Batizado en Tijuana Dec. 02, 2006
I woke up late and had to rush to get ready. Met up with Phil at the mobile and headed out to the North County Mall where we were meeting up with Mai, Melony+b/f, and Isaea. We hung out a bit and was just wondering what the hell we was gonna do. Ended up with me driving Isaea, Mai, and Phil and Melony+b/f drove their car(they were leaving early). And we drove to Fashion Valley where the trolley was.
First time on the trolley! It was cool, hearing the bells ringing going by, all the sights and sounds. Drew some capoeira stuff. Talked. Was hungry. Then we stopped at the border, where we met up with Elias(mestre) and a few others from his other school. I forgot all their names haha. I'll post a picture of us all together at the border later. Finally met the famous Jamaica. That guys a bulldozer.
When we got into Mexico, Elias had to get some medicine for his cold(which didn't work btw.) and then we went to find a cab. We stuffed 7 people in our car(Elias, me, isaea, and phil in the back. Mai, Melony, and her bf in the front). Doesn't sound too bad cuz the other 8 people had to fit in the other one. Taxi fare is cheap! Viva Taxi Libre!!
So we got there an hour and half early. It was at some crazy public school's gym. Pretty nice. The bleachers were metal, cold, and dirty. Hard to keep our whites clean before the Batizado. So since we got there early, some of us went to eat and by the time we got back, it was time for it to start and we all got dressed. Warmed up and played a little before it started.
I met up with the Mestre there(the one holding the batizado). Mestre Gil. He was this calm, skinny, but toned black dude. He had a hawaian lookin shirt on and it was only buttoned at the bottom. He had this smile that was calming but at the same time, you can't trust him. He had a sense of leadership in his aura. Strong will. His voice was as strong as his aura. Even though it was in spanish and I couldn't understand him even if i spoke it. So it started! Open roda! We formed a circle. The higher ranks played first. We could see the fear in the little kids eyes. I could sense a feeling of nervousness in myself as they were playing fast rhythms, REGIONAL!
Many close calls, many takedowns, many floreios(flashy flips) at insane speeds. Stop, you get hit. Gotta keep with the flow. You can only attack, evade, recover, attack, evade, recover. I stepped in line but the line was too large and I didn't get to play. I've never been in a roda this big. And it ended before I got in.
The batizado started. Mestre Gil yells out the students' names and they formed a roda inside the current one. This is when the kids got shaky. When you get your first cordeon(belt), a mestre has to take you down. One by one, kids came in. One by one, Mestres and higher ranks took them down and recieved their first cordeon(sp?). the takedowns were insane. Never seen em. Some of them seemed like they were made at the spot. Then the second wave, where the kids got their 2nd cordeon. Etc etc. etc. It got really insane when they got to the 3rd wave. Lemme tell you. 3 people were getting a higher belt.
There was this one tall white guy who got roughed up the most. Jamaica ate him alive. Took him down and did a front flip with the heel sticking out and bam! right on the back. And this other one, so good with takedowns. He could do them outta nowhere. It was insane. There was another guy, asian dude. He was old so he was tired quickly and didn't perform as well.(weird asian guy, saw him at the after-party with a suit on and his hair slicked back). All of the graduating people had to come in multiple times.
The 2nd one was this rough tough girl. She would come in the roda and just beat the shit outta all the guys, literally. She was this capoeira queen, man. Seriously, she had nice curves and she could samba like no other. She was way seductive. She'd start to samba in the middle of the game and the guy would go along with it and bam! kick in the stomach.
The 3rd one was a guy that graduated 3 belts that day. I think its cuz he was transfering schools and they knew he was good. He was this goofy guy. I can tell he can play some good angola. He was very expressive. They had to go 2 on one with him. Take down guy and Jamaica. So scary. He was getting beat dowwwwwnnnnn. god damn man. I'd hate to be him.
