At that time, still secundarista and participant student of the estudantil movement, I was invited by a friend to go to a seminary in a college in the Morumbi on the Brazilian university that would be lead by eminent sociologist Florestan Fernandes. Florestan Professor was still a good-tempered man, making one shining exposition on the situation of the Brazilian university in the contexts social, economic politician and of the time. The central quarrel was if the university in the standards where it was structuralized served to the interests of the leading classrooms or the Brazilian society as a whole. It was without a doubt was a sufficiently interesting seminary, that lasted a sunday all. After the lunch, we still had a theoretical exposition and later groups of debate had been formed to answer some questions placed for the lecturer. My group was composed for some university students – by the way, I and the Edson Broesdorf we were the only secundaristas of the seminary together with the wife of the Florestan Fernandes, an intelligent woman and very informed well. I remember that we defend similar positions in the group and in the end our conclusions had beaten with the ones of the lecturer.
The biography of Florestan Fernandes is of a fighter. Its mother a Portuguese widower, worked as house servant to support the family. Although not being alfabetizada, he did not measure efforts so that the son could study. Florestan with great difficulty obtained to conclude the primary course, therefore it needed to shine shoes to help in the expenditures of the house. Studying alone, he obtained to finish the basic course through maturity examinations, entering, later in then the elitist University of So Paulo, where the professors in its great majority were foreign.