Valdebrando

Valdebrando was a capoeirista active in Itabuna, Bahia, in the early 1960s. He is known as the first capoeira teacher of young Luís Oliveira Rocha, who would later become Mestre Medicina, founder of Grupo Raça.

According to Grupo Raça's historical documentation, Medicina's introduction to capoeira began with Valdebrando before he entered the Academia de Major Dória, where Maneca Brandão taught capoeira Regional in the tradition of Mestre Bimba.

The context of capoeira in Itabuna during this period was one of marginalization. According to historian Cláudia Viana, who researched capoeira history in the Grapiúna region, capoeira was practiced in Itabuna already at the beginning of the 1950s with street capoeiristas: "They were the angoleiros who practiced the sport in the middle of the street, without a defined location. Also for this reason they were marginalized."

Valdebrando was likely one of these informal street practitioners who passed on the first seeds of capoeira to the young Medicina, before the art's formal institutionalization through academies brought it into respectable society.

No further biographical details—full name, dates, title, teachers, or other students—are documented in available sources.