MESTRE BIMBA "The Father of Modern Capoeira"

The son of Luiz Cândido Machado and Maria Martinha do Bonfim, Manuel dos Reis Machado known famously as Mestre Bimba (November 23rd, 1900 − February 15, 1974) was born at the "bairro do Engenho Velho" in Salvador, Bahia, Brasil.The nickname "Bimba" came up due to a bet between his mother and the midwife during his birth; his mother bet that he was going to be a girl and the midwife bet he would be a boy. After he was delivered, the midwife said... it’s a boy, look at his "bimba".

He started learning Capoeira when he was 12 years old, with a Navigation Captain called Bentinho, even though, in those days, Capoeira was still being persecuted by the authorities. He would later be known as one half of the legendary founding fathers of contemporary Capoeira. The other would be Mestre Pastinha, the father of Capoeira Angola.

At 18, Bimba felt that Capoeira had lost all its efficiency as a martial art and resistance, becoming a folkloric activity, reduced to nine movements. It was then that Bimba started to retrieve movements from the original Capoeira fights and added movements from another african fight called Batuque− a vicious grappling type of martial art that he learned from his father (of which his father was a champion), as well as introducing movements created by himself. This was the beginning of the development of Capoeira Regional.

After a performance at the palace of Bahia’s Governor, Mestre Bimba was finally successful inconvincing the authorities of the cultural value of Capoeira, thus ending the official ban in the 1930’s. Mestre Bimba founded the first Capoeira school in 1932, the Academia−escola de Capoeira Regional, at the Engenho de Brotas in Salvador, Bahia. Previously, Capoeira was only practiced and played on the streets. However, Capoeira was still heavily discriminated by upper class Brazilian society. In order to change the sly, stealthy and malicious reputation associated with Capoeira practitioners at that time, Bimba set new standards to the art.

His students had to wear a clean, white uniform, show proof of grade proficiency from school, show good posture and many other standards. As a result, doctors, lawyers, politicians, upper middle class people, and women (until then excluded) started to join his school, providing Bimba with better support. In 1936, Bimba challenged fighters of any martial art style to test his Regional style. Bimba won all four matches.

In 1937, he earned the state board of education certificate after he was invited to demonstrate Capoeira to the then President of Brazil. In 1942, Mestre Bimba opened his second school at the Terreiro de Jesus − rua das Laranjeiras; The school is still open today and supervised by his former student, "Vermelho". He also taught capoeira to the army and at the police academy. Unhappy with false promises and lack of support from local authorities in Bahia, he moved to Goiânia in 1973 by invitation from a former student. He died a year later, on February on February 15th, 1974 at the "Hospital das Clínicas de Goiânia" due to a stroke.