Mestre Patinho

Antônio José da Conceição Ramos, known as Mestre Patinho, was born on 14 September 1953 in São Luís, Maranhão, the youngest of ten siblings. He fell in love with capoeira early, first learning under Jessé Lobão — a Maranhão capoeirista also linked to Grupo Bantu and to Djalma Bandeira's circle in Rio de Janeiro — and then under Roberval Serejo, a Navy diver who had founded Grupo Bantu de Capoeira in 1959 and died in 1971 during construction of the Port of Itaqui. In the late 1960s he encountered Mestre Sapo (Anselmo Barnabé Rodrigues), a Bahian who had arrived in São Luís in 1966 as part of the Quarteto Aberrê led by Mestre Canjiquinha and who would remain in the city until his death in 1982. Sapo became Patinho's defining teacher. He deepened his practice through travel to Bahia, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo, while also earning a Physical Education degree from UFMA and training in judo, karate, jiu-jitsu, classical ballet, and Olympic gymnastics.

In 1985, Patinho founded the Escola de Capoeira Angola do Laborarte — Maranhão's first capoeira school — confronting head-on the stigma that framed capoeira as mere violence. In the late 1980s he created an open roda for capoeiristas from other groups, which persists to this day. In 1990, Mestre Canjiquinha publicly recognised Patinho as a master from his lineage. In 1992 he launched the Festival de Cânticos da Capoeira, which over five editions placed musicality at the heart of transmission. In 2000 the Ministry of Culture awarded him the title of Mestre Griô, and that same year he founded the Centro Cultural Mestre Patinho. The Iê Camará — Encontro de Capoeira Angola, hosted at Laborarte — drew masters including Canjiquinha, Paulo dos Anjos, Leopodina, Moraes, Nô, Augusto, Lua Rasta, Cobra Mansa, Jurandir, and historian Frede Abreu.

A 2013 DVD documentary, 'O novo no velho sem molestar raízes', documented his methodology; a UFMA undergraduate thesis (research period c. 2016–2018) analysed his musicality and transmission practices. Mestre Patinho died on 11 June 2017 in São Luís. He was buried at the Cemitério Parque da Saudade in the Vinhais district. He left an active lineage: six groups in São Luís, one in Brasília, and one in Porto Alegre.