Manduca da Praia and Rio's Maltas

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In today’s episode, I want to look at a few different related topics. When we discuss Capoeira history, particularly more modern history, we often focus on the events and people in Bahia, namely in Salvador. This is because many of the important figures responsible for the trajectory of Capoeira to today were from there: Besouro, Bimba, Pastinha, and Salvador brought Capoeira to national approval and legalization. However, the more I research, the more I find Capoeira in Rio incredibly interesting and telling of some of the archetypes we associate with Capoeira today. There are many famous Capoeiristas (like Madame Sata who we talked about previously) who were from Rio, and in my opinion, the capoeiristas of Rio heavily influenced what we picture as the stereotypical malandro. So today we will talk about capoeira in Rio, specifically in what we will call the “malta era”, and as a focus point of the societal role of Capoeira in this place and time, we will talk about Manduca da Praia.