Mestre Celso Pepe

Celso Pepe was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1949. His father, Hugo Pepe, had served as a soldier in the Brazilian Armed Forces during World War II, participating in the Battle of Monte Castelo in Tuscany, Italy.

Celso discovered capoeira in 1957 at just eight years old. He lived in a housing estate called IAPC (Instituto de Aposentadoria e Pensões dos Comerciários) in the Olaria district, where he was a neighbor to Djalma Bandeira. Every Sunday, he heard the rhythms of the capoeira orchestra coming from the IAPC Community Centre. One day, he escaped from home and went to the Centre, where he witnessed for the first time a capoeira class taught by Djalma Bandeira. When he asked to participate, Djalma refused, saying he was too young.

Undeterred, Celso joined forces with a friend of the same age, Luiz Garcia Filho (nicknamed Pelé), and his brother Walter Hugo Pepe. The three boys practiced capoeira movements on their own behind a building at the IAPC, for several months, trying to imitate all the movements they saw in Djalma's classes.

At the same time, Celso practiced judo, jiu-jitsu, and freestyle fighting at the Academia Guanabara. One day, a thin black man arrived at the academy, and the teacher Vinagre announced: "This guy is a capoeirista". It was Leopoldina. Celso insisted so persistently that he wanted capoeira classes that Leopoldina eventually agreed to give the boys training on a Sunday, under an almond tree in the patio of the Guanabara Academy. According to Celso, the first students of Leopoldina were those three boys: Hugo, Pelé, and himself.

Celso Pepe thus learned simultaneously from two different teachers who were both students of Artur Emídio. He took formal classes with Leopoldina while observing Djalma Bandeira's classes and rodas. As he later explained: "Everything I learned from looking at Djalma was the São Bento Grande game, and then I learned from Leopoldina the Angola game, São Bento Pequeno. I therefore learned two different styles at the same time".

When Celso began to improve in capoeira and was old enough, Djalma invited him to train at his academy and practice with a punching bag. From 1959-60 onwards, Leopoldina and Djalma Bandeira invited Celso to perform with them at various events. He performed many times with Djalma for TV Rio in the program of Carlos Imperial, and for other broadcasters such as TV Tupi in the weekly program "Em Guarda" with Contramestre Paulo Russo, a student of Djalma.

Celso participated in a caravan of fighting shows, the first "Feira da Providência" (a philanthropic market), and notably, the first samba school parade to feature capoeira. This historic performance took place in 1961 with Mestre Leopoldina, in the parade of the Mangueira Samba School with the theme "Remembrances of the Old Rio". This collaboration with Mangueira continued - in 1965, Celso accompanied Leopoldina to perform at the Cacique de Ramos, as recorded by the Diário de Notícias.

In 1961, Celso Pepe decided to follow his own path in capoeira. He was involved with the carnival group "Sai como Pode" based in Ramos, and began teaching his first capoeira classes there to a group of about twenty adolescents and children. He combined the styles of his two teachers and called his approach "Cariocan capoeira" - "a game that is low, high and in the middle, with flexibility, and respecting the origins".

Celso taught hundreds of students across many locations, traversing distinct geographic and social boundaries in Rio. He started teaching at Academia Líder in Duque de Caxias, then at the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school in Penha. He taught in Tijuca, Copacabana (at the Radar Sports Club and a Presbyterian Church), and in the Complexo do Alemão, a cluster of favelas near Ramos. In Penha, his students - including Mestre Touro - were known as the "hairy pupils of Pepe" (os alunos peludos de Pepe), while his middle-class students in Copacabana were called "Master Pepe's playboys". A 1962 photograph shows Mestres Celso and Valter Pepe at the Almir Ribeiro Academy in Tijuca.

He also founded Grupo Capoeira Cativeiro, which was later taken over by his student Mestre Touro in 1964.

Celso's teaching career was marked by challenges. He emphasizes that he started learning capoeira in difficult times when it was still heavily discriminated against. He recalls being insulted, spat upon, and even arrested just for hanging out in the street. His own father called him a vagrant for wanting to make a living from capoeira. In the Alemão Complex, he confronted a drug gang and had to leave. In Tijuca, he faced karate fighters who forced him to relocate. As he reflects: "I managed to get in trouble, because I did not shut myself up in one single space".

At age 28, Celso obtained his taxi driver's license and supported himself through this profession while continuing to teach capoeira. He taught until 2003, and was still living as of 2020, working as a taxi driver. His most notable student was Mestre Touro (Antônio Oliveira Bemvindo), who would go on to preserve the "Capoeira Angola de São Bento Grande" style and found Os Malandros de Mestre Touro, extending the Leopoldina lineage internationally.

The lineage through Celso Pepe represents the authentic carioca tradition: Prata Preta → Campanhão → Quinzinho → Leopoldina → Celso Pepe → Touro, connecting the nineteenth-century street capoeira of Rio to the contemporary global art form.