The Patriarch of Lebanese Community of Rio, ZOUAIN ZOUAIN

by Stansinho Stans Zouein      

01 - Michel Zouain was a very strong and brave man. He was also a military and Order Assistant of his cousin Georges Beik Zouain.

02 – Some time ago, when he was young attending a boarding school, one of his friends who worked in the school’s kitchen was quit because he didn't cook well enough. A better cooker was chosen for the kitchen’s work.
Michel didn't like it at all and decided to do something about it. In the following day he hid in the kitchen’s pantry with the two hands full of salt, waiting for the right moment. As soon as the cooker left the kitchen for some minutes, Michel throw the two hands full of salt in the great pot of food. At lunchtime everybody complained about the taste of the food and the director decided to quit the new cooker and readmit Michel's friend.

03 - Michel Zouain, left Lebanon to Brazil, in April of 1923, four years after Stans and Acle.
At that time he had three children, born in Lebanon (Luiz, Maria and ءdma). His wife was Mلlaque.

04 - Their third son , José Zouain (Zuza), was born during the ship trip. In Brazil they had two more children, Rosa and Zouain.
“Zouainzinho,” his nickname, died at the age of seven, falling down from a tree. ءdma is the only one still alive. She is 80 years old.

05 - His sister Zambek never accepted his departure to Brazil. She loved deeply all her brothers, but Michel and his son Luiz were very special to her.
Both died in the year of 1958, but the husband and her children never said for Zambek, that the brother and the nephew that she more liked had died.
In 1966, when Stansinho (Stan’s son) was in Lebanon, Zambek asked him...
( through your Rose Murad cousin, that spoke Portuguese well )
... when, he returned to Brazil, he caught a cotton piece and he passed in Michel's forehead when he was sweated, and he sent this wet cotton of Michel's perspiration, by mail, so that when she received, she could feel the smell of your longing brother's perspiration.Rose Murad, translated this request in weeping.

06 – Like his brothers Zouain, Acle and Stans, Michel also worked in the trade. He lived in Itapina, district of Colatina. He moved to Colatina after Zouainzinho’s death.

07 - Michel liked Lebanon very much. He always spoke about returning to Lebanon. A curious fact is, even living more than 30 years in Brazil, he did not learn to speak a word in Portuguese.
His son Luiz promised that he would take his father back to Lebanon, but he got sick and died at the age of 48.
Michel loved so much his son that he could not resist to his death, and some months later he also died.

08 – Great part of his descendents inhabits the city of Colatina and surroundings.

by Stansinho Stans Zouein      

01 - Lebanon was one of the victims of the 1st World War, because its inhabitants suffered very severe consequences, mainly for the lack of victuals.
In the mountains of Lebanon people still had some crops, but there was a grasshopper’s plague that put an end to the plantations. It also came the plague, the typhoid fever and other bad diseases of the time and...
... thousands of people died and the cemeteries could no longer support so many corpses. Then they had to be buried in the streets, in the back yards, in every place.
Acle, his brother Stans and the nephew Inácio Aoun, still young and strong, were volunteers. They buried hundreds of people.

02 - the unemployment, the hunger and the uncertainty of a better future, did Acle, Stans and Inácio migrate to Brazil.
Acle was a nice and funny young boy. During his trip to Brazil he made alot of friends. Everybody liked him very much and had alot of fun with his jokes. However, they could never imagine the pretty voice he had!
When the ship crossed the line of Ecuador, there was a great party and Acle enchanted everybody singing melodies of his Lebanon.

03 - When in Brazil, they went to the city of Colatina (near Vitória) and surroundings, where a good colony of Lebanese already existed. They were near Zouain’s trade.

04 – He spent his life close to his relatives, specially to his beloved brother Stans.
In the 40’s he built a summer house in Guarapari beach (near Vitória too). Everything in the house was in double (two rooms, two kitchens, two bathrooms...) exactly to shelter the two families during summer time.

05 - The two patriarches greeted their distant Lebanon during a lifetime together with other Lebanese, relatives, and friends.
Lebanon inhabited in their hearts in a such alive and strong way that everybody, even the non Lebanese, admired the love they had for their homeland.

06 - In the day of his death, all his children and nephews were concerned with Stans because they knew that not only his heart was suffered, but a part of him died with Acle, because the love among the two brothers was of causing envy (in the good sense) and it served as example for their descendants.

