Domingos Magalhães

Domingos Magalhães (also referred to as Domingos de Magalhães) was a capoeirista of Salvador, Bahia, active during the early-to-mid 20th century. He belonged to the generation of traditional capoeira angola practitioners who gathered at the Liberdade/Gengibirra neighborhood in Salvador before the formalization of capoeira academies.

The primary documentation of Domingos Magalhães comes from two 1969 newspaper articles in A Tarde, reproduced at velhosmestres.com. One article commemorating the anniversary of Mestre Pastinha's academy described the informal Sunday gatherings at Gengibirra where "many capoeiristas got together on Sundays to play capoeira de Angola, not worrying about the styles of the fight or about the exhibition." They formed an "academia" (in the informal sense of a regular gathering), presided over by the civil guard Amorzinho.

Domingos Magalhães is listed among the mestres who participated in this gathering, alongside Antônio, Maré (Totonho de Maré), Daniel (Mestre Noronha), Livino Diogo, Alemão, Bulgário, Barbosa, Américo Ciência, Eulâmpio, Butique, and others. This places him among a notable generation of capoeira angola practitioners.

In a separate 1969 interview, when asked about capoeira leadership and federation organization, Mestre Pastinha specifically named Domingos de Magalhães among the capable mestres who could "make a good work": "There's Antonio de Maré, Levino Diogo, Noronha Daniel, Eulâmpio, Domingos de Magalhães, not me, I don't see any more, but these mestres could make a good work." This endorsement from Pastinha places Domingos Magalhães among the most respected capoeira angola mestres of his generation - those Pastinha considered capable of organizational leadership.

Notably, while Domingos Magalhães participated in the Liberdade roda, he was not among the 22 founding mestres of the Centro Nacional de Capoeira de Origem Angola listed in Mestre Noronha's manuscripts. Those founders included Noronha, Livino, Maré, Amorzinho, Raimundo ABR, Percílio, Geraldo Chapeleiro, Juvenal Engraxate, Geraldo Pé de Abelha, Zehi, Feliciano Bigode de Seda, Bonome, Henrique Cara Queimada, Onça Preta, Cimento, Algemiro Grande Olho de Pombo, Antonio Galindo, Antonio Boca de Porco, Candido Pequeno, Lúcio Pequeno, and Paquete do Cabula. This suggests Domingos Magalhães was a regular participant in the rodas and a respected mestre, but not an organizational founder of the formal centro in the 1920s.

In 1941, Mestre Pastinha was invited to witness the Sunday roda at Gengibirra by his former student Aberrê. The civil guard Amorzinho then handed leadership of the group to Pastinha, who founded the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola (CECA). What became of Domingos Magalhães after this transition is undocumented, though Pastinha's 1969 interview suggests he was still active or at least remembered as a capable leader at that time.