João Ramos do Nascimento — Mestre Traíra
c. 1925, Cachoeira (BA) – c. 1975, Salvador (BA)

Quiet in voice, fierce in timing, Mestre Traíra was one of the great stylists of Capoeira Angola. Born in Cachoeira, he first appears on the horizon of the Recôncavo in the late 1930s, moving between the rodas of Mestre Juvêncio in São Félix and, soon after, the growing scene in Salvador. By the mid-1940s writers were already taking note: a compact, muscular capoeirista whose elegance and efficiency drew comparisons to Mestre Pastinha.

Around 1947 he deepened his path with Mestre Waldemar in Liberdade and absorbed lessons from Severo do Pelourinho. Waldemar would later say he “finished preparing” Traíra when the younger man came to him after a long stint in prison—proof that Traíra’s game, like much of Bahia’s capoeira, was tempered by hard living as well as hard training.

By the 1950s Traíra was a fixture at Waldemar’s backyard barracão and the neighborhood’s street rodas. He kept his own invitation-only circle behind his house on Rua do Céu, where the play was tight anduncompromising—rasteiras and cabeçadas done with surgical control, all under a strict pedagogy that expected adults and kids alike to respect the rhythm or sit out. Photographers found him there: Alice Brill (1953), Marcel Gautherot and Pierre Verger in the mid-fifties. He stepped onto filmtoo—Vadiação (1954, Alexandre Robatto Filho) and Bahia, Capoeira na Praia (1960, Verger/Solange)—sometimes with a pandeiro in hand.

His voice travels furthest through vinyl. In 1962 Traíra recorded the landmark LP often known as Capoeira da Bahia (Xauã) with Mestres Cobrinha Verde and Gato Preto, a rare phonographic snapshot of the Angola sound in Salvador. Listen closely and you hear why his name stayed on players’ tongues: a swing that invites, a threat that never shouts, a game that breathes between the beats.

Late in his career he taught Mestre Barba Branca (circa 1970–71), tying a new thread into Liberdade’s lineage. Traíra likely died in the early 1970s, reportedly of cirrhosis, but his imprint is durable: the poised low game, the head work and sweeps done with discretion, the insistence that music leads and movement answers. In the history of Bahia’s Angola, he is both a presence and a standard—proof that a quiet player can still command the roda.

Selected milestones

• c. 1925 — Born in Cachoeira, Bahia

• Late 1930s — Seen in rodas with Mestre Juvêncio (São Félix)

• Mid-1940s — Praised by Jorge Amado for elegant, efficient game

• c. 1947 — Trains under Mestre Waldemar