Casas do Cruzeiro history...

... and Dulcinio Tavares’s

Do not get so many stories? Usually stories for children, and just one magic formula to make them shine eyes. And this is also a story that could start with Once upon a time ... and that could be told to children today.
And yet this story has a little of children and a lot of child made adult by force, under the circumstances ... It speaks of a child born in wartime (1938), in a small village hidden in the hills and to escape an uncertain future, caught in their early 11 years and a 4th grade freshly and all the courage he could join and and took the road to Lisbon far and farther than today, because highways and good roads were words of which are not the dream meaning.

And that's driven by the life and fate, who should receive all the blame of the good and bad things that happens to us, said the boy arrives in Lisbon. Small. So small that to get to the grocery store counter arrange your first job, he must climb up a box of lard...

The days run, months, years ... and also as the target is something we can not escape, according to a Lusitanian tradition, quickly reaches the first day of 4 years of compulsory military service (1959 to 63). And the boy that so many years ago had come to Lisbon, is now a man who will, just like so many others, realize one day that was mobilized for war. And heads to Mozambique where he will participate in a war that does not understand nor want but which must take its place. Like so many others ...

And like many others, back again ready to resume his life. Back to Lisbon to get a job as a driver in a factory to sell ice. And that's where the 25 April 74 will find him in their daily driver, little knowing that the turning point of his life is about to happen. Disastrous consequence of practices and mismanagement, the company arrives at the April 25 in a very difficult situation prefiguring hard days of unemployment. But once more, arming to the all the courage he has always used as an ally, and using the savings possible and achieved through the days that reached the last 20 hours, became a partner of that company and safeguard its future immediate as well as the nearly 40 co-workers.

It was the first step to a business life of an enviable success. Placing ourselves in time, appeared in 1987 with a new stage of his life and this time the dream leads him to build homes with the creation of a construction company, happily pay for success. And there were various areas, they were born in Lisbon houses and buildings with the signature of his company.

And then the houses, cars and another company comes in the automotive industry, also intended to be successful. Nothing seems to stop the boy for whom life was not easy but for whom, a battle is to win, and in 1996 we find him with a new challenge at hand. A foray into a new universe and completely unlike anything he had done so far: fashion. With the opening of a factory of shirts and ties, adds another success to a longstanding business life and in which few believe to see the boy who was barely a counter.

But a slowdown it is necessary because health does not always correspond to the energy we have in us ... And more than that, the voice of the earth has never ceased to call this boy. Another challenge that has not turned his face and in 1997 ran for the President of the Parish Council of the village where he had left so many years. Apply for and win! And back to apply and win again! To Marialva can, not without effort, a lot of improvements in infrastructure as well as the lives of his countrymen, and it is during their terms of reference that the Village gets the status of the Historical Village. One more step successfully accomplished.

And here we are in 2009. We found the boy of yore, today's father of a son (who succeeded him as President of the Board of Marialva) and grandfather of 3 grandchildren. But think again who thinks that we will find retired or enjoying a well deserved rest. Because as the saying goes “To Stop is to die” a new challenge is looming on the horizon. And this in an area completely new to this entrepreneur one day headed to Lisbon. Rehabilitation and remodeling those who are now CASAS DO CRUZEIRO and is intended as a Rural Tourism. And where else but in his own village where, from where comes a day under the circumstances?

Today, looking at the facts in the distance, and what is sometimes imagined to be misfortunes of fate, we see that are just the right way to go to fulfill our mission around here. This is the story of Dulcínio Espirito Santo Tavares. Extraordinary story? Or at all similar to that of many other boys in the 50's became migrants in their own country in search of their dreams?

Meeting or not, it must always emphasize the courage of someone who despite all the vicissitudes of life has never lost sight of their dreams and now back to his village Marialva to meet another ...