07 - His wife was Maria, and they had ten children: José (Zezé), Simão, Michel, Jorge, Acle, Rosa, Alice, Georgete, Ivone and Rene.
Maria, José (Zezé), Simão and Michel have already died.
His descendants' great part inhabits today the city of Guarapari, where every year, on last Saturday of January, a great meeting happens, together with all relatives of Guarapari, Vitória, Colatina and Rio de janeiro. It’s the great PARTY OF THE FAMILY CONFRATERNIZATION.

by Stansinho Stans Zouein      

1 - In the spring of the year of 1900, José and Maria’s last son was born. His older brothers were Zouain, Michel, Chicri, Fares, Acle, Emily and Zambek.
José wanted to name him Mansur, but Maria wanted Stans to honor her brother Stanislau Murad. José knew the feelings Maria had towards her brother, so he agreed and the boy was named Stans.

02 – By the way, here is Murad’s family, Stanislau’s children, the cousins: Afonso, Luiz, Victor and Rosa. They all migrated to Brazil and have always been close do Zouain’s family, either in Lebanon or Brazil. They lived around Vitoria and Colatina, except for Rosa, who went back to Lebanon in the 1940.
Another very important family that accompanied the family Zouain was Aoun, in Lebanon (Namthلla married to Emily and Fares married to Zambek) and in Brazil through Inلcio Aoun, that migrated together with Stans and Acle, living close to them until his death in the decade of 70.

03 – On Sunday, when Stans was 14 years old, his mother went to mass. Coming back home she noticed the front door opened.
The wind had opened the door, but she ran terrified, thinking to be some thief that entered to rob food, because the population of Lebanon went by a difficult moment due to 1st World War and who possessed some food needed to keep it for the family survival. Maria got so nervous, so scared that she had an heart attack, passing away a few hours later. She recommended very much for her son Stans.

04 -Some days later his sister Zambek had an strange but very beautiful dream. Her mother appeared and told her that she had hidden some money in a certain hole of one of the walls of stone of the house. She kept it for some emergency. Next day Zambek found the place indicated by her mother and the money.
The following day, Zambek was in the such place that the mother indicated it in the dream, and behind a free stone, was the such money. They all cried very much. They all missed her very much and this fact envolved joy and sadness at the same time.

05 - Stans as a boy was responsible for the transport of food and other goods for his house and other places; he had a donkey that accompanied him in the long walkings by the hills of Zaitre and surroundings. Many times he had to go to his brother’s house, very far from Zaitre. Michel would always receive Stans with much joy, yelling at his wife: -Mلlaque, cook FAاOULE, Stans has just arrived!

06 – This was a very hard working for Stans. He was so tired that many times he would sleep in the open air. One night, sleeping with the donkey’s rope tied in his hand, somebody arrived, unfastened the rope and robbed the donkey with the load. The following day the boy was terrified because the food of his house depended on that robbed load. He arrived crying at home, but he had the understanding of everybody, mainly of his dear sister Zambek that said to him:

06.1- The person who robbed the donkey and the load perhaps needs more than we do.
And Zambek was right. Thirty years later, in a city of Brazil, two Lebanese were having a conversation and one of them said to the other that he would travel in the following day to find someone of Zouain’s family. Hearing such word, one of them exclaimed:

06.2- My God! The boy Stans Zouain! And he continued:

06.3- Certain time I was so desperate, without any money, that I followed a boy with his donkey, waited until he fell asleep, and robbed his donkey and the load. With the money I made I went to Beirute where I bought a passage in the first ship to America, and here I am. He would like to meet Stans to beg for his pardon and to thank him for coming to Brazil and for having such a special family.
They never met each other, but Stans was very touched and forgave him.

07 - And returning to Lebanon, it was autumn of 1919.
Stans Zouain was hunting in the mountains of Zaitre with his nephew Inلcio Aoun (Emily’s son) when he saw coming up the hill his brother Acle Zouain. In one of his hands he had a letter and three tickets to Brazil, sent by his oldest brother Zouain Zouain, who was in Brazil since 1912.
Stans was so happy about the news that he discharged two shots to the sky.
His sister Zambek cried alot saying good bye to him. At that time she gave him a silver coin, which he kept during all his life.
When arriving to Brazil Stans cried, missing his country very much. The longing of Lebanon became larger than the distance that the ship traveled.

08 – He was married to Celina (the only one to marry a Brazilian woman) and they had twelve children: Michel, Jamil, José, Hilton, Elias (died at eight days old), Roberto, Cézar, Alberto, Stans, Maria José, Dulce and Celina.
His wife Celina, Roberto, Maria José and his youngest daughter Celina have already died.
His descendants' great part inhabits the city of Vitَria and surroundings.

by Stansinho Stans Zouein