Professor Pernalonga The outskirts of Sao Paulo and how this is related to Capoeira and Samba
Professor Pernalonga Marcio Lourenco de Araujo – Professor Pernalonga

His father a Baiano (person from Bahia) and his mother from the interior of Sao Paulo, Marcio Lourenco de Araujo was born a son of a tradition-conscious family and grew up in Taboao da Serra in the Zona Sul of Sao Paulo.

Taboao da Serra, at the periphery of Sao Paulo, is known as “the dark side of Sao Paulo”. Its inhabitants are mostly Black or descendants from Black People and belong to the most discriminated persons. Crime, violence and poverty reign in the periphery. For the majority of its inhabitants, there hardly exists a chance to get a good education, learn a profession or to study. The afro-brazilian culture is widespread in the periphery, especially in terms of music, and it offers to many inhabitants a possibility to set up a business.

At the age of 9, Marcio Lourenco de Araujo made first contact with Capoeiragem (anything which has to do with Capoeira) and soon he encountered the group of Mestre Baixinho and Contra Mestre Marrom. Through Capoeira, Pernalonga grew up in a steady contact with the afro-brazilian culture and was actively engaged in different fields of it. Besides Capoeira, music played an important role in his life, as it did (and continues to do so) for his whole family. Many of his relatives are actively playing music, f.e. his brother Beto, who is a well-known musician in a Samba group of Taboao da Serra. In consequence of these contacts with different musicians, he learnt to play different percussion instruments and to interpret different rhythms and styles, such as Reggae, Rap, Samba, etc.

This way, Pernalonga grew up in the streets of the periphery, always accompagnied by Capoeira, his music and a dream.
His story within Capoeira began in a garage at Contra Mestre Marrom´s house where he started to learn the art of Capoeira. He experienced all stages of change, saw students come and go, and over time he became the “right hand” of Contra Mestre Marrom. This was not only due to his qualities as a Capoeirista (the person who practices Capoeira), but also due to the friendship, respect and comradeship between him and Contra Mestre Marrom. By way of all the time spent together, observing and learning from Contra Mestre Marrom and Mestre Baixinho, a strong and intense relationship developed which carries on until today.

Even before Pernalonga began his own work with Capoeira, every active Capoeirista in Sao Paulo knew Professor Pernalonga, trained by Contra Mestre Marrom. He gave his own classes first in the garage of his parents´ house. Later the group moved into a community center which was allocated in a well-known shopping area of Taboao da Serra, and after a while he started teaching in many different places of his group.

Because of his presence at the most important rodas and events in different cities and states of Brazil, and because of his open-minded way which always has helped him to get into contact with other people and to start new friendships, by and by he gained respect and recognition in the world of Capoeira, also from famous and glorious Mestres.

In January of 2001 he was invited to begin a work with Capoeira in Germany, in the town of Bremen. While his work in Bremen starts to bring first results, his work in Brazil is being continued by his oldest students, which are Treneis (a certain graduation) today. His students are among the most active persons at the various places of cultural work in Taboao da Serra. In this way they take part in an on-going exchange between the different divisions of afro-brazilian culture and thus get a chance to evolve and educate themselves.
With his work of Capoeira here in Germany, Professor Pernalonga represents the afro-brazilian culture and the culture of the periphery and mediates a cultural exchange. – It seems only short time ago that he was a small boy, running after a leather ball on the dirt roads of the periphery, but already with a dream in his mind…

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The purpose of this text is understanding how the outskirts of the city of Sao Paulo (SP) are formed/built and how this is related to Capoeira and Samba. A historical jib will be made by analysing the relation between working and the cultural manifestations of the underprivileged as a reaction to the daily exploration.

The urbanization process is linked to the industrialization and consequently to the formation of unnamed zones in the periphery. The peripheries of cities like S.P (which is the main pole of Brazil) are geographically as well as socially, considered as underprivileged zones, or regions. Considering specifically the formation of the peripheries of SP and at first ignoring the history of each region, we will pass through the history of the industrialization of SP:

Before 1960 SP was basically formed by immigrant workers e.g. Italians, Japanese, Germans, Spaniards and Portuguese. These had come to work in the coffee export business and the industry and in 1930’s and -40’s entered in these sectors. Searching for a better life and a possiability to climb up the social ladder these people helped to shape the population of the city of SP.

