One of the pioneers in Capoeira in São Paulo, Reinaldo Suassuna was born on July 4th 1942 in Ilheus, Bahia. Mestre Suassuna started capoeira in 1958 in Ilheus and Itabuna with the famous old time capoeiristas of that era. According to Mestre Suassuna, at that time there weren't many Mestres, the only ones you would hear about were Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Bimba both from Salvador. But he considers all the capoeiristas he had contact with as his masters.

In 1965, ACRESP - Academia de Capoeira Regional de São Paulo was founded in Vila Mariana, São Paulo. The academy was behind Mestre Pinatti's academy. Pinatti was very important to Mestre Suassuna by contributing to capoeira and helping Mestre Suassuna a lot when he arrived in São Paulo. Later on Mestre Suassuna opened Cordão De Ouro in partnership with Mestre Brasilia in downtown São Paulo. "It was a lot of hard work" Mestre Suassuna says. Both, Mestres Suassuna and Brasilia, had to work to pay for the academy's expenses. Capoeira used to be a discriminated sport in São Paulo. So they decided to open an academy that would be opened 12 hours a day. Fortunately, it got recognized and on September 1st 1966 Academia de Capoeira Cordão De Ouro was founded.

At Academia Cordão De Ouro, between 1967 and 1969, many great capoeiristas would get together. They would play capoeira, joke around and then would go to parties. One day, Mestre Suassuna urged all of them to start their own academies at some point in time. He would help them as much as he could, and even gave them a deadline. Mestre Suassuna always saw sports as a good way to have people come together and help each other. "I never wanted to manipulate capoeira" said Suassuna, "it belongs to all of us."

Contra Mestre Chicote began Capoeira at the age of ten years old by playing in the streets. Then, noticed by Mestre Matias (today in Switzerland), he started to train in the group Berimbau de Ouro. In 1996, he became part of group Cordão De Ouro and has never looked back. He's traveled all of Brazil, gaining knowledge from many Mestres and enriching his diversity in the art and culture of Capoeira. All the while he's maintained a successful Cordão De Ouro branch within Patos de Minas (Minas Gerais). This social and educational project makes it possible for several teenagers to be fully invested and to reach high levels, such as Professor Piolho, Instructor Tizil, Tineca, Dino... and many others who, in Chicote's absence, have taken charge of the overseeing of this project and are continuing to make it a grand success.

Once Chicote arrived in the UNITED STATES In 2001, he settled in Iowa, where he taught Capoeira for the PLAIN club of the local university (Cedar Falls). This is a project founded and maintained by Jill Hartleip, Instrutora Pulginha. He continued to contribute to the establishment of Cordão De Ouro in the Midwest by assisting with the arrival of Contra Mestre Denis (2003) and Instructor Xara (2004). He then made his way west to California where he established other schools being led by his teachers in LA, Oakland, Emeryville, and Vallejo. Professors Berinjela and Xangô, Instructor Preá, and Estagiario Zumbi are currently leading this branch of his schools.

A subsequent course of events led him to France where he settled in Paris in March 2005. He began sharing his knowledge and his experience with the pupils of The Association of Capoeira Cordão De Ouro – Paris. He invited then Instructor Piolho to join him in France. Since their arrival in France, the Cordão de Ouro capoeira - Paris branch has flourished and enjoyed several successful events and a substantially growing contingent of students.

Berinjela's life in Capoeira began quite simply by accident. He was studying Wing Chun Kung Fu when he enrolled in film courses in the fall of 1996. One of his classes was a trial by fire exercise in modern day filmmaking. In short he had to make a film, from the drafting of the screenplay to post production editing and sound syncing. He decided to make an action short, but he wanted it to showcase a fighting style that would be very different than that of the traditional punching, blocking and countering seen in the average martial arts movie. He did some research and came across Capoeira. He instantly decided that this is the art that he wanted to showcase in his film. During those days, the only schools readily accessible were either in California or New York. Being that he lived in Detroit at the time and its close proximity to the eastern sea board, he chose to contact a few of the schools in New York. Unfortunately, he couldn't convince anyone to come out and take part in his production, so he decided to learn a few moves and perform the stunt work himself.

