Pareço Ganga Zumbi
ladainha de Mestre Leopoldinha
Alguém me disse
Que pareço Ganga Zumbi
Óia lá, foi o Rei lá dos Palmares
E outros já me disseram
Que na outra encarnação
Eu era rico, muito rico
Eu tinha muita fazenda
E grande canavial
E eu era bom patrão
Só mulher eu tinha nove
só mulher eu tinha nove
Com idades variadas
E hoje, o que eu tenho?
Nem sequer tenho casa pra morar
Nem dinheiro pra gastar
Mas tenho a Graça Divina
Que é minha companheira
Óia, eu tenho a capoeira
E essa grande amizade
Dentro do meu coração, camará...
Iê, Aquinderreis…
Interview
My name is Dermeval Lopes de Lacerda. They call me Mestre Leopoldina. Mestre and Leopoldina are nicknames. My father gave me this name Dermeval because I was born on February 12, 1933. In that time in Brazil, the carnaval was always February 12, 13, and 14. I was born in the middle of carnaval. Now the carnaval dates change every year.
My father was Cearence, raised in Bahia. I was 18 years old when I met my father. My mother was from Pernambuco. I didn’t meet her. I never saw any picture of her. They said to me that when my mother died, I was only one year old. My aunt took care of me, but she was very poor. She had to leave me with different families while she was working as a housekeeper. I stayed with good families and bad ones. When my aunt got very sick, she had to give me up to a woman who adopted me. After that, my aunt went to the hospital and died. I was 5 years old.
This woman, who’s name was Maria, abused me a lot. She forced me to call her mother and was very hard on me. She sent me out to sell candies and peanuts on the street. Eventually, I got tired of her and left her house. I slept on the streets without food or money. I learned good and bad things on the streets. After alot of suffering, I got very strong. I went to Funabem (Organizations for helping orphans). I spent one year there. I left there when I was 18 years old. Then I started selling newspapers and after awhile I bought a newspaper booth and became a distributor for newspapers. At that time I made alot of money. I bought a beautiful suit and hat. I had lots of girlfriends. Everybody admired me.
Then I met “Kinzingo”who taught me capoeira. After that I spent 7 years training with Artur (Emidio) who had a school of capoeira. I created a small group and we started to make presentations on TV. I started to become known in capoeira. The first samba school to present capoeira on the stage was Mangueira. My group and I participated with Mangueira in carnaval from 1961 until 1973.
Interview conducted by Peter Lownds in 1997