Mestre gil, smiling, still singing strongly, playing his berimbau, he looked so kind but so intimidating cuz his confidence overran you. of course with the 2 other people playing with the berimbau's beside him on each side. Atabaque's, pandieros, all the instruments the whole time the batizado was going on. Insane how pumped everyone was. Claps were loud, piercing. The drum beats were fierce. Berimbau's hypnotizing. Everything was just a big adrenaline rush.
After it calmed down and ended, whoever stayed played.
I played this older guy. He signaled a chamada(hard to explain), raised his hands, and he snuck in a nice chapa(sideways kick) to my solarplexus. Signaled to go to the other side like i did something wrong(but I didn't). Then I put my hands on his and walked back and forth, when you start a chamada, you gotta break it and he broke it nicely by grabbing my hand and putting me in a hold, taking me down to my knees. I forget the rest of that game. But I learned you gotta always expect the unexpected.
After that, all these kids lined up to play me. One after the other. god it was tiring. They're really good but they can't seem to follow the rhythm well. They were all higher cords than me hahahaha. One kid was way good. He took me down 3 times. I took him down more of course. But i was really surprised when he took me down. He tried to take me down again with a vingativa but i grabbed him and pretended to drop him on his head haha. They taughted me how to do it too. I did this one sliding on my feet in crouched position type movement and chased each kid during each game. Hahaha they didn't know what to do but run. I got way tired after that and rested.
After we left, we(me,phil,isaea,mai,victor+gf) went to this awesome taco shop. Mmmm soooo good. I got a burrito charmelo or something like that. It was just a carne asada with cheese. God i love mexican food. After that we went to the party and had a few drinks. I didn't drink too much cuz i didn't wanna cross the border drunk. I took a screwdriver and two beers. The party was fun. I learned to play Maculele and one of the guys taught me this one takedown and how to counter it. It was getting late and it was around 11:15 before we left. Took a taxi to the border and got on the trolley.
Trolley left at 11:30 and the trolley's stop at 12:30 so we were worried that we couldn't transfer to the orange line. But we made it. It was really cool the ride back. Mai took a buncha pictures. I don't know if she gave me it but there was one where all of us were hanging on the handrails like monkeys. I got em on email so I'll post em up later too. Hahaha. Was a good day.
First time on the trolley! It was cool, hearing the bells ringing going by, all the sights and sounds. Drew some capoeira stuff. Talked. Was hungry. Then we stopped at the border, where we met up with Elias(mestre) and a few others from his other school. I forgot all their names haha. I'll post a picture of us all together at the border later. Finally met the famous Jamaica. That guys a bulldozer.
When we got into Mexico, Elias had to get some medicine for his cold(which didn't work btw.) and then we went to find a cab. We stuffed 7 people in our car(Elias, me, isaea, and phil in the back. Mai, Melony, and her bf in the front). Doesn't sound too bad cuz the other 8 people had to fit in the other one. Taxi fare is cheap! Viva Taxi Libre!!
So we got there an hour and half early. It was at some crazy public school's gym. Pretty nice. The bleachers were metal, cold, and dirty. Hard to keep our whites clean before the Batizado. So since we got there early, some of us went to eat and by the time we got back, it was time for it to start and we all got dressed. Warmed up and played a little before it started.
I met up with the Mestre there(the one holding the batizado). Mestre Gil. He was this calm, skinny, but toned black dude. He had a hawaian lookin shirt on and it was only buttoned at the bottom. He had this smile that was calming but at the same time, you can't trust him. He had a sense of leadership in his aura. Strong will. His voice was as strong as his aura. Even though it was in spanish and I couldn't understand him even if i spoke it. So it started! Open roda! We formed a circle. The higher ranks played first. We could see the fear in the little kids eyes. I could sense a feeling of nervousness in myself as they were playing fast rhythms, REGIONAL!
Many close calls, many takedowns, many floreios(flashy flips) at insane speeds. Stop, you get hit. Gotta keep with the flow. You can only attack, evade, recover, attack, evade, recover. I stepped in line but the line was too large and I didn't get to play. I've never been in a roda this big. And it ended before I got in.
