Better known as Chagas Batista, the popular poet, writer, and editor, Francisco das Chagas Batista, was born on May 5, 1882, at the Riacho Verde farm, Serra da Borborema, a town in Teixeira, Paraíba (Brazil), son of Luís de França Batista Ferreira and Cosma Felismina Batista.

Cristiano Coutinho Cordeiro was born on May 23, 1895, in Limoeiro, a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. He entered the Recife Faculty of Law in 1913, graduating in 1917 at the age of 22.