Born in Portugal, but emigrated to Venezuela and raced under the Venezuelan nationality.
His move to a Spanish speaking country also led to the fact he is also listed in results as Juan Rezende (the Spanish version of João). In some results he is even listed as Rosendo Dos Santos instead of Resende do Santos.
In the early fifties he raced in South America in various cars, also taking part in the Carrera Panamericana in 1951 and 1952 driving a Studebaker and an Oldsmobile. As we reach the mid-fifties he also started to appear in Europe in minor races but he did race in the Mille Miglia 1956 in a Ferrari.
Also in 1956 he came into contact with works Gordini team. Apparently he left a good impression racing for Gordini in the GP Pescara. In any case it was enough to give him an opportunity to drive the Gordini 32 during practice for the Italian GP of 1956 at Monza. In fact he was faster than works drivers Manzon and Da Silva Ramos, but as the cars were already allocated to the works drivers he was not on the grid. It is said he was promissed a stint in one of the cars later in the race (sharing cars was still allowed in those days) but it never came to that as both cars had already retired from the race by lap 7. There were talks that he would be part of the works team for 1957, but it never materialised for reasons unknown and he faded away from the racing scene soon after.
