The following text is part of the documentary “Dr. Mestre João Pequeno de Pastinha: a trajetória do negro no Brasil através da Capoeira Angola” filmed beetwen january 25 and april 05 of 2007, in the brazilian cities of São Carlos – SP, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Salvador – BA and Uberlândia – MG (december 2003).
The text was written by Pedro Braga and Guimes Rodrigues Filho.
The English version was translated by Daniel Alves Cerqueira
Capoeira is a game, a fight, a dance of African culture origin, which presents de duality partners / adversaries who confront and complete each other, a festive memory of the freedom moments, the mother who, in an African way, cries the absence of their children, but keeps them present in her memory.
Capoeiristas (capoeira players) are the links between the Brazilian present and the African past in the solemn ceremony of the “roda” (circle) of Capoeira. The astute black warrior and player of life, betrayed by the destiny’s unpredictability and stabbed by other people’s indifference, elaborated for years what be one his main weapons against slavery and human indifference.
As a precious stone being carefully sculptured by a lapidary, Capoeira is the razor that injures the monarchist ideals with its resistance on the quilombos, an efficient headbutt, in the concepts of collective and social organization, the precise “rasteira” (sweep) in the imperial habits, the scream for freedom in the senzalas (slave huts), in the streets, in the alleys, in the tenement houses and “barracões”, transforming, changing the meaning and giving light and life to the voices of past which still echo on the healthy clubs and “rodas” throughout the world.
The capoeirista, while fighting, is a gentleman, an actual Doctor on cordiality, the best example of ethical posture of his community, not for being brave and fearless, but for being a combatant searching harmony, gentleness and friendship.
Master João Pequeno is all that and much more. He is the trace almost fair of the trajectory of black people in Brazil. With his serenity, patience and humility he is the living representation of the legitimate spirit of being capoeira in this eldery body, awarded by time; he is the root and the seeds of the traditions of African culture.
An almost gutsy man with pompous titles (“… I am a mason, a painter, and have two doctor titles …”) inherited from the African ancestry of fighting for freedom and from nowadays Afro-Brazilian fight for racial equality. Peace is the word of order instituted by Master João Pequeno on nowadays Angola Capoeira rodas. His fight resides in teaching with coherence to men, children and women to behave as legitimate capoeiristas, as agents of fellowship and courtesy.
Then, in December 2003, the history of Master João Pequeno de Pastinha consecrated him Doctor Honorary Degree, which he already was in the world of Capoeira Angola, from the Federal University of Uberlândia and Commentator of the Republic of Brazil.
Then, in 2007, traveling to São Carlos, a city in the interior of São Paulo state, we met again the Master “capoeirando”, sambaing, observing and reflecting; in Salvador – BA we have learned the history of whom initiated the learning of the praying of disappearing with his father, cousin of Besouro – who supposedly knew this praying - ; the history of whom changed the meaning of Fort Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, which today is the Fort of Capoeira; the history of one of the first inhabitants of Couto Farm in a revolutionary act of occupation; the history of whom carries in his name Pastinha, his Master; the history of whom dignified his Master Pastinha; the history of whom had his ancestors violently taken away from Africa – in the words of Gilbert Gil, Minister of Culture, in our visit to Rio de Janeiro – RJ – but knew how to conquer his place in society.
Thus, in this trajectory of the black people in Brazil, Capoeira left the pages of police reports in the XIX century for this documentary of XXI century about one of the most important lives of Afro-Brazilian culture.
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