Mestre Mário Buscapé

Mário dos Santos, known as Mário Buscapé, was born on July 17, 1934, in a village near São Francisco do Conde in the Bahian Recôncavo. His mother, Maria dos Anjos dos Santos, was a shellfish gatherer, and his father, José Bidel dos Santos, was a crabber. Both his father and his uncle Dendê practiced capoeira and associated with famous capoeiristas of the Recôncavo—Siri de Mangue, Canário Pardo, and Besouro from Santo Amaro. According to Mário, Besouro even visited his house, though this would have been before Mário was born, as Besouro was killed in 1924.

At age eight, Mário began learning capoeira in improvised rodas in his family's backyard, with his uncle Dendê as his first teacher. His father José Bidel also trained him, establishing the lineage that ran from Besouro through Bidel and Dendê to Mário himself.

In the early 1950s, seeking better opportunities, Mário traveled to Rio de Janeiro with an aunt. He settled in the poor neighborhood of Jacarezinho and found work laying panels and covers on the railroad. Later, he worked for many years at the Cavan company, which manufactured lamp posts.

At Cavan, Mário met Irineu dos Santos and began teaching him the fundamentals of capoeira. Through Irineu, he quickly won other followers, including Irineu's brothers Zé Grande and Deraldo—all from the dos Santos family, also from Bahia but not related to Mário. On January 6, 1953, they founded the capoeira group Bonfim, also known as "Capoeiras do Bonfim".

The group initially occupied a small space in São Cristóvão but soon outgrew it due to the large number of students. They moved the academy to Olaria, where they trained many accomplished capoeiristas. Zé Grande stood out as their best disciple. The Bonfim group, led by Mário Buscapé, became famous in Rio de Janeiro for training high-level competitors who often won the competitions that began being organized in the city from the mid-1960s.

During this period, Mário frequented the roda of Mestre Artur Emídio, one of the few regular rodas in 1950s Rio. Witnesses from that era say Mário was very impressed with the speed of Artur Emídio's game and subsequently elevated his own performance.

In 1969, Mário returned to Bahia, and his students Zé Grande and Deraldo took over leadership of the Bonfim group in Rio. The group continued to flourish under their direction. It was only many years later, in 1994, that students of Bonfim brought the master back to Rio de Janeiro.

There is consensus among capoeira historians that four lineages were the main influences in the formation of Contemporary Capoeira in Rio de Janeiro: those of Artur Emídio, Paraná, Mário Buscapé, and Roque. As M. Levi stated, these four "started to work in closed spaces of academies, introduced uniforms, organisation, etc. From these four the majority of capoeira masters here in Rio de Janeiro derived".

Mário Buscapé also participated in the folkloric group Capoeiras do Bonfim, which performed shows and exhibitions in Rio. Mestre Roque, another of the four founding lineages, joined this folkloric group.

In 2016, Mário published his memoir, "A saga de uma lenda viva" (The Saga of a Living Legend), edited by Paulinho Salmon and published by Azougue in Rio de Janeiro.

At the time of a 2017 ceremony honoring his 83rd birthday in São Francisco do Conde, he was recognized as "the father of Capoeira in São Francisco do Conde" and the 13th "cordão de ouro" (gold cord) in Brazil—one of the highest honors in the capoeira community.

Mário Buscapé passed away on August 19, 2021, in his native São Francisco do Conde, Bahia. As one practitioner declared at his 2017 celebration: "Mestre Mário is the root of everything".