Around 1972, I went to do a study-project for the city of Londrina. It was about the feasibility of an integrated water supply system, drawing from the Tibagi River, with treatment, pumping, and a pipeline running through Ibiporã, Londrina, Cambé, Rolândia, Arapongas, Apucarana, Cambira, Jandaia do Sul, Mandaguari, and Marialva. A big project. The mayor was visionary, a statesman, a certain Paranaguá.
I drove there to get to know the region, a place I had never been before (driving a green-fogged Volkswagen Beetle with a Rio de Janeiro license plate).
On the São Paulo - Paraná border, near Ourinhos, on the Paraná side, there was a huge, brand-new billboard facing those arriving from São Paulo, with a message and the new "slogan" of the Paraná government:
“You are entering PARANÁ, HERE WE WORK”
I stayed there for a few days on business, maybe a week.
On my way back, again at the border, this time on the São Paulo side, they were inaugurating another billboard of the same size, but facing those coming from Paraná:
“You are entering SÃO PAULO, HERE WORK IS NOTHING NEW”
A lack of things to do, on both sides!
A crowd of adults, many of whom were very irritated.
I couldn’t help but smile, which probably sounded like mockery to both sides, as it made their nonsense so evident. They all glared at me. My car had a Rio de Janeiro plate, and I had no backup group with me. As people used to say: "an outsider doesn’t speak up."
I was concerned.
Since Itararé was just a few kilometers away, I thought: "Would the famous battle of Itararé, the one that never happened, finally take place here, and would I be the only one injured?"
I didn’t stay to see. Worried about the tense atmosphere, I sped off, but I remember taking pictures of both billboards. When I find them, I’ll post them here.
This border really needs to be better studied by psychologists.
Eng. Miguel Fernández y Fernández, consultant and columnist. May 2020, 1657 characters, including spaces
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