Mestre Esdras Filho

Esdras Magalhães Filho, known as Mestre Esdras, was born into capoeira. His father, Esdras Magalhães dos Santos (Mestre Damião), was a formado of Mestre Bimba who had organized Bimba's historic first trip to São Paulo in 1949 and was the first to formally teach Capoeira Regional in a São Paulo academy.

Esdras Filho began learning capoeira at age seven in 1960 in Brasília, where his father was stationed with the Brazilian Air Force. In those formative years, Mestre Damião taught his son at home on Sundays, passing down the techniques and philosophy he had learned directly from Mestre Bimba in Salvador.

As a young man, Esdras Filho traveled to São Paulo where he joined Cordão de Ouro under Mestre Suassuna. He became one of Suassuna's first generation of accomplished students—the "primeiros bambas"—alongside names like Lobão, Tarzan, Belisco, and Almir das Areias. This dual training—first from his father's Bimba lineage, then under Suassuna's Cordão de Ouro methodology—gave him a unique perspective bridging two important currents of Capoeira Regional.

In São Paulo, Esdras Filho met Everaldo Bispo de Souza (Lobão), a fellow Cordão de Ouro student who had graduated in 1970. When Esdras Filho and his father were preparing to open an academy in São José dos Campos in 1971, he invited Lobão to join them. This invitation would prove fateful for capoeira in the Vale do Paraíba region.

On May 16, 1971, the three men—Mestre Damião, Mestre Esdras (Esdras Filho), and Mestre Lobão—together founded the Associação Desportiva e Cultural Capoeira Besouro Mangangá, the first capoeira academy in Vale do Paraíba. When it came time to name the academy, Esdras Filho consulted both his father and Mestre Suassuna. They chose "Besouro Mangangá" in honor of the legendary capoeirista Manoel Henrique Pereira from Santo Amaro—a folk hero who was also known as "Besouro Cordão de Ouro."

The academy opened in São José dos Campos, with Esdras Filho and Lobão teaching classes while Mestre Damião used his connections and experience to help the organization grow. Together they formed the first capoeiristas in São José dos Campos and throughout the Vale do Paraíba.

Speaking at a 2025 ceremony honoring Mestre Lobão's contributions to São José dos Campos, Esdras Filho expressed the depth of their partnership: "O orgulho que sinto do mestre que considero um irmão e se tornou 'uma instituição'" (The pride I feel for the mestre whom I consider a brother and who has become 'an institution').

Today, the legacy of the three founders lives on through the Associação Besouro Mangangá, which continues to operate from its headquarters in Jardim São Dimas and maintains branches throughout Brazil and internationally.