How capoeira is changing lives, building community in SLC - Feature on KSL News
SALT LAKE CITY — Mauro Romualdo's students — who are more like a chosen family — call him by his capoeira name, Mestre Jamaika.
"Mestre," which is Portuguese for teacher, is a title of respect used for capoeira masters. It's an apt title for Romualdo not only because of his 37 years practicing capoeira but also because of the respect and love he garners from those he's lifted up through capoeira.
"I've always had capoeira in my blood. It was just a matter of time to get to see it and activate it," he said. "Capoeira was started 100% in Brazil by my ancestors when they were forced to come to the country and become slaves. They created capoeira as a self defense disguised as a dance."
Romualdo credits capoeira — which is a combination of dance, martial arts and acrobatic movements — for transforming himself into the man he is today. As a young boy growing up in Bahia, Brazil, he felt that people looked through him instead of really seeing him.
"I remember being a young kid in Brazil and — today I know what it is — but back then I was confused and I was like why do I feel like I'm being excluded? No matter what I did, people always saw me in a different way. People never gave me the value that I felt I deserved," Romualdo continued. "Brazil is a very beautiful country. The diversity in that country is amazing, but we still have to deal with a lot of issues. Brazil was one of the last nations in the world to free my people and make us free. With that comes a lot of discrimination."
That changed when he started practicing capoeira at age 7. Romualdo started to master the aerobatic moves typical of the art form.
"Of course if you flip over seven people, people in the streets would stop and give you their attention," he said. "I would use those moments to educate people, like 'Hey, it's good that you guys give me this attention, but there's a lot of other people out there that deserve this attention and don't have any.'"
Those moments were the beginning of Romualdo's lifelong journey to replicate the change capoeira has made in his own life, including founding Salt Lake Capoeira.
"I try to use capoeira as a tool to bring love into people's hearts, and that's my goal here in Salt Lake City," he said. "I don't feel that I'm teaching, like this if my job, or this and that — I feel like this is my mission, brining love to people's lives. ... You cannot imagine, the local people here, how much capoeira has been changing people in different ways. So many students come here and sometimes they're very shy, quiet and within their own self and all of a sudden they're outgoing and talking."
Romualdo said it felt like destiny once he landed in Utah. He initially came to teach a group of about 120 Brigham Young University students who had started a capoeira club after learning about it on missions in Brazil for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
One of the students had contacted Romualdo's former mestre, who taught them what they could but couldn't leave his business and family on the East Coast.
"They needed somebody that comes from the roots to keep sharing these vibes with them," he said. "I feel like it was destiny that brought me to Salt Lake. As soon as I got here, it was exactly what I was looking for. Capoeira made such a difference in my life, so I wanted to teach capoeira to as many people as I could. But I wanted to teach capoeira to people that had never seen capoeira before, so Utah was the perfect place."