Mestre Zeca

José Souza Góes, known as Mestre Zeca, Gatinho, or Gato III, was born on April 16, 1956, in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. He was the son of the legendary Mestre Gato Preto (José Gabriel Góes), "O Berimbau de Ouro da Bahia," who had trained under Cobrinha Verde, Pastinha, and Waldemar da Paixão.

Zeca began his capoeira training in 1963 at age seven under his father's guidance. Growing up in the academies of Salvador's greatest Angola mestres, he trained alongside legendary figures including Mestre Canjiquinha and Mestre Caiçara—an apprenticeship few could claim. By age thirteen, he was already performing publicly.

On March 26, 1969, the young Zeca appeared at Teatro Martins Penna in Brasília alongside his father and older brother Sinésio (Mestre Gato II). The performance, which included Samba de Roda, pandeiro demonstrations, Maculelê, and Capoeira, marked one of the family's many cultural presentations. Following this event, the University of Brasília proposed contracting Mestre Gato Preto to teach capoeira.

In 1974, at age eighteen, Zeca co-founded two important institutions: the Associação de Capoeira 3 Amigos and the Grupo Folclórico Filhos de Oxalá, alongside Mestres Mau and Mala. The 3 Amigos association maintained the Angola lineage, creating a space where the elderly Mestre Cobrinha Verde would feel at home on Sundays.

By 1976, while still in his twenties, Zeca was overseeing one of his father's two capoeira academies in Bahia—one on Rua do Báu in Garcia, another in Boca do Rio. He worked alongside Espinho Remoso in managing these schools while his father traveled internationally. That same year, he accompanied Mestre Gato Preto to the "Diáspora Africana" festival in the United States.

Throughout his career, Zeca developed a distinctive philosophical approach to capoeira. He conceptualized the art as "geometria aplicada" (applied geometry), comparing movement to "the spatial composition of paintings." This reflected his understanding of movement, angles, and roda awareness developed over decades of practice.

Zeca became a passionate advocate for traditional capoeira styles. He emphasized preserving the classic jogos—Angola, São Bento Grande, Banguela, Iúna, Cavalaria—and the rarely-practiced Samba de Angola, lamenting their decline in modern practice. For Zeca, the berimbau represented more than an instrument: it was a "baton of the maestro," a communication tool, symbol of authority, and instrument for achieving trance-like immersion in the roda.

In 2002, following his father's death in August, Zeca visited Grupo Meia Lua in Brasília, maintaining his connections across the capoeira world. He remained active through the 2000s, teaching and advocating for traditional practice.

Mestre Zeca died on March 25, 2024, just weeks before his 68th birthday, bringing to a close a lifetime dedicated to capoeira angola and the family tradition established by his father.