At 95 years old, researcher from Curitiba announces his 17th book and is already working on his next works

A true collector of stories, professor Ernani Costa Straube, born on January 28, 1929, recently celebrated 95 years of life. But instead of being presented with a gift, he decided to give Curitiba a gift, announcing the completion of his newest book (the 17th in his prolific career): the “Dicionário Histórico dos Logradouros de Curitiba”, a work with more than 440 pages that rescues the official acts of creation of 5 thousand public places in the Capital, including their old names and, in selected cases, a brief biography or description of the origin of these names.

According to the professor, it took more or less three years to “collect” the names of streets in Curitiba, checking the law that determined their names and researching the origins of the names of these streets. A work that resulted in the creation of two large binders, where all the information researched by Straube was kept while he wrote the book, now about to be released – and which will soon be available for free download on the portal www.archive.org and on his personal website, www.professorernani.com.br

“The book features 5 thousand streets, more or less half of the total number of streets in Curitiba. Not all of them were included because that would be impossible, so I selected the main roads, the oldest streets”, explains the researcher. “I made two binders collecting the names of the streets, looking at the law that determined that name and who the guy was – a small biography, of two or three lines about the person. As for the zoology part, my son [Fernando, que é ornitólogo] He was the one who reviewed it, because there is the issue of scientific names and there are many streets named after trees, fruits, birds… So he was the one who reviewed the zoology and botany part”, he adds.

Curious stories, in fact, abound. For example, do you know where the old Rua Alegre is? And why did she get that name at the time? And Guaíra Avenue?

“So, Rua Cândido Leão, which is the one that runs from Praça Tiradentes to Alameda Doutor Muricy, was called Rua Alegre because there, according to reports, there was a tailor with the surname Alegre. So people said ‘I’m going to Alegre’, and then it became the name of the street: Rua Alegre”, says Professor Ernani. “Avenida Kennedy used to be Avenida Guaíra. Kennedy was president of the United States, ended up assassinated. He was the one who implemented the Alliance for Progress and with that the people wanted to honor him, because we received many benefits from this Alliance”, he adds.

Another curiosity is the influence of politics when choosing or changing the name of a road. “Councillors change according to politics. Many street names in Curitiba exist due to politics”, analyzes Straube. In 1880, for example, the Emperor of Brazil visited Paraná and was honored with Largo Dom Pedro II. At the same time, one of the main roads in Curitiba was renamed Rua da Imperatriz, while another was renamed Rua do Imperador. “When the Republic was proclaimed, everything changed: Largo Dom Pedro II became Praça Tiradentes; Rua da Imperatriz became XV de Novembro and Rua do Imperador became Rua Marechal Deodoro.”

Furthermore, there are also streets in Curitiba that are, literally, on top of rivers. “Travessa da Lapa, for example, is on the Ivo River. I know this because I met there when the river still existed. At Mariano Torres, you are passing over the Belém River, which has been channelized, buried with a cement structure. And many people don’t know that”, says the professor, explaining that defining which was the first street in Curitiba is a difficult, almost impossible mission, because many of the city’s old maps ended up being lost. “But the only street that remained, that did not have any change in name, was Rua do Rosário”, he points out.

A true collector of stories
Before the launch of the “Historical Dictionary”, one of the last works released by professor Ernani had been the book “O barco corsário da Cotinga”, which tells the story of the sinking of a pirate ship in the bay of Paranaguá, on March 9th. 1718. For a long time, the story was treated as a legend, until the researcher was able to obtain complete proof of the fact. “It was very difficult, it took me almost five years to obtain this information, which I obtained in Torre do Tombo, in Portugal. In the book I bring 32 documents proving this sinking”, he says.

Another work he launched is “From Licêo de Coritiba ao Colégio Estadual do Paraná”, which tells the story of what would be the oldest public office in Paraná. The CEP, in fact, is a milestone in Straube’s life: his father, Guido Straube, was director of the Ginásio Paranaense (another name that the State College had over the decades) and Ernani himself, years later, held the same role at the historic school in Paraná.

“The CEP has existed since before Paraná was Paraná. It begins as Licêo de Coritiba, in 1846, still in imperial times. He was raised in São Paulo, because at that time Curitiba was the fifth district of São Paulo. In fact, the State of Paraná should have been called the State of Coritiba. But in 1850 the State of Amazonas was created, with the name being taken from the Amazon River. Then they thought that the new state should also use the name of a river, they followed the same rule, and ‘Paraná’ ended up being chosen because of the Paraná River”, he reports.

Furthermore, the researcher is already working on two more historical works. One of these books will be a summary of the history of scouting in Paraná and the other will be a work on the 120 years of existence of Colégio Bom Jesus. “I continue working and I already have two more books being prepared, one is 150 pages long and the other is already 200 pages long. These are parallel works, to be launched this year”, reveals the researcher.

Living history
The Curitiba native with a thousand faces
Above all, Ernani Costa Straube is a teacher, as he himself says. But the truth is that he is much more than that: writer, historian, pharmacist, public manager in the areas of education and public security and criminal expert are some of the functions already carried out by the Curitiba native, who holds chair number 12 at the Academia Paranaense de Letras , was once president of the Historical and Geographic Institute of Paraná and director and one of the creators of the Civil Police School (today known as the Civil Police School of Paraná), located in the Vila Izabel neighborhood (Rua Tamoios, 1200).

“I was the one who set up that Police School on Tamoios Street. I stayed there from 1976 until 1983, so I had the satisfaction of having, as a teacher, the opportunity to run my school: I bought a blackboard, I bought a desk, everything I needed. I set up this school that is still there today, and the most important part of the structure remains there today”, he celebrates.

Working in the Police, Ernani Straube ended up becoming a character in one of the most tragic episodes in Brazilian history: he is the last living criminal expert in the plane crash in Colônia Murici, in São José dos Pinhais, which occurred on June 16, 1958. and which victimized former President of the Republic Nereu Ramos and other prominent political figures at the time, such as deputy Leoberto Leal and the then governor of Santa Catarina, Jorge Lacerda.

“The plane came from Porto Alegre (RS) and passed through Florianópolis (SC), where Nereu Ramos, Leoberto Leal and some others boarded. Then when the plane arrived in Greater Curitiba, and it was around five-thirty in the afternoon, there was a CB, a Cumulonimbus, which are those very powerful dark clouds, with high pressure Delta. So, what happened? The pilot, when he was arriving here in Curitiba, asked for authorization to lower altitude. Then, when they were four kilometers from Afonso Pena, there was what is now called the Witch’s Broom, which is nothing more than a descending current that will bring down the plane. Then it dropped to 50 meters and the right wing cut through the treetops. Then the plane did somersaults and came to the ground and in the middle of the way there was a tree stem, which had been recently cut and ended up causing all the injuries to people and deaths as well.”