There are mestres on all sides, and each one is a celebrity – not an instant celebrity, but one built over the course of decades of experience and dedication. Honored for their wisdom – which is expressed in movements, music, words, or in a simple gaze – the capoeira mestres now have their cultural mission officially recognized by the Brazilian government. 

The historic date is July 15, 2008. On this day, inside the Rio Branco Palace in Salvador, in a ritual that is much more formal than their irreverent rodas, dozens of mestres from all over Brazil will witness capoeira’s official registration as a Brazilian cultural inheritance by the National Institute of Artistic and Historical Heritage (IPHAN) 

The recognition was approved by a vote of the members of IPHAN’s Counsel of Cultural Heritage, in the presence of the interim Minister of Culture, Juca Ferreira, as well as the governor of Bahia, Jacques Wagner, and the president of IPHAN, Luiz Fernando de Almeida, among other officials. 

In the van that transported the mestres to the palace, Mestre Nestor Capoeira from Rio pondered this new facet of the art: its success outside of Brazil. Capoeira exists in more than 150 countries, on all continents. 

According to Mestre Nestor, capoeira’s popularity outside of Brazil is leading towards a change in the axis of capoeira (like what happened in the 1970s when the art spread from Salvador to Rio and São Paulo). In his opinion, the new centers of capoeira now include not only Brazil, but also the U.S. and Europe. “This is already happening, but it will take another ten years for people to notice that is has been going on. It is most apparent to those who live in Brazil but travel frequently to other countries and see capoeira’s growth,” he says. 

Mestre Russo goes one step further: for him, the current recognition of capoeira is linked to the fact that it is becoming widespread outside Brazil. “It is the same thing that happened with samba, which gained strength when it spread outside Brazil. The external recognition drives the recognition here in Brazil,” he says.

Mestre Russo himself was featured in the English newspaper The Times on July 5^th because of the film O Zelador (The Zealot), a film produced by the English about him and his traditional roda in Duque de Caxias, in Rio de Janeiro. “No one ever asks to see my documents outside of Brazil,” states the mestre, who travels to other countries at least twice per year, “doing the rounds.” 

Mestre Itapoan, from Bahia, says that nowadays the countries that do not have capoeira can be counted on one’s fingers. He is also proud of the fact that capoeira is teaching Portuguese to the rest of the world through the songs and the names of the movements. “And this has happened without any government support whatsoever,” he observes. He considers the official recognition of capoeira “of utmost importance” to guarantee its Brazilian identity. 

Mestre Camisa, a Bahian who settled in Rio, adds: “Today, capoeira is in the whole world, and it must be honored in our land. Capoeira gives an enormous cultural contribution to Brazil. It is never too late for recognition.” 

Mestre Mão Branca, from Minas Gerais, quotes Jesus Christ to explain the global expansion of capoeira: “My father’s house has many rooms.” And he adds: “Capoeira is like the air: it has to spread.” For him, the art conquers the world through its beauty, energy, and individuality. “Pastinha said that ‘each one is one’…Capoeira is feeling,” says Mão Branca. 

The dedication of women to the art is also worth highlighting. Because of their love for capoeira, many travel and twist themselves in knots to be able to work, care for the house and family, and still train. Mestre Janja, a professor of Education in the Federal University of Bahia, says: “To be a woman and a capoeirista is tiring. We have to kill one lion per day.” (Note: a euphemism meaning ‘to overcome a huge challenge every day’) 

Janja explains that the number of women who begin practicing capoeira is very large, but the number that continues in the art is very small. “The culture is one of a masculine universe, where the women have a subordinate role. But today we are building communities of female capoeiristas,” reveals the mestre of the Instituto N’zinga de Capoeira Angola. 

The seed of capoeira that spread throughout the world was sown by Mestre Bimba, who had socially well-connected students, such as doctors and businessmen. “Everyone said that they were never the same after their experience with Bimba,” says Cafuné, one of Bimba’s students. Smiling, he tells about a research project he is doing with the students of Mestre Bimba. From a list of 300, he has already contacted 150. “Bimba had an immense affection for us. He taught us with his eyes,” he remembers. 

During the party celebrating the recognition, held in the Teatro Castro Alves, the interim minister Juca Ferrira, accompanied by Mestre João Pequeno, says that the government’s hesitance to recognize capoeira is a holdover from slavery. For him, this decision was a form of reparation. “Capoeira without the mestres would be like a body without a soul,” he said in order to highlight the wisdom of the mestres. 

The initiative to formally recognize capoeira arose from IPHAN and from the Ministry of Culture. It is the result of an extensive research project conducted from 2006-2007 for the production of knowledge and documentation about this cultural inheritance. 

The documentation was produced by a multidisciplinary team of professionals from the Federal Universities of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco, under the supervision of IPHAN. The research was done in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife, which are the main cities considered as probable origin points of the art, and places where there were records of it. The entire findings were organized in a dossier and summarized in a press kit offered by IPHAN. With the inclusion of capoeira, there are now 14 official cultural patrimonies registered in Brazil.

Videos from July 15, 2008:

• Capoeira in the square
• Angola and Regional
• Capoeira for the elderly
• Capoeira for children