Moved his capoeira to
HIS OLD HUT
ca 1950
THE PREVIEW
We established that Corta Braço came about only in 1946, the inhabitats there received the permission to stay in 1947. We doubt M Waldemar started to build his hut right away in 1946/7 there. There are P. Verger's photos from 1948 showing Waldemar's roda, but no hut. The hints from here and there say to us that there must have been at least 2 huts. This is clear from A. Brill's phots from 1953 and P. Verger's photos from 1955. Besides this the places appear to be different i.e the master didn't modify one hut to the other and instead changed the location: probably from (old) Liberdade to Corta Braço in 1954.
Now to the hints..
«The roda in Liberdade was out in the open, close to the grove. I made a roda in the shade and put the guys to play there. Later [in Liberdade?, the year?] I made a hut out of large straws [..].»
M Waldemar, 1989
«It was with him [M Bugalho, after 1946, when he started to train] that I got to know the old hut, in Gengibirra, close to Água de Meninos [but also to Liberdade]. We (me and Bugalho) went to the old quays - the golden quays - a lot to play there.»
M Pelé de Bomba, 2010
«The first hut, a thatched hut that he had, was on the Padre Antônio street, there at the back of Agnelo [perhaps the master is referring to the second hut].»
M Bigodinho, 2003
The Corta-Braço Shrine, on the Boiadas Road, a meeting point for the capoeira practitioners, today known as Liberdade neighborhood, was another, whose boss was an african known as Uncle Opê. Luz, 2013.
: it's possible, that this shrine and M Waldemar's hit existed separately, since on Brill's photos there's no indication that would put an '=' between the shrine and the hut, but the possibility stays. It's interesting that Catunda in 1952 calls the hut shrine.
THE MATERIALS
1951: Tavares, Carybé & Leeds
If the visitor wants to see the game of capoeira, there is, today, more than one hut that you can go to. [..] Valdemar’s, in Corta-Braço. O. Tavares, 1951?.
: Here we don't know if the journalist/writer put Corta Braço right in the first edition of the book or added it later, and so is speaking about the second hut. The detailed path to the hut however appears to end on the other side of the Liberdade Road. read more
Carybé in the Capoeira Game from 1951 has minimalistic designs of the first hut (see below). read more
Carybé and Waldemar's Hut
We also have recordings made by Anthony Leeds from 1951. We don't know however if the recording took place already in the hut. One of the singers is probably M Traíra, who started to learn with M Waldemar in 1947 (before the hut). read more
1952: Catunda
«Mestre Waldemar's Shrine is situated in the famous workers' neighborhood of Liberdade. A neighborhood that has a great density of population [..].»
E. Catunda, 1952
read more
1953: Brill
A. Brill's photos from 1953 show M Waldemar's old hut. As we wrote earlier, it has a different/inferior construction from the hut we see on P. Verger's 1955 photos (see below). read more
Some photos are made outside the hut having some houses at the back, however there is no point of reference that could facilitate the localization of the scene.
Photos
1957: Araguaya
Araguaya in 1957 in the Correio Paulistano describes M Waldemar capoeira staying to the Pero Vaz Street. Chiquinho's photos however show the old hut - this had a lot more wooden sticks separating the public from the roda. Probably Araguaya and Chiquinho visited the hut in 1953/4 and only in 1957 published the article.
(1954: The Second/New Hut)
To compare the two huts read more and wait for our future post.