Many only played capoeira in their free time, but some discovered that capoeira could also become a
means to supplement their income or even to earn their living. The first capoeira classes took place in some
martial arts venues, such as the boxing academy of Kid Jofre, father of the world champion in the two
lightest categories, Eder Jofre. A group of Bahians mestres who settled during the 1960s in São Paulo
constituted the core of the pioneers that implanted regular capoeira practice in the city: Suassuna, Brasília,
Joel, Gilvan, Paulo Limão, Silvestre, Ananias, and, during tbe 1970s, Airton Onça and Acordeon. Some had
been pupils of the famous angoleiros Canjiquinha (Brasília, Ananias) or Caiçara (Paulo Limão, Silvestre),
while others had gone through the Regional school of Bimba (Airton Moura, Acordeon).^30 Suassuna came
from Southern Bahia, where he had learned both Angola (with M.Sururu) and Regional from two of
Bimba’s students who were teaching in Itabuna.^31 He also had spent some time at Bimba’s academy in
Salvador before coming to São Paulo.^32 From Rio came Waldemar Paulista and Paulo Gomes. Gomes was
originally from Bahia but became a student of Artur Emídio whilst living in Rio. Initially, setting up a
regular capoeira academy in a city where many other martial arts attempted to woo students was no easy
business. M.Ousado, who learned capoeira in São Paulo during the 1970s, remembers: ‘These great mestres
suffered a lot. We kept hoping for visitors to come, and when one appeared, he was treated like God’.^33 By
1970 these mestres were teaching in nine academies distributed throughout the metropolis that, according to
its own slogan, could ‘not stop growing’.^34
The difficulties the Bahians faced in the industrial metropolis contributed towards taking the edge off the
conflicts between Regional and Angola that were dividing capoeiristas in Salvador. Their identity as
migrants—Northeasterners, especially Bahians were often discriminated in São Paulo—overruled earlier
divisions. As Letícia Reis has observed, all tried to recreate the atmosphere of their homeland Bahia in their
academies. The mestres gave their groups names such as Island of Itaparica, Viva Bahia, Mandinga Baiana,
Ladeira do Pelourinho, and Legends of Abaeté. They pinned pictures of Salvador and their Bahian mestres
on tbe walls of their academies.^35 M.Suassuna, formed by Regional and M.Brasília, a student of
Canjiquinha, joined efforts in the group ‘Cordão de Ouro’ (golden chain, a reference to the famous Besouro
Mangangá, see Chapter 4), which became one of the most successful capoeira associations in the country.
Suassuna recorded a series of capoeira LPs that tapped the emerging market and to the sound of which a
whole generation of capoeiristas throughout the country trained during the 1970s and 1980s. He also
provided assistance to many young Bahians who came to the metropolis—to the point that his house was
called the ‘Northeastern Consulate’.
In terms of style, the capoeira from São Paulo soon acquired its own characteristics. According to
M.Brasília, one of its most prominent representatives:
Neither the Angola nor the Regional succeeded [in São Paulo]. Some mestres played Angola (Limão,
Silvestre and I) and others Regional (Ayrton, Suassuna, and Paulo Gomes). The outcome was a
different capoeira, which is not one thing, nor the other. It became different.^36Soon a second generation of native mestres emerged: Dejamir Pinatti, who wholeheartedly changed from
karate to capoeira, Valdenor, Gladson, Zé Pereira, Tarzã and Corrisco.^37 They, and further migrants from
Southern Bahia such as M.Almir, Miguel and Kenura, started to teach and set up their own groups.
M.Gladson introduced capoeira at the University of São Paulo and during the 1970s the first academies
opened in the interior of the province.
As in Rio de Janeiro, capoeira started to make significant inroads into the young, educated middle class.
During the late 1960s, capoeira came to represent Brazilian authenticity for a whole generation of students
at the USP, at least those who sympathized with the left. Their icon Geraldo Vandré, author of the song that
174 CONTEMPORARY CAPOEIRA