His first capoeira class was Saturday September 20, 1996. A dreary, lightly drizzling, overcast sky provided the backdrop for his first experience with the ancient and mysterious art that soon came to be his life's great passion. He trained religiously for a couple of years until the local teacher quit teaching Capoeira. Shortly after that he moved to California and began training with one of Mestre Suassuna's graduated students who lives there. He trained with him directly for four more years and then, with Mestre Suassuna's guidance and blessing, he began to train with another of Mestre Suassuna's graduated students - Contra Mestre Chicote.

Luckily, he had met Contra Mestre Chicote before so they were acquainted with each other. After a series of conversations between Mestre Suassuna, Contra Mestre Chicote, and himself, all arrangements had been made. In April of 2003, he had his first official class as a student of Contra Mestre Chicote. It started at 11pm and went until 3am, and he has never looked back.

Since he started capoeira, he has participated in and trained at events in Mexico, Europe, Canada, and all over Brazil and the United States.

Inspired by a childhood friend who was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Professor Xangô decided to take up martial arts. He made arrangements to begin receiving instruction on a private basis when his friend convinced him to attend a capoeira class being given at a Detroit area YMCA. They began on 9/13/96 and it quickly became the driving force in Xangô's life. He trained rigorously for several years until the local teacher stopped teaching capoeira. Around that same time, through a series of fortuitous circumstances, Xangô was invited to California to participate in a month long series of capoeira performances in San Francisco. It was this experience that inspired him to stay in California, train hard, and make Capoeira his life's work. He trained for several more years under a graduated student of Mestre Suassuna, where he began his teaching responsibilities at several elementary and junior high schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

During this time, Xangô traveled to several states in the US as well as other countries, where he performed, taught or assisted in teaching special Capoeira workshops. In April of 2003, Xangô began training with Contra Mestre Chicote with the blessing and guidance of Mestre Suassuna. Since that time Xangô has represented Contra Mestre Chicote's work and teachings in events all over France, the United States, and Brazil. Xangô received his "Professor" rank in May of 2007 in Paris, France at Contra Mestre Chicote's Festival Passo a Frente.

In 1999, while studying at the University of California, Berkeley, Instructor Preá (Nick Damski) started training capoeira with one of Mestre Suassuna's graduated students. There, he met Professores Berinjela and Xangô as well as Instructor Girafa and Estagiario Zumbi with whom he trained and taught. In 2003, with the blessing of Mestre Suassuna, Prea – along with Berinjela, Xangô, Girafa, and Zumbi began training under the supervision and guidance of Contra-Mestre Chicote. After finishing his studies, Preá returned to his hometown of Los Angeles in 2003 where (under the close guidance of Contra Mestre Chicote) he started Cordão De Ouro Los Angeles with the help of Cozinheiro (Leo Rivas). In 2007, Preá traveled to Paris where he received his cordão azul at Contra-Mestre Chicote's Festival Passo a Frente.

Estagiario Zumbi, (Munair Simpson) started training capoeira in 2000 in California's Bay Area. He began his capoeira teaching career in this same location where he has been offering instruction for more than two years under the guidance of Contra Mestre Chicote and Professors Xangô and Berinjela. He has led the very successful capoeira program at the Club 1 Fitness facility in Emeryville, CA and has monitored the development of students at the Club 1 Fitness facility in San Francisco (Yerba Buena Gardens).

Zumbi has traveled extensively with capoeira and taken part in capoeira events all over the world. He has given demonstrations in Sichuan Province-China, Seoul-South Korea, Tokyo-Japan, Sao Paulo-Brazil, Mexico City-Mexico, Paris-France, and Vancouver-British Columbia as well as all over the United States.