Cobra Mansa
Mestre Cobra Mansa (born Cinézio Feliciano Peçanha, 1960 in Duque de Caxias, Brazil) commonly known as Cobrinha, Cobrinha Mansa, is a mestre or master of Capoeira Angola. He is one of the founders and the guiding light of an organization known either as FICA (in Brazil, an acronym for Fundaçao Internacional de Capoeira de Angola) or ICAF (in English, this stands for the International Capoeira Angola Foundation, which is the literal translation of the words which make up the acronym FICA). The word "fica" in Portuguese is from the verb "ficar", probably the most used verb having many meanings, one of them is "you stay" or "s/he/it stays" (second/third person declarative). This meaning isn't necessarily significant, but because it has a meaning, it is slightly more catchy in Portuguese than ICAF is in English. One could interpret FICA as "let traditional Capoeira stay" or as "You become." But this interpretation is a conjecture. FICA/ICAF is the largest Capoeira Angola organization in the world, consisting of many local affiliates, chapters, and training centers incorporated as not-for-profits in the United States. These organizations charge nominal annual membership fees, and have locations in several countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Mestre Cobra Mansa is well known in the world of Capoeira. He started Capoeira in 1973 with Josias da Silva and Raimundo in the Rio neighborhood of Duque de Caxias. He played Capoeira in the Duque Caxias street rodas and was one of the founders of the Caxias Street Roda with Rogerio Russo and Peixinho de Caxias. (A roda literally means circle, and is the formation of persons that surround a game of the martial dance of Capoeira.) In 1974 Cobra Mansa became a student of Mestre Moraes after he saw Mestre Moraes play in the Roda of Central Brazil. Prior to his dedicating his life to Capoeira Angola, he worked in photography and as a street vendor in a circus (Circo Picolino). He went to Belo Horizonte in 1979 and was a police officer in this city where he spent 2 years. In 1981 he went to Salvador and started the organization and school, GCAP (Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelorinho) in Salvador with Mestre Moraes.