Capoeira

Capoeira is one of Brasil's largest sports that has increased in popularity throughout the world in the last decade, and can be found right here in Hermosillo, Sonora!

Combining dance-likemovements, spectacular acrobatics, martial arts and music: Capoeira is a fun and exciting way to get fit, increase your co-ordination, rhythm, balance, strength, and flexibility - and of course, make newfriends!

Where Does Capoeira Come From?
Capoeira is from Brazil, where it was influenced by Indigenous, African and Portuguese cultures. When the Portuguese arrived for the first time to Brazil in1500 AD, the indigenous population numbered around one million. Needing labour for their plantations, the Portuguese attempted to enslave many of these people, but found the scattered tribesdifficult to capture and control. As a solution, the Portuguese captured and brought to Brazil as slaves, hundreds and thousands of people from West Africa.
From their many homelands, the African Slavesbrought a great diversity of cultural and religious traditions to Brazil. These traditions helped to divide the slaves into small cultural groups, avoiding the formation of a united social identity andso were tolerated by the Portuguese slave masters. Oppression of those traditions only began when the Portuguese King Joao arrived in Brazil in the 1800's. While the exact origins of capoeira areunknon, it is thought that under this oppression, the melting pot of African and Brazilian cultures gave birth to a unique form of dance-like fight accompanied by traditional African percussioninstruments and song. With the fluidity and rhythm of a dance, the mischief and play of a game and the strength and spirit of a fight for freedom - Capoeira was born.
The strong individualistic and highlytrained Capoeiristas became sought after as bodyguards and fighters, leading to the association of capoeira with violence and crime. Despite this, masters and their students devoted to the practice...