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February 10, 1922. At noon, the Mestre of the União do Vegetal, José Gabriel da Costa was born in Coração de Maria, near Feira de Santana in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The son of Manuel Gabriel and Dona Prima Feliciana, he spent his youth with his parents and 13 brothers and sisters who speak of him as a simple person of remarkable moral character

As a young man, he moved to Salvador, Bahia to work. After four years in Salvador, he enlisted as a rubber soldier to collect latex in the Amazon Forest. Later, he moved to the "seringais", or forests where latex is extracted from rubber trees. Near the Bolivian border, he came into contact with Hoasca and drank the Vegetal for the first time. Still in the forest with Pequenina at his side, Mestre Gabriel re-created the União do Vegetal on July 22, 1961.

At the end of 1965, he returned to Porto Velho in search of better conditions to develop the religious society that he re-created, initially distributing vegetal in a small brick factory that he owned. When he began to conduct sessions of the Vegetal in his home, he was accompanied by several disciples who would eventually become the mestres responsible for the expansion of his doctrine throughout all of Brazil

With the UDV registered, the first núcleos established and a Cadre of Mestres and Body of Counselors prepared to transmit his doctrine, Mestre Gabriel disincarnated on the 24th of September 1971 in Brasilia, Brazil. The General Headquarters of the UDV was in Porto Velho until October 31, 1982, at which point the UDV's General Administration transferred it to Brasilia. Various deliberative departments and other necessary administrative structures were later created to guarantee the orderly expansion of the Center in conformity with the faithful fulfillment of the laws and doctrine of the Mestre of the União, José Gabriel da Costa.

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