Laurentino Rosa dos Santos has been retired for 3 years. He stills works as a gardener, but is known all over the country and abroad because of his “wind signallers”. He was born in 1937 in the village of Lancinha, in Rio Branco do Sul (PR) and went to Curitiba looking for better conditions to raise his family. “I came up with this toy when I was about 7 years old. I wanted to make an aeroplane, so I made wings and ended up attaching them to a doll.” He also makes animals and always talks about his invention featuring 4 chickens that bob as they peck corn. For a long time he worked as a popcorn seller and the signallers were part of his stand. “I ended up selling them as well. I enjoyed making soldiers, bandits, football players, Indians, birds.” Legend has it that when he used to sell popcorn in front of the Jewish cemetery in Santa Cândida, the neighbourhood where he still lives, Laurentino fell in love with the star of David, which can be seen decorating his dolls. “I make what I see and a lot of people like it.”
His son Francisco was also born in Rio Branco do Sul, in 1967, and carries on his work. Family arguments mean they don’t always work together. “I had to learn to make everything by myself. He didn’t teach me. I know my father has been working with this for over 30 years. When I was 12 years old I already used to go to the market alone. My sister also makes puppets. But the signallers are now my thing. I make them tiny and huge, over 2 metres tall. My pieces are all over the world, like my father’s, but it’s still hard to make a living.” He says they use wood that doesn’t split, which they find in the area or buy from sawmills. “Quiri wood dries quickly and grows fast. But now they’ve been planting a lot of eucalyptus and the quiri tree is dying out. One day it will vanish. We only cut dry wood. There’s cork, and before there was cedar. And so we carry on.” |
