Latin America: Pilgrimage

Two centuries ago the vermilion hills north of Rio were black with men digging for gold. At the height of the California-size boom, the rich towns of Minas Geraes built resplendent churches, lavished fortunes on their adornment.

Near the hillside hamlet of Congonhas do Campo at that time lived the mulatto son of a Portuguese carpenter. Men called him Aleijadinho* (Little Cripple), and knew that he had a mysterious disease which had left him hideous, broken and bent. But disease could not cripple Aleijadinho's genius for building great and gorgeous baroque churches and...

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