Mestre Damião

Esdras Magalhães dos Santos, known as Mestre Damião or "Tenente Esdras", was a pioneering figure who helped bring Capoeira Regional from Bahia to southeastern Brazil. Born in Laranjeiras, Sergipe, he was the son of a teacher mother and a Protestant pastor father. At age six, his family moved to Itabuna, Bahia, where he was raised.

Around 1945, at the age of 16-17, young Esdras traveled to Salvador to pursue his education. There he discovered Mestre Bimba's academy and began training in Capoeira Regional Baiana near the end of 1945. He graduated as "formado" in 1947, receiving both a medal and diploma directly from Mestre Bimba.

Damião's professional life was multifaceted. He became a Lieutenant (Tenente) in the Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira), a licensed lawyer, and a dedicated writer on capoeira history. He married Maria Fernandes from the Italian colony of Guaratinguetá.

In 1949, Damião organized the historic first trip of Mestre Bimba and eight of his best students to São Paulo for capoeira demonstrations at the Pacaembu gymnasium. These exhibitions, which later extended to Rio de Janeiro, planted the seeds for Capoeira Regional's success in southeastern Brazil. The event was covered by newspapers including Folha de Sorocaba, which noted that Bimba's system contained "forty-five techniques, of which twenty-two are deadly".

In 1950, Damião returned to São Paulo to take a specialist sergeant course at Campo de Marte with the Aeronáutica. During this period (September 1950 to May 1951), he taught capoeira to approximately fifty students at Kid Jofre's academy—becoming very probably the first person to formally teach Capoeira Regional in a São Paulo academy.

Damião arrived in São José dos Campos in 1968. On May 16, 1971, he co-founded the Associação Desportiva e Cultural Capoeira Besouro Mangangá, the first capoeira academy in Vale do Paraíba, together with his son Esdras Filho (Mestre Esdras) and Everaldo Bispo de Souza (Mestre Lobão). The name "Besouro Mangangá" was chosen by Mestre Esdras after consulting both his father and Mestre Suassuna, chosen because Besouro Mangangá was also known as "Besouro Cordão de Ouro".

Damião documented nine essential life lessons learned from Mestre Bimba during their time together in São Paulo. These included: 1. Always maintain "maldade no corpo" (vigilance in one's body)—even in unexpected places 2. Practice the looseness of "molejo" and walk continuously in the ginga swing, which Bimba called the "jogo do mar" (game of the sea) 3. Train defensive reflexes through constant jumping and rolling drills 4. Exercise caution in unfamiliar places; avoid sitting with back to the street; never pass under trees at night 5. During confrontation, maintain positioning allowing both attack and defense 6. Respond calmly and politely, appearing docile while remaining mentally prepared 7. The capoeirista remains "patient, polite, even docile" and fights only in legitimate self-defense 8. Proper attire: loose pants, leather shoes, shirt, sport jacket, tie, and silk handkerchief 9. The straight razor (navalha) could be carried in special circumstances

Damião recounted Bimba's famous beach story illustrating how a capoeirista used cleverness against a larger aggressor, concluding with Bimba's declaration: "Capoeira isn't a martial art for the ring. It's a street fight".

As a historian and writer, Damião made crucial contributions to preserving capoeira's history. In 1996, he published "Conversando sobre a Capoeira..." (Talking About Capoeira), printed by Jac Gráfica e Editora Ltda. in São José dos Campos. In this work, he divided the history of Capoeira Regional into three phases: the Initial or Creation phase (1930-1937), the Consolidation phase (1938-1966), and the Propagation phase (1967-1973). He also wrote "A Verdadeira história da criação da luta regional Bahiana do Mestre Bimba" (The True History of the Creation of Mestre Bimba's Bahian Regional Fight), published in 2002.

According to Damião, it was around 1930 that Bimba met a medical student from Ceará named Cisnando, who was knowledgeable in jiu-jitsu, boxing, and Greco-Roman wrestling. From this relationship, Damião wrote, the first agreements for the creation of Luta Regional Bahiana began to emerge.

Mestre Damião is now deceased. His legacy lives on through the Associação Besouro Mangangá, which after over 50 years continues to develop capoeira in São José dos Campos, São Luiz do Paraitinga, Caçapava, and internationally in Portugal, Sweden, and Japan.