Pedro Moraes Trindade

Who is Pedro Moraes Trindade?

Pedro Moraes Trindade, commonly known as Mestre Moraes, is a master of capoeira.

Moraes began his training in Capoeira de Angola at the age of eight. His father was also a Capoeirista, or practitioner of Capoeira Angola, the traditional style of Capoeira in Bahia, Brazil.

At the time he began studying capoeira in the 1950s, he trained at the academy of Vicente Ferreira Pastinha. However, by that time Pastinha was blind with and no longer taught classes. The academy was run by Pastinha's students João Grande and João Pequeno, who taught classes. He states that he is truly the student of João Grande due to the impression made on the young Moraes by the inspiring way that João Grande played capoeira.

In 1970, while in the employ of the Brazilian military, he left Salvador for Rio de Janeiro, where he stayed for twelve years. To preserve and transmit his mentors' teachings, he founded Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho in 1980, and two years later he moved with his organisation back to Salvador. His aim was to return to capoeira's philosophical bases and its African, specifically Angolan roots, and to turn away from the more commercial and martial-arts aspects.