M PASTINHA DIED
13th November 1981
Salvador, Bahia
«This photo [first below] is from, unfortunately, last day of his life... He insisted me to put the camera on top of a car, so that I could be on the photo with him!
M Curió is there at the back, on the becnh, sitting... The sweet M Curió is with us, also on the next photo...
The Mestre insisted (saying farewell, certainly... Pity...) that we'd leave from there late, when the D. Pedro II shelter [see the place below] was already closed, after we had taken him to bed et cetera. I remember his strength of his hands, when he shook them for farewell... It was the hour of the tide, the waves were hitting the wall behind the surroundings we were in... We had to take him upstairs, to a drier place, giving the humidity that prevailed, harmful to him, who had a pneumonia and a fever, poor thing... His hand strength when saying farewell... My God!... I'll never forget this... I/we had the priviledge to be the disciples of this special person, thanks to the Lord!»
M Angoleiro, 2013
[M Pastinha] was buried that same day at the Campo Santo Cemetery, and his friend Caribé had to pay for the funeral. Because radio and television did not immediately learn of his death, only about 40 people attended the funeral: the old people from the shelter, some members of his family, his students, and three capoeira Regional mestres. The city of Salvador was represented by its Health Secretary. Some chords of a berimbau were played inside the cemetery as a last homage and a berimbau was laid next to Pastinha’s corpse.
Assunção, 2005
«When he died, they sent a homeless man's coffin. Of a homeless! I sent it back, went to the store, got a coffin (because he didn't deserve that coffin) and sat on the [vendor's] tray, paid it all. Thank God I sold acarajé. This paid the funeral.»
Maria Romélia (M Pastinha's wife) in the film Pastinha! One life for capoeira, 1998
