Mestre Bigodinho

Reinaldo Santana, known as Mestre Bigodinho, was born on September 13, 1933, in Conceição de Feira, Bahia. He grew up in Acupe, a district of Santo Amaro in the Recôncavo Baiano region, immersed in the rich cultural traditions of the area—an environment where capoeira, samba-de-roda, and candomblé wove together in daily life.

In 1950, at age seventeen, Bigodinho moved to Cabula in Salvador. There he encountered the legendary berimbau master Auvelino, who taught him the secrets of the instrument that would make him famous. That same year, he began learning capoeira with Mestre Waldemar Rodrigues da Paixão at the famous Barracão on Estrada da Liberdade.

For more than 25 years, Bigodinho frequented Mestre Waldemar's Barracão—a time when, according to him, "boys and women did not play". At the Barracão he mingled with famous capoeiristas including Traíra, Zacarias Boa Morte, and many others. He became one of the most respected practitioners there, absorbing the traditional Angola style that Waldemar taught informally under his straw-roofed shed.

By 1960, Bigodinho had become a professor of Capoeira Angola and established Grupo Resistência in the Lapinha neighborhood of Salvador. This was a crucial period marked by intense police repression of capoeira rodas. Despite the hostile environment, he persevered in teaching and preserving the tradition.

In 1968, Bigodinho was recognized as a mestre. He also participated in the Grupo Folclórico "Viva Bahia", coordinated by ethnomusicologist Emília Biancardi, which played an important role in spreading capoeira throughout Brazil and the world during a time when the art still faced social stigma.

The repression and discrimination of the era eventually took their toll. In the early 1970s, Bigodinho stepped away from capoeira, remaining absent from the community for nearly three decades. Then, in 1997, encouraged by his friend Mestre Lua Rasta, he returned to active participation in the capoeira world.

His comeback led to renewed recognition. In 2000, he recorded the CD "Capoeira Angola" with Mestre Boca Rica (another student of Pastinha), showcasing his talent as a singer and composer of both capoeira songs and samba-de-roda. In 2002, he appeared in a documentary by Paulo "Gabiru" Siqueira alongside Mestre Boca Rica.

In 2007, Mestre Lua Rasta organized the "Tributo a Mestre Bigodinho" in Acupe. The event transformed the streets of his childhood home into a festive celebration, with capoeiristas of all lineages honoring him. The tribute was recorded in a documentary directed by Gabriela Barreto, capturing Bigodinho's joy as he paraded through the streets being acclaimed by all present.

Researcher Frede Abreu noted that Mestre Bigodinho had great importance in the revitalization process of Capoeira Angola in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the depth of traditional knowledge he possessed from his decades at Waldemar's Barracão.

On April 5, 2011, Mestre Bigodinho died at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Santo Amaro—the same hospital where the legendary Besouro Mangangá had died in 1924. He was 77 years old. He is remembered as one of the greatest representatives of popular culture in Bahia, a guardian of the old traditions who bridged the era of repression to the modern capoeira revival.

As he once said about capoeira: "It is like a pharmacy: you have pain in your leg, in your muscle... so you do some capoeira jumping with the guys, when you come back you'll be fine". And on its nature: "Capoeira is personal defense and each person defends themselves as they can in the moment of necessity. Capoeira is not about bravery".