Knowing that the passion for the Tricolor was the only thing that mattered, Porphyrio was a convinced supporter of the black cause movements, whether always participating in activities promoted by such groups, or integrating guests into the São Paulo environment, helping them to take up space in the club and society.
A great partner of Porphyrio in the mission to rebuild Tricolor, and further expand the vision that the club was socially and racially diverse was the illustrious and now almost forgotten Salathiel Campos.
Correio Paulistano,
Salathiel was black, poor and, after being denied entry to Faculdade do Largo São Francisco due to his skin color, he became a journalist and began a career in the sports field in 1926. A few years later he published “O Homem Negro no Esporte Bandeirante” and went on to head the sports section of Correio Paulistano, gaining renown.
But it was still in 1931, as director of Revista O Tricolor – the only official outlet for São Paulo with its fans, at the time – that Salathiel found the space that best suited his passion and work. He was the voice of São Paulo.
In a tribute paid by Porphyrio and numerous Tricolor partners to the journalist, in 1939, Sebastião Schiffini, another important leader of the black movement, stated:
The full speech and all coverage of the tribute are at link 1 e link 2)
Correio Paulistano, August 8, 1939
As one of the founders of one of the first black political consciousness movements in the country, Salathiel recognized the cultural diversity of Tricolor, as being, perhaps, the only genuine one with any scope in that period and in the following decades.
Perhaps for this reason, the figure of the black fan Ditinho, a cartoon by the artist Gildão, from the newspaper A Marmita, emerged and became popular, becoming a symbol and representative of both the club and the São Paulo fans.
Newspaper A Marmita, June 27, 1947
With the massive and progressive support from all sectors of society, the growth of São Paulo fans reflected in the growth of the club itself. Then, with the arrival of Black Diamond, Leônidas da Silva, a revolution occurred in São Paulo. In addition to evolving in the sporting aspect – with five of the most important titles of the time, in a period of seven years – and in the patrimonial aspect, with the purchase of Canindé’s land, the tricolor fans exploded once and for all.
Leonidas and his mother, Dona Maria
Perhaps the greatest symbol of this period is the “mascot” Dotô Canindé, created by cartoonist Mendes, who represented the São Paulo fan, black, from humble origins, growing in life, winning victories and establishing himself as one of the greats.
The fruits of this pluralist policy were not long in coming and laurels were reaped not only in football, but also in athletics: Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, a black man from Casa Verde, would win the gold medal in the 1952 Olympic Games with the São Paulo shield and leave it as a legacy the club received two gold stars for the world records obtained in the triple jump in 1952 and 1955.
Melânia Luz would become the first black athlete to compete for Brazil in an Olympics, in 1948. Wanda do Santos would also have the honor of representing the country years later, and many other athletes, with the São Paulo mantle, would become champions in important national and international disputes in the years to come.
Ademar Ferreira da Silva, with Wanda dos Santos in the spotlight; and Melania Luz
If São Paulo is giant today, both in terms of number of fans and as an institution, it is largely due to this significant and globalist vision of the world since its inception, and to the contributions, today revered, of those who had to struggle a lot to achieve merits. and recognitions.
Serginho Chulapa, Tricolor’s top scorer
As a complement, below are images that reference the history described above. All credits are at the addresses of each image.
Thanks to Tiago Motizuki and Machado, who carried out
the initial research that led to the production of this article.
#story #popular #club #dark #story