Sólon

Sólon Alves de Mendonça was born in 1920 in Cachoeira do Salodo, Pernambuco State. In 1928, with the help of Chico Presepeiro, he got to know and love the puppet theatre. Talented in his work with wood he began carving mamulengo puppets, whose coloured paper clothes are made by his wife Maria Dolores. He not only made mamulengo puppets for the theatre but also ventriloquists’ dolls or for decoration. His repertoire includes fantasy figures from chapbook [cordel] literature, folk plays and military parades. His creativity led him to compose music for the puppets. He died in 1987 in Carpina, Pernambuco State, respected as one of the virtuosos of the Brazilian mamulengo puppet theatre.