From the 60’s and 70’s on alot of workers coming from the northeastern part of Brazil arrived in SP. These people are the main part of a lower ‘informal’ economy sector, e.g: civil contruction, mechanics, domestic servants and more.These workers searched for a place to live in areas finacially accessible and in areas where land was there to take it. This is the case of Taboao da Serra, a township of the state of SP, founded in 1968 mainly by migrants from the northeast. It was amongst these people that capoeira appeared in SP., brought by them from their regions. The capoeira that was established here has historical peculiarities thanks to the practical union of two diverse movements that are considered as different styles: the capoeira Regional of Mestre Bimba and the capoeira Angola, considered to be from Mestre Pastinha. This occured in the govorning period of Getulio Vargas in the 30’s. None the less the exitence of capoeira in Brazil can be traced back to the compulsive abuse of slave work, its duration and mutation through time.

The municip of Taboao da Serra includes an enormous cultural diversity, consisting in a strong resistance to the way of life imposed by the industrial society of SP. A society where the indiviual, working discipline and the status impede and force the mayority tho lead a burguese way of life. Those who do not adapt themselves, can only live a life ‘the other way around’, which in capoeira one would call: ‘seeing the world whith ones legs streched into the air’.What remains is constructing another survival-logic: the cooperation. The neighborhood transforms into a community and the capoeira into a group organized and based on solidarity. The capoeira group Irmaos Guerreiros, whos most important representitives are Mestre Baixinho, Contra-Mestre Marrom an Professor Pernalonga, is an example of the capoeira in the peripheries. The group, which existes since 1983, works since 92 specifically based on the capoeira angola.Based, because capoeira angola gets transformed into into historical roots to make the group grow. And of course samba, as who wants to know a samba de roda of a informal tradition must know the group. Today Professor Pernalonga not only works in the outskirts of Sp but also in Bremen, Germany.

Capoeira aswell as samba are cultural manifestations developed as a code of unity by those excluded from history. Excluded by the oficial history and abused in a material sense. But not even that will make them stop producing in an historical way, as they use orality as a way to react against domination and ideological massacre.

Considering capoeira as a survival strategy it is through the game-fight where it gets important to learn to defend oneself. It is like an image of the fight to survive. In this sense capoeira and life are related. It is gaining human matureness strategically by fighting. Earning a deep dimension and not being a mere physical fight between individuals. One understands capoeira/life through the fight that the human being fights ‘humanizing’ himself by living in a comunity and understanding the ‘I’ and the ‘Other’.

As a way of communication we find the ‘ladainhas’(*1) and ‘corridos’(*2) which express the possiability to transmit history by orality. This is a necissary tool for those who don’t take part in oficial history. An interesting ‘corrido’ which demonstrates the bond between capoeira and life is:

“my boat turned around out there in the middle of the ocean,

if I wasn’t angoleiro(*3)

I hadn’t made it out of there”

In this song (corrido) we find expressed what is needed to face dificulties, (mainly material ones). As the daily massacre through immediate necessities to survive makes it necessary to be “angoleiro” to find solutions in the day to day life and to have an aim to “get on with ones life and break the chains that hold us”.

With referece to ladaninhas (entry songs) here is one that shows us perfectly the relations between work within the society and the exclusion of official history to those without voice:

“I’m no employee anymore,

Now I’m the boss,

A boss earns without having to work,

and who works doesn’t earn anything,

I neither was born to work,

nor did I study to become a doctor,

In the roda (wheel) of capoeira the singer sings:

the money in my pocket is little,

‘cause as soon as I’ve earned it it’s gone,

If the singer sends a message,

it’s recorded in history”

The abuse of one man working for another one – in this case the employee working for the boss – is subject here. The amount of money the worker recieves for his chores is so little that he can barely survive and ‘keeping the money together’ is nearly impossible. The impossibile task of social assencion that alot of people dream of in vain: “nor did I study to become a doctor”. The title of a Doctor as a synonym for social assencion. And at the end the singer sends a message to be recorded in oral history.

