“Queen of Scrap” comes to an end this Friday (3) in the rerun of “Vale a Pena Ver de Novo”. Dona Armenia (Aracy Balabanian) came back to the minds of an entire generation that watched the soap opera in the 1990s (and the younger ones were able to see it): the businesswoman wanted to place the building in which the Maria do Carmo (Regina Duarte) “the cone“. But what does the building that served as the setting for the story look like today?
The Building still existsand is located at number 1842 Avenida Paulista: at Cetenco Plaza Torre Norte (which can also be accessed from the side street, Alameda Ministro Rocha Azevedo, 72), there are 25 corporate floors behind the glass facade that reflects sunlight and the surrounding landscapes. At the time, the property actually had the “Sucata” sign installed, the name of Maria do Carmo’s company, and the screws between the 18th and 19th floors can still be seen there today.
The setting, close to the Consolação subway station, attracts soap opera fans who are watching or rewatching – as Diogo Mattos e Leandro Perezfrom the “” profile on Instagram, who collected images of the characters in front of the building throughout the story and went there to do a photo shoot. In exclusive conversation with CNN Brazilthey talk about how the idea and their attachment to the soap opera came about.
“We did detailed research to find scenes in which the actors filmed in front of the building, thinking about being able to recreate this framing in the photos. Sometimes the character enters the filmed location from very far away, or by car, or even running, and we don’t get enough sharpness to do this overlapping game. But we managed to get some classic scenes, like the one in Laura (Glória Menezes) arriving to your final act and that of Dona Armênia wanting to tear down the building”, explains Leandro. With the material in hand, the two spent an afternoon visiting the place.
Souvenirs from “Queen of Junk”
Diogo watched it as a child and had the cassette with the soundtrack. Leandro didn’t get to see it at the time, but he remembers that his mother and aunts joked about what Mrs. Armênia herself said, calling one of her uncles “my Giacomo” (Gianfrancesco Guarnieri). The two had fun following the story when “Rainha da Sucata” was made available in full on Globoplay, in October 2024.
“It’s a soap opera that takes a lot of affective memory: the lambada, the humor, Dona Armenia saying ‘na chon’, the couple Gaius (Antônio Fagundes, in his only comic role in soap operas) and Adriana (Cláudia Raia), shouting ‘scrap’ or Laurinha Figueroa throwing himself from the top of the building and saying: ‘Your life ends now, ordinary scrap dealer!’. These are such iconic and important scenes for Brazilian TV that they go beyond generations”, the duo celebrates.
They now saw the rerun of “” (which had already been shown in 1994). “It was really nice to revisit. Silvio de Abreu has a huge affection for São Paulo, and this comes across a lot in the soap opera, it’s incredible to recognize different parts of the city. Some places are still very similar, like Cetenco and the Memorial da América Latina, but the street and traffic scenes are a real journey back in time. The architecture, the cars, the clothes and the hairstyles take us straight to that time”, says Diogo.
Compare the building in “Queen of Scrap” and currently:
Remember Dona Armenia’s catchphrase:
See what the “Queen of Scrap” building looks like in 2026:
Remember Laurinha Figueroa throwing herself from the top of the building in “Queen of Scrap”:
