Mestre Zé Maria

José Maria da Silva was born on the morning of December 20, 1948, in Rio de Janeiro, under the sign of Sagittarius. He took his first steps in the art of capoeiragem in 1962, at age thirteen or fourteen, in the Tijuca neighborhood where he lived. His first teacher was an old Bahian military man who did not call himself mestre but who, in his youth, had been an excellent capoeirista. Zé Maria trained with him intensively for two years, absorbing the techniques and fundamentals of the art.

In 1965, with the knowledge he had acquired, he began teaching voluntarily to neighbors and friends on Rua Marquês de Valença in Tijuca, where he developed his own teaching method. In 1966, he trained under two recognized masters of the era, Paulo Salmon and Euclides Paes, who taught him the famous secret of the "Pulo do Gato" (Cat's Leap). In 1967, he graduated as an instructor of the Grupo Capoeira da Guanabara.

When his masters discontinued training for work reasons, they authorized him to continue teaching in their place. He then decided to form his own group, naming it "Grupo de Capoeira do Império da Tijuca" on December 20, 1967, on Rua Conde de Bomfim. This made him the precursor of capoeira teaching in the Tijuca neighborhood, where today there are numerous capoeira groups.

Due to the group's growth and by popular acclaim, he was finally recognized as Mestre. The group became known as Associação Tijuca de Capoeira in 1969, and in 1972 as Grupo Zéma de Capoeira. Among his notable students were Floriano Franklin Canela (Mestre Canela), who would later found the first Italian capoeira school, and Rui Henrique, who became a five-time university capoeira champion and co-founded Grupo Irmãos Unidos das Nações Africanas (IUNA) in 1975.

After touring several countries presenting shows of samba, maculelê, frevo, and capoeira, Mestre Zé Maria arrived in Ecuador in August 1993 to found the memorable and historic Grupo Zema de Capoeira, making him the pioneer of capoeira in that country. At that time, it was the only capoeira group existing in Ecuador.

In 1996, after consolidating his work, he returned to his native country, leaving one of his most dedicated students, Marco Ayala (later Mestre Marcos), in charge of the school. Mestre Marcos did important work spreading capoeira in Ecuador and trained the generation of new teachers who are now leaders of the vast majority of capoeira groups in Ecuador.

In May 2013, Mestre Zé Maria, together with his master Mestre Paulinho Salmon, awarded the mestre cord (white cord) to Henry Vizcarra (Mestre Carvão) and Marco Herrera (Mestre Perninha), demonstrating the continuation of his lineage. The Centro do Mundo group, founded in 2011 by his students, became the first Ecuadorian capoeira group with international branches in the USA, Germany, and Spain.

Mestre Zé Maria died in 2016. His legacy lives on through his teaching philosophy, which he called "Estilo Zema" - the sublime essence of the art of Capoeiragem.