Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in Portuguese, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Persian, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Greetings smart viewers! Today’s Vegetarian Elite features Franci Blota, a vegan master of capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazilian cultural expression that combines music, dance, sports, personal defense, and a lot of fun. It originated most likely in the sixteenth century and was first introduced by Angolan Brazilians. Franci Blota has mastered this artistic sport and teaches others to do the same.

Capoeira is known as a low bush, grass - all bushes where we used to play on at the squares, on soccer fields – are called capoeira. That´s where the name came from, because it was created in this place, in this environment.

Many action movies with the famous American actor and film producer Wesley Snipes contain scenes showing capoeira. Mr. Snipes himself is a capoeira practitioner. Also, the Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican pop singer Ricky Martin, and other famous musicians such as the Black-Eyed Peas and Carlos Santana, have also demonstrated this energetic Afro-Brazilian art expression in their work. It is said that breakdancing was influenced by capoeira.

The greatest soccer players were athletes, they were capoeiristas – Pelé, Garrincha and many others whom we already know. Even Borges from São Paulo was a capoeirista. Other athletes of other sports also used capoeira as a mean to reach their athletic objectives.

Franci Blota teaches capoeira at the Cultural Center of Camafeu. The center’s mission is to spread and preserve Brazilian cultural arts like capoeira.

The Camafeu Group is a new group. It is a group that has its lineage derived from the Cultural Center of Capoeira Ginga Brazil of Master of Capoeira Nenê, who is our patron. Our objective is to propagate capoeira in the whole municipal territory first, and then, nationwide.

Camafeu, which is the name of our work, has a very interesting meaning. Camafeu is the name given to a type of cutting for a stone to change into a precious stone. Camafeu is a stone that was given to kings as a present, as an offering. And then, this had its value as a divine value and we view capoeira as if it were a camafeu. The students arrive as a raw stone, a rock, and it needs to be cut, in order for them to learn how to live inside the capoeira and for them to learn how to live in the world.

According to Mr. Blota, capoeira not only teaches a sport, but it is also a way for social development.

Capoeira not only makes capoeiristas, it also makes citizens. The ropes mean the levels in which the capoeirista will progress. He obtains the first rope, the second, the third, the fourth, and then he will already be inserted into a context, inside a social relation which is exactly what he will be transformed into. He will become a capoeirista, seen by the society as a teacher, as an athlete, as one who takes children away from drugs, from the wrong path, as one who brings the elderly to practice physical activity, as one who brings the handicapped so that they reach a level of importance in our society and see themselves actively doing something.

In addition to contributing to his community, Franci Blota has been a longtime health-conscious and eco-conscious organic vegan. The lifestyle is compatible with, and even boosts, his ability as a capoeirista. But before finding out more about his diet, Mr. Blota introduces us to the world of capoeira.

Capoeira is characterized by skillful and complex movements using head, feet, hands, elbows, knees and acrobatic gymnastic elements. There are three styles of capoeira, namely, Angola, Regional and Contemporânea. Capoeira Angola is more dance-like and traditional, with the players closer together. Capoeira Regional, a popular style in Brazil, involves faster and more athletic play. Finally, Capoeira Contenporânea encompasses aspects of the two other styles as well as new movements.

Capoeira Angola uses the most original fundamentals of capoeira. The capoeirista in Capoeira Angola cannot play barefoot. In the Capoeira Regional he can play barefoot and use tennis shoes. The capoeirista in Capoeira Regional cannot use accessories like chains, necklace, watch. In Capoeira Angola, they can use it. They can play wearing hats or without a hat. So those are principles that bring back the thoughts of the past, of past capoeiristas.

Capoeira has three essential elements which are closely connected to each another: music, “roda,” and “joga.” Music is played throughout the capoeira game as it establishes the tempo and style of the game that the capoeiristas are supposed to play. It is comprised of musical instruments and song. The musical instruments are played in a row called bateria. The rhythm is set by the berimbaus (stringed percussion instruments). Other instruments in the bateria include two pandeiros (tambourines), a reco-reco (rasp), and an agogô (doble gong bell).

The musicality of the capoeira circle is guided by three berimbaus (string percussion). The first berimbau is the master berimbau, it is berimbau gunga, the one with the larger head, and it is normally played by the senior of the circle. The berimbau gunga marks the rhythm and always maintains the same pattern of beats and marks the rhythm.

