Prices fell. Five reis, three reis, two reis, one reis. Still nothing.
Then a deep voice rose at the back of the square:
“Seven cents. “
Joaquim Lacerda, the man who experiences something else
The voice belonged to Joaquim Lacerda, owner of the quinta de Santo António, an average coffee farm of 320 hectares, with around eighty forced laborers.
Joaquim was a little over fifty years old. His hair was graying, his beard was neat, his clothes simple but clean. He was neither one of the richest nor one of the most powerful. He was a man who survived on a land in debt, calculating every expense, every harvest, every possible loss.
The other buyers laughed. Seven cents for this woman they considered unusable. In their eyes, Joaquim was becoming senile.
