In the country of football and carnival, a Black person choosing nuclear physics as a field of activity would already be an affront to the common stereotypes prevalent today. This includes what I call reverse prejudices, those who see discrimination even where it doesn't exist, purely out of prejudice, just to look good or justify why they don't tackle greater intellectual challenges. Accusing others of what we fear they might discover in us is the tactic that the best defense is an attack.
Black teachers? In schools in the southern zone of Rio? They must be physical education or manual labor teachers, perhaps percussion in music! Some people think this way and accuse others of thinking this way before they realize that they themselves think this way... The fact is that I only began to realize there was color prejudice when I started to notice it was a doctrinal issue in certain intellectual circles I frequented. The whiter the group, the more defenders of Black people. They spoke without realizing the embedded prejudice that overflowed in their attitudes and speeches. I was about 16 or 17 years old. And did Black people really need defenders? And pay attention: is "Black" not the same as "Afro-Brazilian"? But the students were all white; I don’t remember any Black students in Andrews or CAp, only in public schools.
By the time I was around 16 or 17, I wondered: "Did Black people need defenders?" It didn't seem so to me, believe it or not; in my home, we were a family of European immigrants, and we looked at Black people as equals (Nell, a friend of my mother's, and her daughters Fernanda and Sueli can attest to that). The issue/prejudice was about social class and gradually transformed into color prejudice. What cruelty they committed without realizing it or wanting to seem nice. In practice, it was another humiliation: the poor, who were Black, “needing” to be defended by spoiled white bourgeois, nouveau riche, and pseudo-intellectuals wanting to be accepted in some trendy circle. Regrettable.
Meanwhile, Maurício Silva Santos, a Black man, was considered the best geography teacher in Rio (Andrews School and UFRJ’s Application School). The Rebouças brothers, engineers in the early 20th century, Machado de Assis, our most prominent writer, Theodoro Augusto Ramos (1985-1935), an engineer and mathematician with a career in sanitation in São Paulo and Bahia— all Black, all distinguished professionals and intellectuals. Why weren't there more? Because some circles began to treat them as pitiful, undermining the self-esteem that we all need. Or was it envy? After all, we had just won the World Cup (1958), with the young Pelé standing out, along with the elegant Didi (not forgetting Djalma Santos), among eight others of various shades, who became the stereotypes of the Brazilian race around the world. Zero prejudices.
Professor Anselmo was Black, graduated in physics from the National School of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters (FNFi) of UB (University of Brazil, now UFRJ), I estimate around 1955 to 1960.
When fate gave me the chance to cross paths with him, that is, when I met him, he was teaching physics in the three years of the "scientific" course (high school) and didactics in the teacher training courses at the "application" schools (CAp). Thus, he ended up being my physics teacher for three years: 1963, 64, and 65. I learned physics for life and cherish the textbooks he adopted (PSSC) and recommended (Gamow). He was certainly one of the influencers that led me to choose a career as an engineer. He was so dedicated that once he gathered our class, still in the 2nd year, in his apartment in Gávea, with his wife, to socialize and inspire us with cutting-edge knowledge careers, which he saw as the only way to escape underdevelopment.
But the most significant episode I had with Anselmo was not about physics but rather about character formation, posture, ethics, and life logic. It was at the beginning of the third year. He taught 5 to 6 hours a week in the morning at CAp (from 7:30 to 12:15, Monday to Friday). He might have taught at another school in the afternoon, as many did.
Our routine was, besides the morning at CAp, from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM, the "pre-university course," which prepared students for entrance exams for universities (almost all public), and the respective engineering and medical courses, with far more candidates than vacancies. They were called "cursinhos" and gathered the most famous teachers available in the market. The classes were true showcases of knowledge, exam strategies, didactics, and motivation.
After about a month of classes, trying to complete the 3rd year in the morning and the course at night (vector course), so as not to "lose a year of our lives," as it was said, we were very upset because this routine left no room for anything other than studying: no beach, no flirting, dating, sports, movies—nothing. As a teacher in the course said with a sadistic smile, "this year, the students must focus solely on science."
Our CAp class met and chose a representative to petition Anselmo and other teachers to be less demanding at school so that we wouldn't have to study so much, as our obligation and primary objective was to pass the entrance exam.
Anselmo patiently listened, with his hand on his chin as he usually did, thought for a moment, and said that his obligation and goal there was to teach us physics according to a predetermined syllabus, to approve us if we learned, and to fail us if we didn’t learn; in that case, he would re-teach us the following year until we were considered approved in Physics in high school, thus deemed ready for the next step.
Quickly, the dialogue with the class representative turned into a discussion, and everyone began to speak and present arguments. At some point, Anselmo said he didn’t understand why we viewed the entrance exam as an obligation and goal.
Someone enthusiastically retorted that it was indeed an obligation to our parents, our families, our girlfriends, our friends, and to the nation because we were studying in public schools, and that was what society expected of us; we needed to help the country, etc., blah, blah, blah...
Anselmo listened with saintly patience and, with impeccable logic, responded to our arguments:
_"In relation to your parents, your family, your girlfriend, your parakeet, etc., OK. But in relation to the Nation? To the country? It has nothing to do with it. For the nation, for the country, there is a number of engineers and doctors that society needs or is willing to pay for annually, which corresponds to the vacancies in the entrance exams, and these vacancies will be filled by someone; this number of professionals will be formed, whether it’s you or others..."
Faced with such logic and realism, I thought to myself: it's better to stop complaining and go study. I abandoned the demagoguery there. I think that was the reaction of most of us who were lucid. We all passed the entrance exam, we are good professionals and good citizens, and we owe much of that to the great Anselmo.
Anselmo Salles Paschoa (1937) later taught physics at PUC-Rio (Catholic University). He passed away on March 26, 2011, during a meeting in São Paulo of the SBF (Brazilian Society of Physics), of which he had been a member for many years, discussing the CNEN - National Commission of Nuclear Energy, where he had previously served as Director. He held MSc and PhD degrees from NYU (New York University 1971-75), having been one of the pioneers of “radioecology.” He published various articles, participated in several international meetings in nuclear physics, and his obituary was published in various countries. I take pride in having been his student, and I regret not having seen him more often. However, shortly before his death, we had about five long meetings to organize a group of people with converging ideas. He was always assertive, always teaching, guiding, clarifying. I had many conversations with him, always learning. The last meeting was on September 5, 2010, at “Rincão das Jaboticabas” in Araras, Petrópolis, also attended by the already mentioned Maurício S. Santos and the host Emilio M. y Lopez.
Miguel Fernández, engineer and chronicler,
written in 2017/2023, 8,100 characters
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