Master Pastinha (1889/1981) and Angola Capoeira

Pastinha said: "When I go into the circle, everybody finds that the old one is drunk and will be easy to knock him down. But nobody knocked down until today. And nobody will do it."
Vicente Ferreira Pastinha was born in 1889 and knew the capoeira at eight. He was initiated by an African black, that he called Uncle Benedict. Benedict saw Pastinha, a small and thin boy, to be smashed up every day by an older boy. He decided then to teach to him capoeira.
Pastinha lived a happy and modest childhood. He turned a sailor and a painter, teaching colleagues the fight. In 1941, he established Sportiv Center of Angola Capoeira, on Salvador, Bahia. Its pupils used as uniform black pants and yellow shirts, colors of the team from his heart on Bahia, the Ypiranga Soccer Club.
Pastinha worked a lot for Capoeira, representing Brazil in some countries, also in Africa. In April of 1981, he participated of the last Capoeira circle of his life. In a friday, 13 of November of 1981, Pastinha died, 92 years old, blinded, victim of a fatal cardiac arrest.
Pastinha´s work was important for the Angola Capoeira. It´s more similar capoeira way to that one that slaves practised: a fight of weak against strong, where wisdom is more than the force. "Jogo" or "Game" - as capoeira practitioners meeting is called - on Angola Capoeira is slower, more joker. Angola game is very efficient and also pretty to see, because it seems that capoeristas are having good talk with the body: well-homoured and alive.