Pedro Clóvis Junqueira

Abstract

The old warrior died. On hearing the news andstarting to write about one of the key mentors of theBrazilian Society of Hematology (SBHH), I felt ashamedabout not knowing more about one of the main activists inthe fight for the recognition of hemotherapy as a medicalspecialty in Brazil.I remember the first timeI saw him as if it wereyesterday. In Curitiba in 1974in the National HematologyCongress organized by theBrazilian College ofHematology, a figure hardlycaught my attention. Howeversomeone whispered in my ear,Look, there is the enemy. Ionly understood thisobservation some time later,after all, I was young andinexperienced, just a resident,distant and neophyte to the political problems involving thespecialty. Time passed and the SBHH was restructured,acquired a head office in Avenida Rio Branco in Rio de Janei-ro under his presidency and the master began to attract youngpeople to the society. Already participating as a listener inconversations between the older members, I noted thatMaster Junqueira was at all times the center; stories andrecollections of the SBHH were told and romanticized. Hetold all with decorum, about the foundation of SBHH in thewake of the success of the first Paulista Congress in 1949. Hepraised, or criticized, the facts in his Maranhense-Cariocaway and almost always ended his stories with loud laughter.He described the confusion that occurred during theorganization of the first Brazilian Congress in the QuitandinhaHotel in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, and also his attempts tobecome the first director of the SBHH. He described theodysseys to organize the first congresses and cleverly toldthe story of how the symbol of society emerged and thereason for the existence of the fibrinogen molecule in thecenter of the blood drop in the logo of the SBHH. In fact, hesaid, this was a reference to a type of bush that was verycommon in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, the locationof the congress in 1953. In an amateurish and playful way heexplained that at the start of every session a branch of thesaid bush was given to the speaker as a symbol of the eventand so it passed from hand to hand during the Congress.