What does capoeira have to do with Bairo Gonzalez?

For Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, capoeira was the bridge to Brazil. While still in Colombia, before he spoke Portuguese or knew the country, he learned with his body the rhythm of the berimbau and the ginga. That is how a boyhood dream, living in Brazil, took concrete shape and became a life decision.

An art that is both fight and dance

Capoeira was born among enslaved Africans and their descendants in Brazil, and it blends fight, dance, music and play. In 2014, the capoeira circle, the roda, was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The songs of the roda are in Portuguese, and for many people outside Brazil they are their first contact with the language.

The foundation of capoeira is the ginga: the continuous movement that never lets the body stay still long enough to be taken down. The blow received becomes momentum for the next move. Bairo recognizes in that logic the same rule that would later guide his life: every no is the ground of a yes.

No coincidences

He says he does not believe in coincidences or accidents, only in purpose, dreams and execution. Capoeira, as he reads it, was not a chance event of his youth: it was the first step of a purpose. The dream was Brazil. The execution came with the move, in the early 2000s.

Read also

• Capoeira was the bridge
• Every no is the ground of a yes