Mestre Joao Pequeno Officially on the Internet

Exciting news from Salvador regarding another great virtual resource that we all can access:

Dear Friends,

I would like to thank everyone the team of collaborators, visitors, partners, and friends for a big step we have made in the direction of dignity and the spread of information about capoeira.

I speak of a partnership between the great João Pequeno, through his granddaughter Nani, and Portal Capoeira.

This partnership consists of the creation and development of an official website for Mestre João Pequeno, maintained at no cost by Portal Capoeira and will be continued in partnership between Portal Capoeira and Nani.

This site was born in response to the need to dignify and give value to the old mestres and all of their knowledge and experience.

I invite you all to get to know the result of this partnership and visit the Official Site of Mestre João Pequeno.

And now, a bit from the site (translated):

On December 27, 1917, in the city of Araci in the interior of the state of Bahia, João Pereira do Santos was born to Maria Clemença de Jesus, a potter and descendant of native Indians and Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos, a cowboy on the Fazenda Vargem do Canto in the region of Queimadas.

When he was 15 years old (in 1933) he fled the droughts on foot, reaching Alagoinhas, going onto to Mata de São João where he would remain for ten years. He worked on a sugar cane plantation as a “cow caller”. He then met Juvêncio, who was an blacksmith and capoeirista, on the Fazenda São Pedro. This is how he discovered capoeira.

When he was 25 years old, he moved to Salvador, where he worked on a tram and in civil construction as a mason’s assistant. Eventually, he worked his way to become a master mason. It was in this line of work that he met Cândido, who introduced him to Mestre Barbosa, who was a porter in the Largo Dois de Julho. Barbosa led trainings along with a group of friends, and on the weekends he went to Cobrinha Verde’s roda in Chame-Chame.

João became a part of the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola which was a group of capoeiristas coordinated by Mestre Pastinha.

Read more on the site (in Portuguese) or just go and look at the pictures.

Thanks to Nani, Portal Capoeira, and Mestre for their great work.