Mestre Atenilo

Altenisio dos Santos, known in the rodas as "Relâmpago" (Lightning) and popularly called Atenilo, was one of Mestre Bimba's oldest and most devoted students. Born on July 16, 1918, in Oliveira, a district of Santo Amaro da Purificação in Bahia's Recôncavo region, he began his capoeira journey in 1929 at age eleven and remained with Bimba for forty-five years until the master's death in 1974.

When Atenilo first started training with Bimba, it was not yet Capoeira Regional—it was Angola. He was present at the pivotal meeting at Bogum, at the end of the Engenho Velho da Federação bus line, where Bimba decided to transform Capoeira de Angola into Regional. He witnessed firsthand the transition that would reshape Brazilian martial arts history.

His nickname "Relâmpago" (Lightning) was given jokingly. Far from being the fastest player, Atenilo was known for his slow, deliberate, almost naive style of playing. One observer noted he "never modified his slow, sluggish, ingenuous way of practicing capoeira". This contrast between name and nature became his trademark.

Within Bimba's academy, Atenilo found his specialty at the pandeiro, becoming an integral part of the charanga—Bimba's signature musical ensemble consisting of one berimbau and two pandeiros. He is immortalized in capoeira song: "Atenilo no pandeiro, Gigante no berimbau, Grande Mestre Bimba, Homem genial" (Atenilo on pandeiro, Gigante on berimbau, Grand Mestre Bimba, Brilliant man).

Bimba considered Atenilo like a son. He became one of Bimba's most trusted companions, alongside figures like Brás "Amansa Brabo" and Crispim, Bimba's eldest son. According to Atenilo and Mestre Itapoan, Bimba sometimes instructed his students to hit and injure Pastinha's students in shared rodas—a revelation that adds nuance to the narrative of mutual respect between the two schools.

Atenilo provided invaluable testimony about early capoeira history. He recounted that Pastinha wanted Bimba to give lessons at his academy every Sunday and that Bimba would go to Sangradouro to teach at Pastinha's school on holidays. He also described how Waldemar, Pastinha, Aberrê, and Gigante used to play together at Bogum before Regional was formalized.

His oral histories became the foundation for Mestre Itapoan's book "Atenilo, o Relâmpago da Capoeira Regional" (Atenilo, the Lightning of Capoeira Regional), published in 1988 by the Núcleo de Recursos Didáticos da UFBA. This work preserved crucial testimony about the transition from Angola to Regional, about Besouro Mangangá's era, and about female capoeiristas like Maria Salomé.

Some sources claim Atenilo was the brother of Neco Canário Pardo and used the nickname "Cordão de Ouro". However, this claim is chronologically problematic: Neco Canário Pardo was born around 1880, placing nearly forty years between them. The name "Cordão de Ouro" is more commonly attributed to Besouro Mangangá himself. The truth of this family connection remains unverified.

Atenilo died in 1986, one of the last direct links to the founding generation of Capoeira Regional. His testimony ensures that the voices and experiences of those who witnessed capoeira's transformation from street practice to recognized cultural art form are not lost to history.