Laurentino

Laurentino Rosa dos Santos was born in 1937, in the village of Lancinha, in Rio Branco do Sul, Paraná. Son of country people, he began to work with wood at the age of eight, after the death of his father, who made baskets and also violins. Laurentino has worked as a gardener, but is known throughout the country and abroad because of his “wind signalers”, a wooden doll whose arms move in the manner of a rose-of-the-winds. “I invented this game about seven years ago. I wanted to make a plane, so I made wings and ended up putting it on the doll”, the artist once said. For a long time, he worked as popcorn man and his wind signalers were part of his cart.

The “Wind Signalers” or “mentavento” created by the artist charmed the public for no less than six decades. He needed a day to make each one, and he was often overwhelmed by the requests. Fans of the little man of wood spread the piece across the country and there are those who consider it one of the symbols of Paraná. A giant exemplary during two decades pontificated in the Alto da XV in Curitiba.