José Mauro de Vasconcelos was born in Rio de Janeiro on February 26, 1920. His family was very poor, and when he was still very young, he migrated to Natal where relatives took care of him. Entering the Medical Faculty, José abandoned his studies in the second year and returned to Rio de Janeiro. There he worked as a boxing instructor and even as a painter's model. José initiated his literature career with the novel Banana Brava. His greatest success came with the novel Meu Pé de Laranja Lima (My Sweet Orange Tree), which tells about his own personal experiences and the shocks he suffered in his childhood with the abrupt changes of life. José was part Indian and part Portuguese and spent his childhood in Natal. When he was 9 years old, he learned to swim.