Roberto Satanás

Roberto Barreto Pereira, known as Roberto Satanás, was born on December 23, 1943, in Salvador, Bahia, to Alexandre Pereira and Dona Magnólia Barreto Pereira. He joined Mestre Pastinha's Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola (CECA) on September 20, 1960, becoming part of the academy's golden generation of students.

Within three years of enrollment, Roberto Satanás demonstrated sufficient mastery to receive his diploma from Mestre Pastinha on March 31, 1963. That same year, he began appearing in photographs documenting the academy's activities and performances.

In 1961, Roberto Satanás participated in the TV show "Grande Ginkana Kibon" in Rio de Janeiro alongside other Bahian capoeiristas, bringing Capoeira Angola to a national television audience. He appeared in photographs from the Folklore Congress in Belo Horizonte in 1964, and was featured in Pastinha's seminal 1965 book.

The pinnacle of Roberto Satanás's capoeira career came in April 1966, when he was selected as one of six capoeiristas to accompany Mestre Pastinha to the First World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal. The delegation included Mestres João Grande, Gildo Alfinete, Gato Preto, and Camafeu de Oxóssi. When the 77-year-old, nearly blind Pastinha struggled to climb the stairs at Piedade to obtain his passport, Roberto Satanás and Gildo Alfinete helped him climb the stairs.

At the Dakar festival, Pastinha was too frail to play. Instead, his students - Gato, Roberto, and Gildo - performed while Camafeu played the berimbau. Their presentation was met with tremendous applause from the African audience, representing a symbolic return of capoeira to its continental roots.

In 1969, Roberto Satanás was one of the singers on Mestre Pastinha's historic LP "Capoeira Angola - Mestre Pastinha e sua Academia", recorded live at Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador alongside Pastinha and Waldomiro Malvadeza.

Remarkably, shortly after the triumphant Dakar journey, Roberto Satanás left capoeira entirely. He pursued higher education, graduating in architecture, and later became a karate master. On September 24, 1970, he co-founded ARKA Empreendimentos Ltd., and by 2014 was serving as President of the Bidding Committee of DERBA (Bahia's Department of Transportation Infrastructure).

Roberto Satanás represents a fascinating figure in capoeira history - a highly skilled practitioner who participated in some of the art's most significant historical moments before choosing a different path in life.