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I am Instrutor Tatu Bola of Capoeira Sao Salvador-PDX. I am creating a GoFundMe campaign to assist one of the gems of capoeira, Mestre China(Neilton Nascimento Moreira) of Grupo Sao Bento. Formerly of Grupo Raça, Mestre China is my mestre's ( Mestre Pedro Cruz, CSS-PDX) mestre in Salvador, Brazil. He urgently needs our help. His home, as well as his teaching studio and business offices ( their leasing was his primary source of income) have been unjustly confiscated. About 15 years ago, a piece of Mestre China’s property seriously damaged a nearby building. Due to the financial complications of that event, his property was confiscated and sold from under him. He is having to fight a legal battle to get his property back. However, in the meantime, he is being challenged just to make ends meet due to having no studio or offices from which to receive rental income. Mestre China has relatives who are able to take in his family itemporarily , but they do not have the financial means to provide anything more. In order to get a stable life back, Mestre China needs help paying his lawyer, court fees to get his property back, and for the first month’s rent for a studio to be able to teach again -This campaign is to raise $4000 towards these specific expenses.
Who is Mestre China and What He Means to his Community in Brazil:
Mestre China is Grandmestre Luis Medicina’s (Grupo Raça) second most senior student. He has taught capoeira for over forty years and has been an important ambassador of the art and has provided continuous assistance to the disadvantaged youth and children in the communities of Marceio and Salvador in Brazil. He has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education from the Universidade Catolica de Salvador.
Mestre China is one of those gems of the earth that people recognize when they see him. Mestres speak of him when they wax poetically about the best things that capoeira has to offer. He has been the impetus and leader of many social programs specifically designed to assist the less advantaged in Salvador and surrounding communities. He has countless times used capoeira’s intrinsic ties to the poorest of people as a vessel to help the same people in need.
One of the most memorable experience that I had with Mestre China was on a group trip to Brazil with M. Pedro Cruz in 2010. At that time, Mestre China was the city of Salvador’s senior mestre under Mestre Medicina (Grupo Raça), and we were there on a group trip to take part in the Groupo Raça Batizado. Before the big event, M. China wanted to introduce us to the important social work that capoeira was doing in Brazil, so we were going to have a road trip to an orphanage for severely disabled youths. This experience would forever change my outlook concerning the value of capoeira in the Brazilian community and introduce me to a part of the world that I had conveniently forgotten existed. The kids that inhabited the facility were obviously well taken care of. The place itself seemed well organized and clean. Yet even with all that, I was struck with the surreal feeling of importanceof witnessing this moment, especially from the perspective of a world where most people would rather forget. In the orphange, I was introduced to so many levels of mental and physical disability that I was uncomfortable. While we were there , the group mingled with the children and teenagers that were there. Eventually, we played capoeira with some of the youths. I remember playing with a child that had no use of his legs. In the roda, I began feeling like I was playing with a world that before then was closed to me by fear...what if he got hurt? What I ended up experiencing was another human being striving with me to experience communication and joy.
We are all familiar with the story of the capoeira mestre that has devoted his life to helping the community of the disadvantaged and downtrodden. The story too often ends with the mestre in his twilight years ironically afflicted by the same poverty he was assisting others through. I am starting a GoFundMe for Mestre China, because I believe that in an age where capoeira has reached and benefitted all corners of the developed world, the scenario of the past, of the empoverished mestre, is an insult to our collective humanity and consciousness. This insult can only be exacerbated by the fact that whatever help given here, there will be almost quadrupled by natural market forces. The $4,000 we will raise here will not solve his financial woes, but will hopefully set him on the path toward being better able to help himself out of this terrible situation.
Who is Mestre China and What He Means to his Community in Brazil:
Mestre China is Grandmestre Luis Medicina’s (Grupo Raça) second most senior student. He has taught capoeira for over forty years and has been an important ambassador of the art and has provided continuous assistance to the disadvantaged youth and children in the communities of Marceio and Salvador in Brazil. He has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education from the Universidade Catolica de Salvador.
Mestre China is one of those gems of the earth that people recognize when they see him. Mestres speak of him when they wax poetically about the best things that capoeira has to offer. He has been the impetus and leader of many social programs specifically designed to assist the less advantaged in Salvador and surrounding communities. He has countless times used capoeira’s intrinsic ties to the poorest of people as a vessel to help the same people in need.
One of the most memorable experience that I had with Mestre China was on a group trip to Brazil with M. Pedro Cruz in 2010. At that time, Mestre China was the city of Salvador’s senior mestre under Mestre Medicina (Grupo Raça), and we were there on a group trip to take part in the Groupo Raça Batizado. Before the big event, M. China wanted to introduce us to the important social work that capoeira was doing in Brazil, so we were going to have a road trip to an orphanage for severely disabled youths. This experience would forever change my outlook concerning the value of capoeira in the Brazilian community and introduce me to a part of the world that I had conveniently forgotten existed. The kids that inhabited the facility were obviously well taken care of. The place itself seemed well organized and clean. Yet even with all that, I was struck with the surreal feeling of importanceof witnessing this moment, especially from the perspective of a world where most people would rather forget. In the orphange, I was introduced to so many levels of mental and physical disability that I was uncomfortable. While we were there , the group mingled with the children and teenagers that were there. Eventually, we played capoeira with some of the youths. I remember playing with a child that had no use of his legs. In the roda, I began feeling like I was playing with a world that before then was closed to me by fear...what if he got hurt? What I ended up experiencing was another human being striving with me to experience communication and joy.
We are all familiar with the story of the capoeira mestre that has devoted his life to helping the community of the disadvantaged and downtrodden. The story too often ends with the mestre in his twilight years ironically afflicted by the same poverty he was assisting others through. I am starting a GoFundMe for Mestre China, because I believe that in an age where capoeira has reached and benefitted all corners of the developed world, the scenario of the past, of the empoverished mestre, is an insult to our collective humanity and consciousness. This insult can only be exacerbated by the fact that whatever help given here, there will be almost quadrupled by natural market forces. The $4,000 we will raise here will not solve his financial woes, but will hopefully set him on the path toward being better able to help himself out of this terrible situation.