'RITA PER NOI' the newsletter that has gone a long way...

In 1989, Luis Fabio Miranda - who had been the President of the Brazilian Rita Pavone Fan Club since 1966, when he was still an engineering student living in his native São Carlos-SP - was transferred from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro by the company he worked for. Since he thought he could not manage the Fan Club anymore he asked Doris Castro whether she could keep the Fan Club archives which consisted mostly of recently-received fan-letters and a fairly long fan-address-list.

Doris, who had missed the first wave of fan-club-activities in the 1960s was glad to be the recipient of such a trove.

Fabio had edited 4 issues of a newsletter called 'Pavonissimo' during 1988, but now his work-load would not allow him leisure so he waived his right of the name 'Pavonissimo' to some Italian fans who published it in Italy for a couple of years.

In May 1989, Doris Castro met up with some other Pavone fans she'd known recently: Marta Mendes, Mauricio Ignacio and Wilton Belintani and they decided to create a fan-newsletter to keep the Pavone's 1987 Brazilian tour momentum alive among Brazilian fans.

Doris put up the first issue of 'Rita Per Noi' (RPN) and sent it over to everyone in-the-List as a way of saying: ‘We all love Rita and we’re  in this together!’

Doris was surprised to receive a good feed-back from a few dozen fans and composed a 2^nd newsletter in the next quarter. A fan from Rio de Janeiro named Miguel Carqueija wrote Doris and suggested: ‘Why don’t  you number the Newsletter?’ Doris followed Mr Carqueija’s suggestion and as of the 3^rd issue the newsletter ‘Rita Per Noi’ became a real periodic. Every quarter there was a RPN in the mail to dozens of fans spread throughout Brazil. They were 4 newsletters a year.

In the 2^nd year, at issue #7, Mauricio Ignacio offered his service as a copy-desk expert to make up a ‘cover’ (copertina) to the Newsletter to illustrate what had been only text so far. Mauricio also came up with the now legendary rubric 'Il Nostro Giornalino'.

This is more or less the genesis of 'Rita Per Noi' that lasted 15 years through 50 issues. 

'Rita Per Noi' very first issue: June 1989; Doris Castro writes an introduction explaining that as 'Pavonissimo', the fanzine edited and issued by Luis Fabio Miranda 4 times during 1988 was to be taken over by Italian fans and be printed over in Italy, she & friends saw the need of starting a new one that would keep the Brazilian fans together and well informed. Doris did the publishing by herself using a PC that belonged to her oldest son and printing the few pages using her own money, plus the price of postage to distribute it.

RPN no.10: copertina by Mauricio Ignacio; on the right a beautiful contribution given by Marta Mendes who composed the page, wrote the text and paid for as many photocopies as necessary to be sent to all the fans. 

RPN no.14... the Newsletter was getting more sophisticated. 

Another page made up and financed by Marta Mendes; on the right Mauricio Ignacio celebrates Christmas 1993. 

RPN nos. 21 and 27 covers done in colours. 

RPN no. 34.

'Rita Per Noi' had different sections and fan-contributions were welcomed by the editor Ms Castro. Ariovaldo Skrapec who unfortunately is not with us anymore took a long time (and a lot of love) to devise these two pieces of puzzles about Rita and her career.  

Another page made up and financed by Marta Mendes: the lyrics of the 1964 German hit 'Peppino aus Torino' were translated from German to Portuguese by Carlus Maximus and illustrated by Marta herself.

Rita Pavone at her office in 1991. If you look really close you'll see issue no.11 of  'Rita Per Noi' on top of her desk. 

RPN no.11 - 1991.

Some facts about 'Rita Per Noi' the longest-running Rita Pavone fanzine ever: 15 years!

quarterly (4 times a year): RPN-5 (1990) to RPN-36 (1997)

four-monthly: from RPN-37 (1998) to RPN-39 (1998)

half-yearly: from RPN-40 (1999) to RPN-47 (2002)

annual: from RPN-48 (2003) to RPN-50 (2005). 

In 2005, Rita Pavone declared she'd retire that year so Doris Castro thought it would not make sense going on with the fanzine. Besides, there was the Internet too. 

Marta Mendes, Doris Castro & Carlus Maximus at a Portuguese sweet-shop on Avenida São João in São Paulo on 7 April 2016.