Souza in the 40’s

Francis Newton Souza’s father was an English teacher called José Victor Aniceto

de Souza also known as Newton de Souza. Joseph had moved from Assolna, to

Saligao in the Bardez province of Goa for work, and it was there that he met and

married Lilia Maria Cecilia Antunes. Their first child, born in

1922

, was a girl

who they named Blanche Zemira. Two years later, on

April

1924

, her brother

Newton was born. Tragically, three months later, their father died aged twenty-

four and only a year later Blanche died. Souza wrote an account of these early

years in his autobiography later published in

Words and Lines

“

I was born in Goa in

1924

. My grandmother and grandfather were both chronic

drunkards. Godfather was a principal of the village school in Assolna, Salsette - a

school his forefather had founded. My father, as a reaction to their bibulousness, never

touched other liquid than water. He became a chronic teetotaller. On his wedding

day the toast wine was poured over his head since he would not drink it. But it

is said that the progeny of bibulous progenitors are highly imaginative people. By

atavism, it seems the visions of a tipsy grandfather, pink elephants and the rest of the

menagerie every hour transfer to the grandchildren, who see similar visions without

being tipsy. You’ve only to see my paintings to know whether this is right or wrong.

My mother, only twenty-three at the time, became a widow, with two kiddies

and debts and mortgages. In the following year my sister died too. My mother, my

aunts, my grandmother and all my relatives mourned bitterly, saying God should

have taken away the boy and left the girl: she was so beautiful, so intelligent for her

age, so loving. As for me, I was a rickety child with running nose and running ears,

and scared of every adult and every other child. Better had I died. Would have saved

me a lot of trouble. I would not have had to bear an artist’s tormented soul, create art

in a Country that despises her artists and is ignorant of heritage

.”

Lilia struggling financially on her own in Goa, decided to move to Bombay to

seek a better life for herself and her son Newton. However, it was not long before

misfortune struck again. Newton contracted small pox, then a deadly disease, and

had to be sent back to Goa to recover with his grandmother. Lilia, having been

raised as a strict Catholic, prayed to Goa’s patron saint St Francis Xavier to cure

her son, and in thanks, she promised to put him on the path to becoming a priest.

Her prayers were seemingly granted, and as soon as Newton was well, she added

the name ‘Francis’ to his name and enrolled him in St Francis Xavier’s College

Their fortunes seemed to be looking up, as Lilia had also been able to find work

in the city. She started first as a typist or stenographer, but as her interest really

lay in needlework and dressmaking, she quickly changed to tailoring, notably

for the middle classes. By the time Newton returned from Goa, his mother

was making enough money to support them both and see him through school

and college.

EARLY YEARS

1924—1937

Bombay Family photo of Souza’s Grandparents,

1904