Victor Nótrica and Enéas

One of the best teachers I ever had was my chemistry teacher, Victor Maurício Nótrica, during the three years (from 1963 to 1965) of the Scientific track (High School) at Cap-FNFi and at the Vetor Preparatory Course (1965, evening classes, in Copacabana), which prepared students for the Engineering entrance examinations. Victor also taught at Andrews School and at the Miguel Couto Preparatory Course (for medical school entrance exams). Those preparatory courses were famous (they were the so-called "cram schools") and brought together the city's best and most dedicated teachers.

At Vetor, besides Victor, I remember Célio Pinto de Almeida (Geometry), Jorge Miguel Jorge (Mathematics, who years later became the teacher of my two sons at Colégio Santo Inácio), Virgílio (Technical Drawing), Furtado (Physics), and Alegnati (Physics).

But, returning to Victor, I did not see him again after 1965 until 1997, thirty-two years later, when I turned fifty. I looked him up in the telephone directory (the printed one, that's how things were then), found him, and invited him to a celebratory gathering that I organized. He attended, which made me very happy. Since then, I have met him a few times, and we have talked about general matters. He is passionate about teaching. During one of those conversations, I recorded a story that I will try to reproduce below:

Victor, who came from a Jewish family, had been destined by his mother to become a physician (as happens with ninety percent of Jews). However, he became fascinated by his chemistry teacher and, much to his mother's disappointment, enrolled in the Chemistry program at the National Faculty of Philosophy.

In 1954, while still a senior student, Victor had a chemistry professor who also taught at a preparatory course. That professor became ill and asked Victor to substitute for him in one class. Victor accepted. He was frightened, but he went.

At those preparatory courses, classes usually had around one hundred students, and tuition was expensive. After all, the best teachers had to be well paid so they could devote themselves to teaching. Therefore, when the very young Victor stood before the class, the students protested. Embarrassed and inexperienced, not knowing what to do, Victor hesitated before beginning the lesson.

The commotion grew louder until one of the students, a very small young man, stood on a chair and, with great determination, called on the class to be quiet and pay attention to the lesson. He argued that if the professor had chosen that young man to teach, it was because he trusted him and that, in any case, it was better at that moment to make good use of the time and learn something instead of complaining, which could always be discussed afterward. He especially, having come all the way from Acre to Rio to take the medical school entrance examination, could not afford to waste time.

Faced with the good judgment and clarity of that proposal, together with the determination of the small student, silence was restored, the lesson was given, Victor's vocation became evident, and that was where Professor Victor was born.

The small young man from Acre was the future cardiologist Dr. Enéas, who later became a renowned professor of medicine and a highly sought-after lecturer on electrocardiography throughout Brazil. He is the very same Enéas of the famous phrase, "My name is Enéas," an independent candidate for the Presidency of Brazil on three occasions (1989, 1994, and 1998), surprising everyone with the expressive number of votes he received on each occasion, entirely on his own.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler, and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Engineering # 3.110 characters