Mestre Valmir with Mestre Bigodinho at the FICA-Bahia space.One of the richest historical aspects of our archives is our complete collection of “O Angoleiro” back issues. “O Angoleiro” was a labor of love for Sylvia Robinson, who sat down every month to edit, layout, print, and send hundreds of copies of the newsletter to readers all over the world. Over the years, Sylvia took the opportunity to interview many mestres and students. Here is a bit from an interview with Mestre Valmir from the spring of 1999 conducted by Janiana, when he came to DC for three months:
I’ve been practicing capoeira since 1981 and was part of Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in Salvador until 1995. My mestres were João Grande, Moraes, and Cobra Mansa. I became Contramestre in 1990. While I was in GCAP, I always had a parallel job. Before, I used to be a metal worker. When I was training Capoeira I also had a job where I made instruments and did research about instruments of African origin. I worked for ten years in the instrument commission of GCAP and I was responsible for all the instruments in the group. I was also a teacher in the University of Feira de Santana where I taught capoeira for two years and worked on a project with musical instruments, teaching children to work with their hands. I was also a part of the social program, Projeto Axé. Projeto Axé and GCAP were partners; the project had the structure and GCAP had to do the work- it was Capoeira Angola… GCAP gave me a strong structure to be able to start my own work.
… The group started thinking about using this money for our own space. So we worked together with energy and concentration. The idea of having our own space started to become stronger. We looked for help from our spiritual father and he said that the group was strong and that it had roots. The word FICA means roots and we do not create roots in someone else’s house. We decided to get our own space… We put everything together and we now have a new space in Carlos Gomes, downtown Salvador since December of last year. So far, we just have capoeira Angola in the space, but we have some ideas and projects for the future.
Eight years later, FICA-Bahia maintains its space that now has a computer center, an archives, and is the place to purchase high-quality berimbau. It has done many projects with the city government in Salvador, and some of the best community organizations, including Ilê Aiyê, Projeto Axé, and GRUCOM.
