De norte a sur: mestre pantera y la capoeira como cultura urbana y migratoria en la periferia de Río de Janeiro

mestre pantera y la capoeira como cultura urbana y migratoria en la periferia de Río de Janeiro

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the life history of Pantera, a capoeira master raised in Rio de Janeiro’s shantytowns between the 60’s and 70’s. As we follow Pantera’s life narrative, the process of consolidation of capoeira as an urban and migratory culture will be explained. Following the mestre’s displacements, I will analyze how the capoeiristas articulated a community that institutionalized a specific sense of territoriality and historicity, thus consolidating a bodily-communitarian culture. Following Pantera’s memories, we will place and retell this urban-local Brazilian process that prepared young people from shantytowns to a “spin around the world”.