Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

164 PASTINHA AND ANGOLA STYLE
correct insofar as the ritualized forms of capoeira were likely to disappear in the process of modernization
(we have seen this happen in the case of the functional capoeira taught by Burlamaqui and Sinhozinho). Yet
to what extent could the praxis of vadiação be perpetuated in its entirety if the social context changed?
Most contemporary angoleiros tend to assert that contemporary capoeira Angola is almost identical with
the Bahian vadiação of the 1920s. By insisting on the continuities, however, they tend to de-emphasize
Pastinha’s input. I have tried to show how important his personal contribution was. First of all he certainly
deserves credit for his attempts to organize an angoleiro community and to coordinate the response to the
changes introduced by Bimba and other modernizers. He was the main figure responsible for the
codification of contemporary vadiação, which resulted in the modern capoeira Angola style. In other words
Pastinha made a conscious choice of which elements within a much broader, and less formalized tradition
and practice were to be maintained. He established which instruments were part of the capoeira orchestra,
which songs, movements and types of games were acceptable. Inspired by Western models of sport and and
Eastern examples of martial arts, he—just like M.Bimba—moved training and rodas away from the street,
instituted the academia, created uniforms, started to teach women and presented capoeira to new audiences.
These were important innovations, even if M.Pastinha undoubtedly remained much closer to existing
traditions than Bimba.
The relationship between both is shrouded in mystery. When did they first meet? According to some
sources they did on several occasions, but never talked about capoeira. Attempts by the press to organize a
meeting never materialized. Pastinha reported how both met at the Abaeté lagoon in Salvador, in 1957, for a
demonstration. 89 They also attended a capoeira event organized by M.Vermelho and Zoião at the Antônio
Balbino secondary school. 90 In comments to the press, they criticized each other’s style, but never indulged
in personal attacks. On the contrary, both Bimba and Pastinha professed respect for each other. 91 Yet when
the excellent berimbau player Gigante started to perform for Bimba, Pastinha did not want him at CECA
any longer. 92
A number of more or less fantasized accounts circulate regarding the encounters between Bimba and
Pastinha. According to one version Pastinha told a journalist two police officers once tried to arrest
M.Bimba. Bimba declared he could not see any man to take him away and knocked them down. Pastinha
arrived and said: ‘Leave the boys, Bimba’. Only then did the policemen realize whom they had been trying
to arrest. They all ended up at the police station, where the officer in command released Bimba—he had
been his student. 93
Even though other figures contributed significantly to establish Regional and Angola, the emergence of
both styles cannot be dissociated from these two giants. A brief comparison between the character and the
contribution of the two mestres can help us to understand the particularities of both styles.
A common view asserts that Bimba ‘whitened’ whereas Pastinha ‘re-africanized’ capoeira. In fact Bimba
was certainly the more ‘African’ of both. Being, in contrast to Pastinha, a practitioner of candomblé, batuque
and samba de roda, Bimba at least was more rooted in Afro-Bahian culture. Precisely for that reason he
never needed to make a point in that respect. Capoeira for him was part of that broader tradition. Bimba was
above all a fighter and in search of fighting efficiency made the changes he thought necessary for the
survival of capoeira as a combat technique, just as Africans before him had adopted European weapons if they
thought they were useful. He had not ‘betrayed his roots’; he only thought that in the case of combat,
fighting efficiency was paramount, and ruled over the preservation of rituals in capoeira.
Pastinha, in contrast, was more of an intellectual moralizer and a mystic. Even if we do not know what
role his Spanish background played in his upbringing, he clearly was closer to a Western cultural tradition.
Capoeira for him was located at the core of his mystic approach to life. Bimba, the candomblé practitioner,
whilst expecting his orixáas to protect him in the roda, did not need capoeira to provide that kind of spiritual