José Roberto Freitas left the bank of the São Francisco River 32 years ago and moved to Aracaju. Back in the small town of Carrapicho (SE) his family used to live off clay. His grandparents and parents were potters, and when he was 6 years old he was given his first potters wheel, so he could start learning the family profession. When he was about 9 years old his father suggested he could make dolls and animals because people came looking for them and they had nothing to offer. “Life wasn’t easy. I went through rough times, and started working because I had to. I worked hard and gave everything I earned to my father, who then paid me whatever he wanted to. When I was 28 years old, and already had a family, I decided to do my own things. I moved to Aracaju and my father-in-law helped me a lot. I carried on making sculptures. I always put something of the countryside into my pieces. I make baby Jesus with a gourd in his hands. I make the Virgin Mary holding flowers, and their faces are from the North East; the way we are.” The oversized feet have a simple explanation. “I used to make pieces on a thin base, that would sometimes crack or bend, and the piece would fall. One day I decided to make big feet and it worked. And then I became known as Beto Pezão (Big Foot).”