I basically related myself to capoeira and to life. Following I will put samba, capoeira and life in relation to one another by analyzing the compositions.

The samba ‘catorze anos’ (14 years) form Paulinho da Viola has a direct relation to life:

“I was 14 years old,

when my father called me

and asked wether I wanted to study

Philosophy, Medicine or Engineering.

Should I have to become a doctor,

but my wish was to have a guitar,

to become a sambista

and my father told me/gave me the advice:

in this land of doctors

a sambista doesn’t count

and...your doctor

my father was right

I see samba sold out

and the sambistas,

it’s true authors forgotten,

I am needed

but my shy samba

I won’t sell, no sir

When I was 14 years old”

In this samba the author tells us a story that ocurred in his life when he was 14 years old and his father wanted him either to choose a profession, or the path he wanted to follow in life. The boy has to become a doctor, because this in this world the value of a man is measured by his titles and not by his value as a human being. Therefore a sambista as well as a capoeira is of no value. With time passing by the author himself has to admit that his father was right. As all of his work, being very rich and deep but misunderstood, was disvalued. During some episodes in his life he sees the indiscriminate selling of samba while it’s authors are forgotten. This ocurrs in a similar manner with capoeira players who try to preserve their work of consistency, having life as a source, but suffer the deception of seeing their work sold as a merchandise and cut-off from it’s real meaning. And if we forget that life is a source to scope from to be able to work, life looses it’s sense, not only to whom produces but also to whom only wants to consume.

Another author who serves as an example for this is Wilsom Batista (1913 –1968). This composer was a real bohemian who didn’t adapt himself to any kind of disciplined work and only made a living through producing sambas. As in this world of doctors a sambista doesn’t count, Wilsom Batista dies poor in a public emergency room, leaving behind his experiences in his compositions transmitted through samba. His samba ‘Lenco no pescoco’ (tie/hankerchief around the neck) was produced for the capoeiras:

“My hat lop-sided,

cloggs dragging,

hankerchief around the neck,

razor knife in the pocket,

I pass by swinging,

provoke and challenge,

I have pride

in being so vadio (*4)

I know that they talk,

since I’m around,

I see who works,

lives in misery,

I am vadio,

because I had the inclination to be so

I remember, I was a child,

.....singin samba songs,

but not with me,

I want to see who is right,

and they play,

and you sing,

and I don’t give”

The historical context in which the compositor see’s himself is a period in which a vaidiagem was synonym to negating a disciplined and regular working. He describes the life of a worker as someone who lives ‘in misery’. And in this case of the capoeira sung by him he shows himself happy in opting for the path of vadiacao, the path he was inclined to take.

We can see how hard the day-to-day life is an life makes us choose ways of life that often don’t adapt to the discipline of social organization and the persons go through material dificulties. Without counting that the ilulsions of life, manly the social ascension, that allow the access to consume and the possibility to obtain the basics, like medical assistance and a resonable alimentation, is imposed, ruling the behavior of the individuals and at the same time serving as exclusion, because it is not to all that reserves this possiability.

*1:’ladaninha’: a song sung before a capoeira game (roda – circle) beginns.

*2: ‘corrido’: corridos are songs sung during a roda. The main singer chooses and sings the songs

e.g.: acording to the situation in the game and the ‘choro’, the choir (the other players which are sitting in the roda – the circle) answers.

*3: ‘angoleiro’: a person which plays capoeira in the angola style. Capoeira de Angola is considered to be the older and traditional capoeira style.

*4: ‘vadio’: An expretion I find dificult to translate. As far as I know ‘vadiação’ used to be a synonym for capoeira players. This was in former times when capoeira was considered to be something that poor and criminal people do and was there for forbidden by law. Vadiação is used in the sense of having fun, going out, playing capoeira etc.