Who was Mestre Pastinha?

Mestre Pastinha’s Introduction to Capoeira

Every one of us discovers Capoeira in a different way, and Mestre Pastinha’s is one of our favourite stories.

When he was just a little boy, one of the bigger kids in the neighbourhood used to make his life a misery. Pretty much everyday when they crossed paths in the street, he’d start pushing the much smaller Vincente around and bullying him.

One day, after the young Pastinha received a particularly bad beating, and was left crying in the street. An older African neighbour saw what had happened from his window. He offered to teach the Pastinha Capoeira in order that he could learn to defend himself.

Some time later, the two boys met each other in the street again. This time however, things didn’t turn out as the neighbourhood bully expected, as Pastinha stood up for himself and won the fight. Here comes our favourite part of the story though – Pastinha not only won the fight, he also gained the respect of the other boy and they ended up being friends!

Quando eu tinha uns dez anos – eu era franzininho – um outro menino mais taludo do que eu tornou-se meu rival. Era só eu sair para a rua – ir na venda fazer compra, por exemplo – e a gente se pegava em briga. Só sei que acabava apanhando dele, sempre. Então eu ia chorar escondido de vergonha e de tristeza.

Um dia, da janela de sua casa, um velho africano assistiu a uma briga da gente. Vem cá, meu filho, ele me disse, vendo que eu chorava de raiva depois de apanhar. Você não pode com ele, sabe, porque ele é maior e tem mais idade. O tempo que você perde empinando raia vem aqui no meu cazuá que vou lhe ensinar coisa de muita valia. Foi isso que o velho me disse e eu fui.

Mestre Pastinha

This elderly African neighbour was Mestre Benedito. When Pastinha met him he was just 10 years old and called him “Tio Benito” (Uncle Benito). It was he that taught Mestre Pastinha Capoeira in his house in the Rua das Laranjeiras in the neighbourhood of Pelourinho.

Thanks to this chance encounter with his elderly neighbour, Pastinha found the passion of his life. Who’d have thought that this small boy, victim of bullying left crying in the street, would end up becoming one of the most famous and influential Capoeiristas in history!

At 12 years of age, his father enrolled him in the Escuela de Aprendiz de Marineros (School for Sailors), after which he was enlisted in the navy until he was 20. It was here where he first gained experience teaching Capoeira, showing what he’d learned to his fellow sailors.

Mestre Pastinha had a very varied life, with many different jobs and activities:

• 8 Years in the Navy
• Played football and eventually got to train with his favourite team, Ypiranga
• Shined shoes
• Sold newspapers
• Practiced fencing
• Helped build the port in Salvador
• Worked as a tailor
• Worked security at a casino/betting shop
• Most importantly (for us at least!): Founded the Centro Deportivo de Capoeira Angola

One day, a student of Mestre Pastinha took him to a roda in the Ladeira da Pedra, in the neighbourhood of Gingibirra de Salvador.

This was a roda just of Mestres, and it was a life changing experience for Pastinha. At the end of the roda, Mestre Amorzinho came up to Pastinha and asked him if he’d be interested in taking over control of his academy of Capoeira Angola.

Na roda só tinha mestre. O mais mestre dos mestres era Amorzinho, um guarda civil. No apertar da mão me ofereceu tomar conta de uma academia. Eu dei uma negativa, mas os mestres todos insistiram. Confirmavam que eu era o melhor para dirigir a Academia e conservar pelo tempo a Capoeira de Angola.

Mestre Pastinha

In 1941, Mestre Pastinha opened his own academy, the Centro Esportivo da Capoeira Angola at 19 de Largo do Pelourinho.

At this point in time, uniforms were not the standard in Capoeira, everyone would just wear whatever they felt like. White clothing was traditional for rodas (as with many afro-brazilian manifestations), but aside from this there were no rules – with or without shirt or shoes, long trousers or shorts, anything went.

When he opened his academy, Pastinha decided to professionalise the image of Capoeira by introducing a uniform. He picked the colours yellow and black – why? They were the colours of his favourite football team, Ypiranga! Yellow and black are still the colours used to this day by many groups of Angola.

In 1965 he published the book Capoeira Angola in which he outlined his training methods, and also his vision of Capoeira as more than just a martial art – a philosophy of life and culture.

In 1966 he was part of the Brazilian committee in the Festival Mundial de Arte Negra in Senegal. He took with him other great mestres such as Mestre João Grande, Mestre Gato, Mestre Gildo Alfinete, Mestre Roberto Satanás e Camafeu de Oxossi.

Mestre Pastinha was a great advocate of the practice of Capoeira with joy and respect. His presentation in Dakar was one of the most popular of the event, met with much applause and furore from the public.

As the years passed, his academy kept gaining in reputation, and the best Capoeiristas from all over Brazil would travel to Pelourinho to train with him.

He formed a great friendship with the author Jorge Amado, and received a mention in the album Transa de Caetano Veloso,

Sadly, in 1973 things took a turn for the worse for Mestre Pastinha, setting in motion a chain of events that would put an end to his days of teaching Capoeira.

The government evicted Mestre Pastinha from the academy in which he gave his classes, supposedly temporarily under the pretence of doing some refurbishments. The academy was never returned to the Mestre however, instead being turned into a restaurant. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Mestre Pastinha also lost most of his equipment and musical instruments which had been left inside when he was thrown out.

At 84 years old with no source of livelihood, he went to live with his second wife Maria Romélia in a tiny flat in Pelourinho where they lived off the meagre earnings she made from selling acarajé.

Poverty took its toll on the Mestre’s health, and after two bad falls he ended up blind and practically immobile.

Mestre Pastinha’s passion for Capoeira never died – he played in his final roda in April of 1981. Sadly, he died alone later the same year on the 13th November of a heart attack.