IN THE MIDLE OF THE ROAD

Born on May 15, 1942, in Fernão Velho, then a district of Maceió, Alagoas, Zenóbio Pereira dos Santos is the eldest of six children, as his firstborn was stillborn. His biological parents, José Pereira dos Santos and Júlia Barbosa Pereira, left him at a young age to two sisters, who raised him alongside others they already had, as they were better off.

Born on October 23, 1949, in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Maria Darcy Ferreira, the youngest of six siblings (José, Francisco, Maria Aparecida, Zélia Maria, and Maria Dalva, plus an adoptive brother, José Carlos), to Manoel Hermínio Ferreira and Emília da Rocha Ferreira, quickly became her father's protects.