Messias Guimarães started his career in the Brazilian Air Force and moved to João Monlevade in 1952 to work as a receptionist and waiter in the company’s Casino, the favourite restaurant of the European employees, which also served as a hotel.

There, Messias got closer to the so-called gringos and discovered the different tensions within this privileged community.

Messias is a Belgostalgian who has never left Monlevade and lives with his wife in a neighbourhood which was once inhabited exclusively by Luxembourgers and other European families.