Gurangardo Rhania’s story [Part 1]
Birthday: 6/17/1928
Place of origin: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French
White, black hair, brown eyes.
Parents -
Dad: John Rhania, age - 26 (when Gurangardo was 5 years old), U.S soldier, born in Texas. White, black hair, brown eyes, 6’2, 230 lbs
Mom: Maria Rhania, age - 24 (When Gurangardo was 5 years old), Dresser, born in Cuba. Tan, brownish hair, blue eyes, 5’6, 170 lbs
Born in Portugal and lived there for 5 years of his life as an orphan. He was later adopted by a U.S soldier during a tour of Europe of 1933. Gurangardo was then later able to settle with his father in the U.S protectorate near a military air base; Guantanamo, where he would meet his mother who immigrated from Cuba.
Gurangardo would learn both Spanish and English in addition to his preexisting knowledge of Portuguese in order to be in line with the locals and soldiers that came by from time to time.
He went to a local military school in order to get his education which he had been grateful for as it sure did beat being alone during his time in Portugal. While during his free time, he would go near the airbase and watch many soldiers race motorcycles against each other in forms of drag racing or simple circle racing, the fun would continue until their Sargent hollered at them to get back in line. This was his first exposure to racing in general.
Gurangardo would learn trade skills such as welding and plumbing at the age of 13 in order to help his family earn money to be more stable.
Gurangardo’s father would serve in WW2 in 1939 until he came back in 1946 which is when young Gurangardo would be 18 years old at the time. This would be when his father would convince his mother, Maria, to go to the U.S for a better opportunity. Then after many months of arguing, his mother would agree to go to the U.S as long as it was one of the five states: Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, or Louisiana. The choice was made to move to Louisiana as his mother would claim how all her friends were there, and while his father wanted to go to Texas for that’s where his family was, he would know that Louisiana would be the only way to get to the U.S with the family being as one. Then they all moved to Louisiana after a couple months of packing and shipping to their new home in Louisiana.
In 1946, Gurangardo Rhania would soon hear news of a country called Letara which was in need of cars and so he promptly made “Rhania Motors Companhia” as a nod to his Portuguese past but also as someone convinced him to do so as a dare. He would hear the corporate letter of lobbyists and would get one letter by accident, which was by SAETA that had lobbied for a new act and so with his short thinking, he decided to make a letter to them promptly leading many other companies to fear for a bit. He also lied about having a factory in Portugal though it was far from the truth quite literally. This letter would give a false impression of the company but also give him some kind of recognition albeit a bit extreme.
But before that, Gurangardo would miss his grandparents in Guantanamo from his mother’s side, as they were the ones that gave him the most affection. His grandpa would ask him for help with repairing bicycles and tractors while his grandma would request for him to assist her in her baking and basket weaving. He would surely miss them, but he would know that he would have to go to America soon and so he would help them respectfully for one last time before he went.
His family would settle in Louisiana in 1949 at which Gurangardo would be 21. He would work for a tractor company to build and sell tractors at an industrial scale. He would soon learn mechanical and electrical engineering as the years passed by due to his father wishing for him to go to college for engineering.
Gurangardo would soon apply for engineering school accompanied by some welding and wiring trade schools. Gurangardo would soon get a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the age of 26 in 1954.
With his new degree, he looked back to his experience in engineering and decided to make Rhania a reality and so he decided to convince some investors to invest almost $20,000 in his company which to his surprise would have never been thought possible. He then bought a factory in Portugal, Texas, and Cuba in homage to his lineage. The factories in Texas and Cuba would be used to create small time farming equipment, Gurangardo envisioned the Portugal factory to be his car company’s start.
With the investment money, he also hired a team of 2 managers, 3 electricians, 5 designers, 10 engineers, 3 accountants, 2 overseers, 5 spies, a gang in Brazil, and 120 workers. These people would all be needed to help lay out his plan for his company.
The tractor factories at Texas and Cuba were doing well enough to help fund the company as well using bullet proof designs from the tractors he had seen before.
As of 1955, he has bought a ticket to Letara to see the lobbying efforts made to see which rules were being brought up or taken down.
Now smoking a Cuban cigar accompanied with a bottle of Cognac, Gurangardo Rhania has his sights on the competition at the age of 27…
Some dialog -
Gurangardo: “You know what these have not heard of yet? A good car! They’ll put their damned rust buckets on the roads hoping to please the government with their false statements about caring about the citizens of Letara. I’ll bet my life that I’ll never drive anything else, especially a SAETA before I die!”
