Paulo Gonçalves dos Santos was born in Taboão, a neighborhood located about twenty kilometers south of the city of
Cunha, in the
state of São Paulo,
Brazil. Regarding his exact date of birth, there are significant historical discrepancies. Some sources indicate the year 1899 (giving him a symbolic age range corresponding to the age of
Jesus Christ during his
crucifixion); however, the
Society of the Veterans of 1932 maintains the date 26 September 1897: the Sunday of his baptism under the public administration of the Parish of Our Lady of Conception (Mother Church of Cunha), as the oldest testimony of his newborn existence – resulting in an age older than 33. In
Brazilian law, ecclesiastical documents, such as baptismal or marriage certificates, issued before or during the transition to the mandatory
general civil registry (now RG) in 1888, possess public faith for the purpose of proving parentage and birth date in cases of absence of the RG or any other civil document. Dos Santos is descended from a family of peasant farmers who inhabited the Taboão hinterland, a neighborhood of Cunha located in the Indaiá zone (a fraction of the
Serra do Mar, bordering the highlands of
Bocaina), near the natural state line () with
Rio de Janeiro. His father's name was Virgínio Gonçalves dos Santos and his mother's name was Maria Joaquina de Jesus.