Bigode de Seda

Bigode de Seda ("Silk Mustache") was one of the legendary capoeiristas of Bahia's golden era. In a 1967 interview with Revista Realidade, Mestre Pastinha remembered him among the great capoeiristas of the past: "Bigode de Seda, Américo Ciência, Bugalho, Amorzinho, Zé Bom Pé, Chico Três Pedaços, Tibirici da Folha Grossa, Doze Homens, Inimigo Sem Tripa, Zé do U, Vitorino Braço Torto, Zé do Saco, Bené do Correio, Sete Mortes, Chico Me Dá". Pastinha noted that "pelo apelido dá para saber como eram, como lutavam" (from the nicknames alone you can know who they were, how they fought).

Bigode de Seda was one of the 22 founding mestres of the Centro Nacional de Capoeira de Origem Angola, the historic gathering at Ladeira de Pedra in the Gengibirra area of Salvador's Liberdade neighborhood. This center, established in the 1920s during the era when capoeira was still criminalized in Brazil, served as the primary meeting place for traditional capoeira angola practitioners.

Mestre Noronha, who documented the history of Gengibirra in his manuscripts (later published as "O ABC da Capoeira Angola" in 1993), listed him among the founding mestres attracted to the first organized Capoeira Centre. The center, led by four "donos e proprietários" (Noronha, Livino, Totonho de Maré, and Amorzinho), used the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag as their symbolic colors.

Bigode de Seda was present at the historic gathering when, on February 23, 1941, Mestre Aberrê introduced Mestre Pastinha to the roda at Gengibirra, leading to Pastinha's assumption of leadership and the eventual transformation into CECA (Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola). By 1967, Pastinha confirmed that Bigode de Seda, like all of that legendary generation, had passed away.