The batizado started. Mestre Gil yells out the students' names and they formed a roda inside the current one. This is when the kids got shaky. When you get your first cordeon(belt), a mestre has to take you down. One by one, kids came in. One by one, Mestres and higher ranks took them down and recieved their first cordeon(sp?). the takedowns were insane. Never seen em. Some of them seemed like they were made at the spot. Then the second wave, where the kids got their 2nd cordeon. Etc etc. etc. It got really insane when they got to the 3rd wave. Lemme tell you. 3 people were getting a higher belt.
There was this one tall white guy who got roughed up the most. Jamaica ate him alive. Took him down and did a front flip with the heel sticking out and bam! right on the back. And this other one, so good with takedowns. He could do them outta nowhere. It was insane. There was another guy, asian dude. He was old so he was tired quickly and didn't perform as well.(weird asian guy, saw him at the after-party with a suit on and his hair slicked back). All of the graduating people had to come in multiple times.
The 2nd one was this rough tough girl. She would come in the roda and just beat the shit outta all the guys, literally. She was this capoeira queen, man. Seriously, she had nice curves and she could samba like no other. She was way seductive. She'd start to samba in the middle of the game and the guy would go along with it and bam! kick in the stomach.
The 3rd one was a guy that graduated 3 belts that day. I think its cuz he was transfering schools and they knew he was good. He was this goofy guy. I can tell he can play some good angola. He was very expressive. They had to go 2 on one with him. Take down guy and Jamaica. So scary. He was getting beat dowwwwwnnnnn. god damn man. I'd hate to be him.
Mestre gil, smiling, still singing strongly, playing his berimbau, he looked so kind but so intimidating cuz his confidence overran you. of course with the 2 other people playing with the berimbau's beside him on each side. Atabaque's, pandieros, all the instruments the whole time the batizado was going on. Insane how pumped everyone was. Claps were loud, piercing. The drum beats were fierce. Berimbau's hypnotizing. Everything was just a big adrenaline rush.
After it calmed down and ended, whoever stayed played.
I played this older guy. He signaled a chamada(hard to explain), raised his hands, and he snuck in a nice chapa(sideways kick) to my solarplexus. Signaled to go to the other side like i did something wrong(but I didn't). Then I put my hands on his and walked back and forth, when you start a chamada, you gotta break it and he broke it nicely by grabbing my hand and putting me in a hold, taking me down to my knees. I forget the rest of that game. But I learned you gotta always expect the unexpected.
After that, all these kids lined up to play me. One after the other. god it was tiring. They're really good but they can't seem to follow the rhythm well. They were all higher cords than me hahahaha. One kid was way good. He took me down 3 times. I took him down more of course. But i was really surprised when he took me down. He tried to take me down again with a vingativa but i grabbed him and pretended to drop him on his head haha. They taughted me how to do it too. I did this one sliding on my feet in crouched position type movement and chased each kid during each game. Hahaha they didn't know what to do but run. I got way tired after that and rested.
After we left, we(me,phil,isaea,mai,victor+gf) went to this awesome taco shop. Mmmm soooo good. I got a burrito charmelo or something like that. It was just a carne asada with cheese. God i love mexican food. After that we went to the party and had a few drinks. I didn't drink too much cuz i didn't wanna cross the border drunk. I took a screwdriver and two beers. The party was fun. I learned to play Maculele and one of the guys taught me this one takedown and how to counter it. It was getting late and it was around 11:15 before we left. Took a taxi to the border and got on the trolley.
Trolley left at 11:30 and the trolley's stop at 12:30 so we were worried that we couldn't transfer to the orange line. But we made it. It was really cool the ride back. Mai took a buncha pictures. I don't know if she gave me it but there was one where all of us were hanging on the handrails like monkeys. I got em on email so I'll post em up later too. Hahaha. Was a good day.