Reinilson Ferreira dos Santos, nicknamed Lico by his mother, was born in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, Brazil on May 12, 1966. He was born into a large family of 15 siblings, 1 sister and 14 brothers. Lico’s father, Jose Ferreira, worked for same employer for 50 years, loading trucks in front of the ocean port. He passed away before he was able to retire. Without fail, jose left work every day M-F at 7:00am and was home by 5:30pm; Saturdays he worked til noon.
His mother was also known as “Dona Mirinha do Candomble”. (Candomble is an afro-brazilian religion). Since their house was a “Terreiro de Candomble” (Candomble House), his family had many celebrations of ritual and dance with a specific rhythm for each purpose . Lico’s mother hosted hundreds of these celebrations, many of which lasted as long as 4 days. There was always much dance, drink, and praises during the rituals. Offerings of food and meat were made to the orixas (the saints of candomble). The drums played through the