Mestre Traíra

João Ramos do Nascimento was born around 1925 in Cachoeira, in the Recôncavo Baiano. Before becoming one of the most elegant angoleiros of his generation, he carried a darker history: he had served eleven years and six months in prison for killing a man over a woman.

His first exposure to capoeira came in the rodas of Mestre Juvencio in nearby São Felix, where Mestre Ananias encountered him around 1938. The dock worker Juvencio held informal gatherings on the docks during festivals at Igreja de São Deus Menino and Senhor São Félix. There, alongside future luminaries like Ananias, young Traíra began his journey.

But it was after his release from prison, in 1947, that Traíra sought out Mestre Waldemar in Salvador during a roda held for Otávio Mangabeira's gubernatorial campaign. According to Waldemar: "Who made Traíra ready was me. He spent eleven years and six months in jail, he was an assassin. He killed a man because of a woman. When he got out he came to see me... He befriended me and said I should make him ready, so I did".

Waldemar transformed the ex-convict into a master. Traíra also learned from Severo do Pelourinho and became a regular presence at the legendary Barracão de Waldemar in Liberdade. He became so trusted that Waldemar delegated the management of the roda to him: "The deceased Traíra was who took care of the roda. I went there, gave my order and went to have a beer".

By 1945, even before completing his training with Waldemar, Jorge Amado had already noticed him. In "Bahia de Todos os Santos", Amado immortalized Traíra: "Um caboclo seco e de pouco falar, feito de músculos, um grande mestre de capoeira" (A dry caboclo of few words, made of muscles, a great capoeira master). Amado declared that "only Pastinha can compete with him in the beauty of movements, in agility, in the precision of strikes".

Traíra also maintained his own roda in the backyard of his house on Rua do Céu in the Liberdade neighborhood. His rodas were notorious for their intensity - Mestre Barba Branca, who began learning from him around 1970-1971, recalled them as "violent", with constant headbutts to the face and rasteiras. The roda took place on packed dirt, and chickens would cross through the middle while people played. Traíra taught only by invitation - a select group of adults and children.

In Waldeloir Rego's 1968 ethnographic study "Capoeira Angola: ensaio sócio-etnográfico", Traíra's school in Liberdade was mentioned alongside the major capoeira institutions of Salvador.

In 1954, Traíra appeared in the pioneering film "Vadiação" by Alexandre Robatto Filho, alongside Mestres Bimba, Waldemar, Caiçara, Curió, Nagé, and Crispim. The film captured him playing pandeiro and demonstrating movements for the camera. In 1960, he was filmed again in "Bahia, Capoeira na Praia" at Itapoã. Photographers Alice Brill (1953), Marcel Gautherot (mid-1950s), and Pierre Verger (c. 1955) all documented him at Waldemar's barracão.

The historic LP "Capoeira" (1962), released by Editora Xauã, featured Traíra alongside Mestres Cobrinha Verde and Gato Preto. The audio was recorded at Mestre Waldemar's hut, while photographs were taken at the Ramp of the Model Market. This record is considered one of the earliest musical documents of capoeira and remains a masterpiece.

Traíra died in Salvador around 1975, victim of liver cirrhosis. Though one of the least written about mestres—"we only hear about him in songs", as one researcher noted—his influence persisted through his student Mestre Barba Branca, who went on to found Grupo de Capoeira Angola Cabula (GCAC) in 1984. His lineage thus continues: Juvencio and Waldemar taught Traíra, who taught Barba Branca, who trained under João Pequeno for 15 years before becoming mestre in 1991.