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Artist
Reinaldo Ramos Suassuna also known as Mestre Suassuna, was born in Bahia, Brazil in 1938 in Ilhéus and raised in Itabuna, started to practice Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art developed initially by African slaves in Brazil, in the beginning of the 1950s, against his will. Due to a physical handicap in his legs, the doctor recommended that he involve himself in a sport that was not soccer. Under the influence of two friends that had begun Capoeira and his medications, Suassuna started to practice this Brazilian art. Suassuna states that in the beginning he had not liked Capoeira at all because he had difficulty learning the ginga and its unique sway and he lacked rhythm to sing, but with time he started to enjoy the taste of Capoeira so much that he began to take his training seriously and at this point his mother thought he was sick or ill. When Suassuna started Capoeira he did not fixate himself to a group, but rather, he learned to love capoeira as a whole, independent of whether it was Angola or Regional. He met people from the Academies of Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha. He participated in presentations in Salvador, Brazil with Canjiquinha, Gato, Caicara … and all of this has served as an excellent base for developing his work and arriving to where he is today: international recognition. At the beginning of the 1960s, Suassuna shone in Bahia with his Capoeira presentations and consequently many invitations from other states and from abroad were offered. In 196