Mestre Bigo (Francisco Thomé dos Santos Filho, “Francisco 45”)

Born on 24 March 1946 in Vera Cruz, on Ilha de Itaparica, Mestre Bigo grew up with the sea in his lungs and capoeira in his sights. He first felt the pull of the game as a boy after watching Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Cobrinha Verde perform. Not long after, he crossed the bay to Pelourinho and entered CECA, training in the same house that shaped João Grande, João Pequeno, Bola Sete, and Gildo Alfinete. In 1969 he received his student certificate from Pastinha, a simple paper that confirmed what the roda already knew—his game was rooted, musical, and full of malícia.

Bigo’s Angola is the patient kind. He teaches that less is more, that precision beats display, and that strategy sits behind every smile. “Capoeira Angola is like a snake. It strikes at the right moment,” he likes to say. From Pastinha he kept not only movements and toques, but street wisdom—how to read a corner, how to enter a space, and when to wait.

After moving to São Paulo in 1975, he spent years building community on the city’s southern edge. In 1989 he founded the Academia de Capoeira Angola Ilê Axé (ACAIA) in Jardim Selma, turning a neighborhood address into a meeting point for generations. He recorded a CD in 2008, collaborated with fellow mestres, and kept the Pelourinho lineage alive through weekly classes, open rodas, and quiet conversations before the berimbau calls.

Today, Mestre Bigo is counted among the oldest active angoleiros in São Paulo. His legacy is steady and close to the floor—ginga that wastes nothing, songs that carry memory, and a school that treats capoeira as fight, dance, and philosophy in equal measure.