academy.^83 The influence of middle-class students on his teaching methods and the organization of his
academy are therefore undeniable. The question remains to what extent that also opened the door to the
‘adulteration’ of Bimba’s original intentions?
Bimba’s apparent success in promoting capoeira and his Regional style (in whatever order) was not
always well received by his fellow capoeira mestres. The history of his relation with the wider angoleiro
community is rather complicated. Apparently Bimba tried to convince other capoeira mestres to adopt his
innovations. He even held a meeting which famous angoleiros such as Pastinha and Waldemar attended.
But they declined his offer, preferring to stick to traditional capoeira.^84
Some mestres became envious of his success, feeling that he was betraying the genuine capoeira in order
to promote his own career. Some eventually challenged him to fight it out in a roda. One of these epic fights
involved Antonio Conceição Moraes, better known as Caiçara (1923–1997), a valenção famous for his brawls
in the red-light district of Salvador. When Caiçara’s football team Vasco became champion in 1952, he felt
confident enough to invade Bimba’s academy:
In this period he did not teach workers, he was only teaching upper class kids. That was when I
hallucinated myself [sic], I went from here...I invaded his academy on a Sunday of a formation
[ceremony]. I was very bold, I did not measure distance then.’ [Bimba’s son Crispim opened the
door.] ‘I said: Who is the owner of this academy? He said: It is my father, Bimba. I said: Tell him I
want to make a demonstration here. Bimba asked me: you are capoeirista? I said: My mestre taught me
a little bit. I took the berimbau and I sang: They told my wife that a capoeira had defeated me...[A
challenge song (cantiga de sotaque). Caiçara then started to play with Bimba]. He went down over
there, and he made it easy for me so I gave him two kicks in the middle of his students, and I received
two in return. He then passed his hand over his head and I did not understand. He ordered the toque to
be altered, the [new] toque was Cavalarice, that is, street fight; I made it easy, and he placed his foot
and broke my mouth, I do not deny it, to anybody.^85Yet despite animosities and rivalries, most angoleiros of Bimba’s generation held great respect for him,
acknowledging his fighting skills and his didactics. They often overestimated his financial situation or his
connections with the powerful. It is true that Bimba and his group toured around the most important cities
of Southeast Brazil during the 1950s and 1960s, and earned widespread public recognition. He also made
shows in Salvador. Yet Bimba was never very good at administering his income. Official recognition also
never went beyond occasional invitations to perform in return for a usually modest remuneration. Bimba
often complained that he did not receive regular support from the state. For that reason he decided in 1973
to accept an invitation by one of his students to move to Goiânia, to teach capoeira. His experience there
was however far below his expectations, and he died, disappointed and poor, from a stroke in 1974.^86 In
1978 his remains were transferred to Salvador, and only during the 1990s did Bimba receive further official
recognition. A square with his name and image was inaugurated in Amaralina, and in 1996 the Federal
University of Bahia conceded him a posthumous PhD honoris causa.
The meaning of regional style
Since its very inception Regional and its founder provoked passionate debate. Some praised Bimba’s
achievement to the point of considering him more important than any other capoeira mestre past or present.
Others, on the contrary, denounced his innovations as ‘adulteration’ of the genuine capoeira. Prominent
among these early critics was Edison Carneiro, who asserted emphatically that ‘the popular, folkloric
140 BIMBA AND ‘REGIONAL’ STYLE