Biographical summary of: Doctor, Master Professor João Pereira dos Santos · Master João Pequeno de Pastinha (1917 – 2011)

Celebrated phrase from Mestre Pastinha: “João, I’m going to die, take care of this. Only the body dies, the spirit lives forever”.

João Pereira dos Santos was born December 27 of 1917 in Araci, a town north of Feira de Santana. Son of Maximiniano Pereira dos Santos and Maria Clemença de Jesus, João Pereira dos Santos spent a good part of his life in a rural area. Of African and Indian descent, and a relative of the famous Besouro Mangangá, a cousin of his father’s, João had from early on a courageous character. As a young man, João (unsuccessfully) tried to enlist in the army, because he heard that people were constantly trained there. His professional experiences began in the area of Queimadas, and later in Mata de São João where he worked as bullock-cart driver and first came in contact with capoeira through a smith named Juvêncio who told him stories about it. When he heard about this art that allowed one to fight without touching others, he said to himself: “Now that’s something for me”. When he was 25 years old, and when he was liberated by his parents to get on with his life, he moved to the city of Salvador in January 1943. Working as bricklayer, life again led him to Capoeira. Cândido, one of his colleagues, noted João’s interest in Capoeira and told him that he should meet the marketer Barbosa. Barbosa initiated João into Capoeira and later took him to the roda of Mestre Cobrinha Verde which took place under a tree in the neighbourhood of Chame-Chame. One day, at a roda in the Terreiro, came a man called Vicente Ferreira Pastinha saying he wanted to organize the city’s Capoeira, inviting everyone interested to come to the Bigode, an old soap factory. João went and became a student at that man’s academy, who was to become the famous school of the celebrated Mestre Pastinha. Shortly after he joined, João is promoted to Treinel, helping to teach everyone who came to the academy. In 1981, not long before his death, Mestre Pastinha, called João Pequeno and told him: “João, I’m going to die, take care of this. Only the body dies, the spirit lives forever”.

After Mestre Pastinha’s death, Mestre João Pequeno opens at the fort of Santo Antônio Além-do-Carmo his own academy: “Academia de João Pequeno de Pastinha – Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola”. For many years, he continued to teach there capoeira as it was taught to him by his Mestre, always insisting that: “As long as there is capoeira, the name of Mr. Pastinha will not disappear”.