Mestra Paulinha

Paula Cristina da Silva Barreto, known in capoeira as Mestra Paulinha, was born June 30, 1963, in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia. She began training Capoeira Angola in 1982 at the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in Salvador, shortly after the group relocated there from Rio de Janeiro, studying under Mestre Moraes, Mestre João Grande, and Mestre Cobra Mansa. She rose to contra-mestra around 1990 after roughly a decade of training.

In parallel, she pursued sociology: a master's degree at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA, 1993), joining UFBA's faculty in 1994, and later a PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP, 2003).

In 1995, while beginning doctoral study in São Paulo, she co-founded Grupo Nzinga de Capoeira Angola together with fellow GCAP-trained capoeiristas Janja (Rosângela Costa Araújo) and Poloca (Paulo Barreto). The group was named for Queen Nzinga Mbandi Ngola, the 17th-century Angolan ruler who resisted Portuguese colonization. The founding entity operated as Grupo Nzinga de Capoeira Angola; the initiative was formalized as a legal non-profit, the Instituto Nzinga de Estudos da Capoeira Angola e Tradições Educativas Banto no Brasil (INCAB), in 2001, headquartered in the Jardim Colombo neighborhood of São Paulo.

Paulinha moved to São Paulo in 1998 to help coordinate the young institute during her doctoral years. Between 2001 and 2002, she and Poloca returned to Salvador to reopen the Bahian nucleus (formally reopened April 23, 2002); Janja followed in 2005, at which point the group's Salvador headquarters settled in Alto da Sereia, a quilombola community of roughly 200 families in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood — the only Capoeira Angola group serving that community. Paulinha has co-led the Salvador nucleus alongside Poloca and, since 2005, Janja.

Her academic career advanced in step with her capoeira leadership: she became Professora Titular (Full Professor) in UFBA's Department of Sociology, coordinates the research and training program "A Cor da Bahia" on racial relations, culture, and Black identity in Bahia (est. 1992), and has served as Director of CEAO (Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais). She completed postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt University's CLAIS (2007-2008) and the University of Brasília (2017-2018). In 2017 she was an invited speaker at FICA's Women's Conference 20th Anniversary in Washington, D.C.

Grupo Nzinga today operates nuclei across several Brazilian cities and internationally, including Brasília, Maputo (Mozambique), Mexico City, Marburg (Germany), and cities in Japan; the group marked its 30th anniversary in 2025.