Dressed in an impeccable linen suit, always holding an umbrella, Pastinha became a popular and widely
respected figure in Salvador and beyond. Newspaper articles often reproduced some details of his everyday
life to make readers feel they shared the life of this popular character and icon of Brazilian folklore.
When he has nothing to do, he lingers at the door of the grocery store Cadete, on the Taboão [slope],
in front of the Pelourinho, discussing, remembering his exploits or those of his friends. The mestre
has the habit to ask, while talking,—have you read that? He talks with the same gestures than he plays
capoeira.^73This growing respect allowed him in return to build up some cultural capital which was greatly needed for
the establishment of the Angola style. During the 1960s Pastinha, looking back towards his achievements
could already claim that:
Now, capoeira Angola is practised by all social segments, and enjoys the protection and prestige of
the authorities for being one of the most authentic manifestations of national folklore.^74Once his school in Salvador was up and running, Pastinha—just like Bimba -sought to work towards the
diffusion of his style in other regions of Brazil. Since prize-fighting matches had not proved the right arena,
there was a need to open new channels for the expansion of capoeira Angola.
Fortunately for Bimba and Pastinha, at that time Bahia was being consecrated as a privileged marker of
national identity. Here Luso-Catholic roots stretched back to early colonial times. Meanwhile the more
recent migration of Germans, Italians, Japanese and Syrian-Lebanese had created more heterogeneous
cultural patterns in the South. Thus Brazilian culture seemed to be nowhere more genuine than in Bahia, and
for that reason the Vargas regime and its successors promoted Bahian popular culture as the authentic
expression of Brazilian-ness.
The wider rescue of popular culture as an expression of genuine national identity was already well under
its way at the time. It related rather to the left wing of the modernist movement, whereas the right wing
preferred to promote Luso-tropicalism or neo-colonial architecture. The whole period 1947–1964 was
characterized by an intense mobilization around these issues known as the ‘folkloric movement’. Although
the state-sponsored National Folklore Commission (Comissão Nacional de Folclore—CNFL) had been
created as early as 1947, official support became especially important during Vargas’ second term in office,
1951–1954. The CNFL encouraged the creation of regional commissions, organized Folklore Weeks and
five Congresses of Brazilian Folklore between 1951and 1963.^75 Key organizers within the CNFL were
Renato Almeida and Edison Carneiro, both of which had researched and promoted capoeira Angola.
The development of tourism ran parallel to this rediscovery of Brazilian popular culture. The mayor of
Salvador created a Department of Tourism in 1954 to support that growing sector of Bahian economy.^76
This department stimulated the creation of folklore groups for exhibitions. Since the idea was to give a general
idea of the variety of Bahian folklore, groups usually included demonstrations of candomblé dances,
capoeira and other popular games, such as maculêlê or puxada de rede. In 1955 the Bahian Folklore
Company Oxumaré travelled to São Paulo with six ‘daughters of saints’, two capoeiristas students of
Pastinha, other musicians, and the famous candomblé de Angola priest Joãozinho da Goméia. The group
not only represented the ‘pure, choreographed’ capoeira Angola, but also provoked a crisis in a local
umbanda group, criticized by Joãozinho for not being ‘authentic’ enough.^77
In that same year, Pastinha and Traira presided over a capoeira Angola performance at the Third National
Congress of Tourism, in Salvador.^78 Yet the first major trip organized by the Department of Tourism, and
PASTINHA AND ANGOLA STYLE 161