06/05/2021

Julio Cesar de Mello, a mathematical communicator.

Luiza Barata

If he were to write a book about his grandfather Julio Cesar de Mello, Andre Pereira could give the title “The man who communicates mathematics” to the work. Perhaps you don’t know Julio Cesar by name, but if you have heard of Malba Tahan and the classic “The Man Who Counted”, you know who we are talking about. This Thursday (6), the date on which Julio Cesar’s birthday would have been, is celebrated as National Mathematics Day.

Pereira had the privilege not only of reading these stories, but of knowing them firsthand. “My grandfather communicated mathematics. And he continues to live on, in a way, communicating the discipline through his books. There are copies of his books scattered all over the world,” he says. Julio Cesar was a simple man: he didn't have a wallet and was completely detached from material possessions. “When he needed to buy something, he carried the money in his pocket. He usually spent it on things that gave him pleasure, like ham, chocolate eclairs, mille-feuille. His concern was writing, giving lectures, answering correspondence, spreading the importance of education and mathematics to everyone.”

In Caxambu, a city in southern Minas Gerais where he used to take Pereira as a child, Julio Cesar would be stopped in the streets to autograph books. “His imagination went far beyond what he saw. And all this happened in a time long before the internet. Imagine the reach my grandfather would have today with access to Skype or WhatsApp, for example!”

Foto: Entre tantas outras lembranças, Andre tem a capa do livro do avô emoldurada/ Arquivo pessoal

Julio Cesar was born on May 6, 1895, in Rio de Janeiro. From an early age, he was interested in literature and, following in the footsteps of his mother and seven of his eight siblings, became a teacher at the Normal School. He graduated in engineering from the National School and, in 1925, launched himself to readers as he would be known for eternity. Malba Tahan was born there, much more than a mere pseudonym, but the name resulting from the construction of a character.

To achieve this, Julio Cesar had to immerse himself in the Arabic language and culture without ever leaving Latin America, and create a biography that would convince readers and publishers that Malba Tahan actually existed. This creation led to the publication of books such as "Love of a Bedouin," "Allah's Sky," and the most famous, "The Man Who Counted."

“Beremiz Samir is the main character in the story. He is the figure who does the calculations, even without any university education. Beremiz is not a son of the elite. He is a son of the people, he is the current orange vendor at the traffic light. And mathematics is part of everyday life: he solves problems, previously unsolvable, with great sensitivity and ethics. Morally, this is a life lesson,” Pereira points out.

With affection, the grandson recalls the days he spent in the company of the mathematician in Gávea, in the southern part of Rio, in a two-story house with a mango tree, a jackfruit tree, and a large backyard. “My grandfather and my grandmother Nair lived on Arthur Araripe Street, in a large house. It was a place that really felt like a 'grandmother's' house.” The residence was also the setting for birthdays and family gatherings. “But he would escape those conversations that usually happened after lunch with a famous phrase. He would say that he needed to continue reading the description of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, an activity that never seemed to end,” Pereira says, amused.

After his death in 1974, the mathematician's family came across materials by the author that were also left unfinished. "There were piles of things, letters he had begun to answer and books he couldn't finish. What was on the table, we didn't throw away; we added it to what would become his collection." Since 2010, 215 archive boxes containing the mathematician's documents have been donated by his family to the Center for Memory of Education (CME) at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp).

Besides the fond memories, Pereira also inherited the collection of frog-shaped objects, Julio Cesar's favorite animal, and the inspiration to pursue an academic career. He is a researcher at the National School of Public Health of Fiocruz and is responsible for the Malba Tahan website . “Like my grandfather, I feed on books. And wherever I travel, I always go to bookstores to see if they still sell 'The Man Who Counted'. Copies are always on the shelves,” he celebrates.

The disciples of Malba Tahan

Malba Tahan's teachings inspire people of different ages and stages of life. "In master's and doctoral programs focused on education, there are many people who dedicate themselves to researching my grandfather's work as a figure who worked to popularize the teaching of mathematics. And they are moved when they uncover his story," points out Pereira.

Foto: Medalhista da OBMEP, Julio Cesar Nascimento aprendeu com o livro que pode resolver problemas/ Arquivo pessoal

Named after the author and passionate about the world of numbers and literature, Julio Cesar Nascimento met Malba Tahan earlier this year. At age 13, the OBMEP medalist from Quixabá, a municipality bordering Pernambuco and Paraíba, learned from the book that problems, whether mathematical or not, can be solved in many ways.

“The calculator shows that there are many different ways to solve something. Some may be simpler than others. And sometimes, when a problem arises, we will need to solve it with what we know and what we have available. We won't always have a calculator to help,” he says.

Julia Jaccoud, a mathematics graduate from USP (University of São Paulo) and known as "Math Maniac" on social media, remembers the packed rooms of the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics during the event they called "Malba Tahan Turnaround." "Like many mathematicians, 'The Man Who Counted' is also among my favorite books. But the scene that most marked me was when I saw Malba Tahan's ideas being put into practice."

She was one of the monitors at the event that welcomed hundreds of students from schools near the university to celebrate National Mathematics Day with lectures, roundtables, and problem-solving sessions. “It was a great celebration where we saw the children having fun with mathematics. It’s fantastic to know that a Brazilian mathematician left us so many teachings as a legacy.”