Don't drop the potato - São Paulo

Praça das Araucarias, Largo da Batata

On my way home from the "gringalhada" (the monthly meeting of gringas) yesterday in Cidade Jardim, I passed by this, possibly the saddest "praça" or square in São Paulo. There is some competition from a skateboard park called Roosevelt near Republica Square. But I won't set foot there as it seems if not dangerous, more than a little seamy. Even after renovations last year.

I've talked about Largo da Batata before. It's on the way to my kids' school. I walk through it frequently on the way back from dropping them off, or when I occasionally take the yellow line metro to things like Chinese New Year.  Its name roughly translates to "Potato Square" and was the site of a farmer's market of potato sellers long ago. Those farmers have since moved to the Mercado Municipal de Pinheiros, just down the street.

The square itself is one big tiled sadness. The only green is some poor decrepit new trees surrounded by orange fencing and a green square of grass. The grass mixed with hard-packed dirt fend off wrappers and dog crap and the flotsam and jetsam of city life. There is NO shade. There are electric wires and hoses coming mysteriously out of the ground as if a lamp was planned but discarded.

In case you don't know what an Araucária is, let me tell you. Araucárias are the giant monkey puzzle pine trees that take years to grow. They are protected--you cannot cut one down now, not even a dead one, without permission. 

Araucária in its happy place--the fazenda.

None of the new trees in the square are araucárias. A friend of mine, owner of a tree farm, has many araucária seedlings and she has even volunteered to donate small ones to the city. Instead these tiny saplings struggle.

There is not one bench in the square. Not one. Are they afraid there would just be bums sleeping? I don't know. Even if you could find shade, you can't sit in it. Recently I noticed and joined a community movement page on facebook called "Não largue da Batata" or "don't give up on the Largo da Batata." They are organizing events to bring life to the square--there is even yoga planned there for Friday night. I applaud their work and will be showing up to an event in the future. 

The square needs YOU!

As of now, I have not seen any of the "green changes" promised by the sub-mayor's office. In fact I find this title of an article from November 1, 2013 hilarious: "O verde toma conta da Praça das Araucárias" --"Green is taking over Araucária Square." What? Where? I guess this was to counter the article published in March 2013 that the araucárias planted in 2010 were all completely dead. The news in March was published by Arvores de São Paulo, one of my favorite blogs and worth checking out if you're a tree person.

Don't give up on the Potato.

The Saint of Urgent Causes - Santo Expedito - São Paulo

Almost every afternoon as I drive through Largo da Batata (the Potato Square) on the way to pick up my kids, there is a little man who scurries up to my car at the traffic light near the metro. Before I can shake my head, he is sticking this little paper about the size of a business card under my windshield wiper, then he comes to my window, raps on it with a 50 centavo coin (seriously I think it is always the same coin) and rubs his other fingers together asking me for a donation. I don't open my window; he scurries away on to the next car. 

This paper says "The Prayer of the the Key of Saint Expedito"and at the bottom is the explanation "The Saint of Urgent Causes." A little research shows that Santo Expedito is very popular in Brazil since the 1980s, but no one knows anything about why (okay when I say no one, I mean wikipedia, which is the same thing) he is a saint or how he lived or how he died. This gives me hope for some day being canonized by the Catholic church though I am not Catholic nor have I done much good. Perhaps in 400 years I will get to be a saint anyway. Maybe I could be the Saint of Elephants and Key Makers.

Key Makers? What? Well, yes, Santo Expedito has been adopted by the chaveiros or key makers of Brazil as their patron saint as well. Now that I read this, I remember seeing him in our local key-making place. Not him, mind you, but his likeness. He is the key saint. And urgent causes saint. And apparently, again according to the tried and true text of wikipedia, he has also been adopted by the "slacker generation" as the patron saint of exams. This seems a bit ironic, no? The expedited guy is "the man" for the slackers? Hmmm. Something to emulate? Not sure. 

Note to self: Adopt patron saint. Not this one.

Okay, moving on. When you flip over the little paper, there is more to the prayer:

Backside

 

I'm not going to try to translate this devotional though I have to say that I love seeing "vossa" which is the third person formal of "your." You never see it anymore in Brazil, unless referring with great respect to an elder.  In the red writing is the explanation that this person who gave me the paper has printed 1000 of these prayers to help "propagate" the benefits and devotion to the "powerful" Santo Expedito. King of Keys. Ah, and at the bottom, you can order your own prayer cards and you get two blessed keys with your order. Why am I slightly tempted? 

Street life. I love it.