VARGEM GRANDE, Oct 22 — The first time he ate his fill, Walter dos Santos was 25 years old and had long since watched siblings die of hunger in northeastern Brazil, where they grew up without electricity, education, or prospects.
He learned to read and write and finished high school at 32. Today, his daughter holds a doctorate in biotechnology and his son is an agronomist.
The 56-year-old, who lives in Maranhao state, credits one man: Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Dos Santos said Lula was the “father and the mother and the grandfather” of Quilombo Piqui da Rampa—a traditional Afro-Brazilian community descended from enslaved people.
