Irineu

Irineu dos Santos holds a unique place in the history of capoeira in Rio de Janeiro as the very first student of Mestre Mário Buscapé. A native of Bahia, Irineu came to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1950s along with his brothers Zé Grande and Deraldo—all from the dos Santos family, but unrelated to their future teacher Mário dos Santos (Mário Buscapé) despite sharing the same surname.

The encounter that would help establish one of the four founding lineages of contemporary capoeira in Rio occurred at the Cavan company, which manufactured lamp posts for use throughout the city. Mário Buscapé worked there for many years after arriving from Bahia. It was at Cavan that Mário met Irineu and began teaching him "the first steps of capoeira."

Through Irineu, Mário quickly won other followers to practice capoeira, including Irineu's brothers Zé Grande and Deraldo. As historian André Lacé documented, these initial students formed the core group that would transform Rio's capoeira landscape. On January 6, 1953, they founded the Associação Cultural Bonfim, also known as "Capoeiras do Bonfim."

The group initially occupied a small space in the neighborhood of São Cristóvão. As Lacé wrote: "They didn't stay there for long, because the space became small due to the large number of students. They moved the academy to the neighborhood of Olaria, a spacious and pleasant place, and there they never stopped, training great capoeiristas."

While his brothers Zé Grande and Deraldo went on to become mestres and take over leadership of Grupo Bonfim when Mário returned to Bahia in 1969, the historical record is silent about Irineu's subsequent career. His brothers are mentioned in the testimony of their students—Mestre Gary (Mestre 22) and Mestre Soldado, among others—but Irineu does not appear in these later accounts. Whether he continued practicing capoeira, relocated, or simply preferred a quieter role in the group's development remains unknown.

What is certain is Irineu's foundational role: he was the bridge that connected Mário Buscapé to the dos Santos brothers, enabling the transmission of Bahian capoeira traditions to a new generation in Rio de Janeiro. Without Irineu's initial receptivity to Mário's teaching at Cavan, the Bonfim lineage—one of the four that historians credit with shaping contemporary capoeira in Rio—might never have emerged.