M Marco Aurelio looks back at his Capoeira Angola roots

M Marco Aurelio shared this story with "Caxixi" magazine, which was published during the 2002 conference in Washington, DC:

I started training capoeira when I was thirteen years old and I met Mestre Moraes in a capoeira roda in the academy of Mestre Indio in the Flamengo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro… Moraes gave classes at the House of the Sailor in Rio de Janeiro and I though it was strange the way this Angoleiro played because I had never seen anything similar. After some time, I started to train with Mestre Moraes in the Gurilândia club in the Botanical Garden neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was then that I met Braga, José Carlos, Neco, and Lumumba, who trained there. In 1975, myself, Braga, Neco, Lu, Peçanha, and others went to Salvador, Bahia, staying at the house of the parents of Moraes in the Baixa do Petróleo, Massaranduba neighborhood. We met Mestre Pastinha, who by then was already blind and quite old. In this opportunity, there is an interesting story: Moraes had written a ladainha in honor of Mestre Pastinha and we organized a bateria with berimbaus so that could sing it. He stayed on the gunga, and after finishing the music, the Mestre asked:

-Pedrinho (Moraes), are you on the viola?

-No, Mestre, answered Moraes, it’s the boy that came with us (Marco Auelio)

Pastinha thought for a bit and said:

-Menino, you are not going to give up capoeira, no!

Following this trip, and the story, I was invited by Moraes to train capoeira, receiving the title of Mestre from him in the Copaleme Club, in the Leme neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro in 1982.

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