Mestre Cassarangongo

Antônio Elói dos Santos, known as Mestre Cassarangongo, was a capoeirista from the sugarcane plantation communities of the Recôncavo Baiano, the region considered the cradle of Bahian capoeira.

Cassarangongo worked at Engenho da Pindoba, a sugarcane mill located between the cities of Santo Amaro and Candeias. It was there that he met Elízio Maximiano Ferreira, who would later become the legendary Mestre Espinho Remoso. The two men worked together in the sugarcane fields (canavial), and after the day's labor was done, they would play capoeira together.

This pattern of capoeira practice among sugarcane workers was common in the pre-codification era. The mills and plantations of the Recôncavo served as informal training grounds where the art was transmitted outside of formal academy structures. Santo Amaro, in particular, produced many legendary capoeiristas including Besouro Mangangá and Cobrinha Verde.

Cassarangongo and Espinho Remoso later reunited in Salvador, where they became great friends. This connection places Cassarangongo within the network of Santo Amaro capoeiristas who helped preserve and transmit the art during a period when capoeira was still criminalized in Brazil.

A capoeirista named "Elói" is documented among the old practitioners who frequented Largo do Tanque in Salvador around 1938, alongside legendary figures such as Mestre Aberrê, Mestre Bimba, Mestre Pastinha, Besouro, Siri de Mangue, and others. If this is the same Antônio Elói dos Santos (Cassarangongo), it would place him among the most significant capoeiristas of his era.

His distinctive apelido "Cassarangongo" appears to derive from African linguistic roots, possibly from Banto languages such as Quimbundo, Quicongo, or Umbundo - languages that heavily influenced the vocabulary of Afro-Brazilian culture in Bahia. The exact meaning or origin of the name remains undocumented.