José Maria Santos

José Maria dos Santos, descendent of slaves, was born in the first decade of the twenth century spent his childhood in slavery, and spent the early part of his live in São João Del Rei, Minas Gerais, Brazil, as a slave. He is well know in the city as a scrap iron dealer and as a cocada baiana (Brazilian sweet) seller. He has a lot of tales to tell. He took part a documentary about our region called Stories from Rio das Mortes, he still dreams of finding gold.