The medium berimbau which is the second berimbau, reverses the beat of berimbau gunga. So it always plays the reverse but at the same time without staying out of rhythm. It is an intermediary berimbau and it can play variations as long as there are not many variations. The berimbau viola is the berimbau that is free to diversify and the player has to be a skilled player, one that knows the berimbau well, because he has to maintain the variation without getting off the rhythm and without disrupting the singer.

Roda, another key element of capoeira, is the circle of people in which capoeira is played. Its circular form keeps focus on both players and musicians while retaining the energy created by the capoeira game. Music is central to the circle’s function.

The main singer of the circle is the one who has the ease and a better voice to sing, the one who already had singing classes, for example. If he sings peace then there is peace. If he sings acrobatics then there are acrobatics. So he is the singer. And the capoeira music that drives the circle, that drives life. The one who guides the circle is normally the highest in position in the circle. He is the one that coordinates, not necessarily by singing, but he arranges the progress of the music’s repertoire.

Joga, the third element, is the capoeira game itself. Capoeira is not intended to injure the other party. Instead, it emphasizes the player’s skills.

In capoeira, they do not play against anyone, they play it along with someone.

When we return, we’ll find out how vegan capoeira master Franci Blota enhanced his playing and life through a pure plant-based diet. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Vegetarian Elite with our featured guest Franci Blota, a Brazilian vegan capoeira teacher. Master Franci Blota had enriched his life with capoeira. He also found favorable transformations in himself after becoming a vegetarian.

For many years I had been interested in vegetarianism but I didn’t have the knowledge, I did not know anyone and I did not know of any means to attain the knowledge. That was when I met Paulo from Lar Vegetariano (Vegetarian Home), and through his daughter I got to know about vegetarianism and immediately adhered to it. I became a vegetarian overnight.

Franci Blota recognized that a veg diet is beneficial to himself as well as to the animals, in addition to being a planet-saving lifestyle.

I already knew about some of the benefits that vegetarianism brought to myself and to all the animals on Earth. Then I associated all this and thought it was very interesting that I could become, let’s say, one of the savers of the planet.

He has also noticed the inside and outside wonders that a plant-based diet rapidly provides.

It was a biopsychosocial improvement. Biologically speaking, my body functions in an extraordinary manner. Socially speaking, I feel much better. I interact with people in a more sincere way, without hypocrisy, or fakeness. And psychologically speaking, it has worked very well in my life. I do not carry anymore the karma from eating animals and today I am happy. Today I can say that I am happy after I became a vegetarian.

The Brazilian vegan capoeirista also looks for optimum health by preferring organic vegan raw food.

My lifestyle is healthy. I am usually very concerned about my health, think about the health of the animals, the well-being of the planet. I always seek to eat organic food, like many fruits, many vegetables, grains. I do not consume many processed products. I do not eat too much salt, sugar, oil, only when it’s necessary. My food is almost always raw. I rarely prepare fried food, braised food and things like this. I always prefer eating raw.

Franci Blota explains to our viewers how fast his transition had been to a completely animal-free vegan diet.

My transition to veganism was very quick. I decided that I would be vegetarian the moment I knew about vegetarianism. I ate vegetarian food and when I went home, I slept and thought: from today onwards I am already vegetarian. And since that day I am an active vegetarian. I do not see meat, milk, eggs, chicken, fish as food anymore. For me, those were lives were cowardly taken, in a brutal way and without any necessity at all, because we can live very well from what the Earth offers us.

Master Franci Blota also has a message to all viewers who wish to understand further and thus adopt a vegan diet.

The message is simple and sincere. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. Put yourself in the place of the animals at the moment of their death. Do not think only of the food that is on your dinner table. And yes, (think) of all the evil, of all the trouble caused to a life. And always remember that the One Above who created humankind also created the animals. I am a defender of ecology and of veganism. So be veg, go green. Protect the planet, don’t forget this.

Just as capoeira teaches respect within the roda circle, in the same way, veganism naturally leads us to value the circle of life and the sphere of the planet that we call our home.

Thank you Mr. Franci Blota for sharing your precious time to introduce us to the engaging and rich world of capoeira, and for your practice and advocacy of the vegan lifestyle. May the Providence bless you, your loved ones, and students.

Eco-friendly viewers, we appreciate your kind presence for today’s episode of Vegetarian Elite. Up next is Between Master and Disciples on Supreme Master Television. Wishing you a vibrant life in Heaven’s infinite love.