Young Capoeira students stay off the streets and enjoy themselves at Capoeira Maculele, Homestead Fla. Photo courtesy of Capoeira Maculele

For 20 Hispanic children living in the Redland Center in Homestead, Fla., “Capoeira” classes provide stability and an opportunity to stay away from drugs, gangs and HIV/AIDS.

Twice a week, instructors from “Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute” teach a one-hour Capoeira class, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, to impoverished children aged 3 to 15, inside a small room in the Redland Center, an agricultural migrant housing community in Homestead.

“When we started, the kids all came from homes that had pretty serious problems, and they came here to get relief from their everyday life,” said Joshua Broadhead, a Capoeira instructor known as “Mico.”

Capoeira began in Brazil more than 500 years ago by African slaves brought to work on plantations.  Today, it is the second most popular sport in Brazil and is practiced all over the world, according to the Brazilian Capoeira Confederation.

Though there is much debate on whether Capoeira is a dance or a fight, unlike other forms of martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu or Karate, Capoeira does not involve punching or physical contact.

“Capoeira Maculelê” is an international group with partner schools in Brazil, Europe and the United States. Their location in Kendall, Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute, is a nonprofit organization that fosters knowledge and appreciation for the Brazilian arts while providing community service through Capoeira classes.

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“The organization in Brazil has literally saved lives, and we hope to do the same thing here,” Mico said.

Thanks to a partnership between Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute and “Sembrando Flores,” a nonprofit organization and ministry inside the Redland Center, Capoeira classes seek to encourage safe and healthy lifestyles for at-risk children inside the housing community by intervening in their free time.

“[The children] get to learn self respect and we keep them off the streets, healthy and from getting into trouble,” Mico said.

These at-risk children live about 35 miles southwest of Miami, inside the Redland Center, one of four housing communities in Homestead specifically for migrant farm workers working in agricultural farms in the area.

Sarah Tibwell, youth services coordinator at Sembrando Flores, said drugs are the biggest problem inside the impoverished community, where violence and risky activities are prevalent.

“The Capoeira program is the most successful youth program that we have,” Tibwell said. “Every time, they have a full class where the instructors are very committed.”

Though Sembrando Flores, which provides counseling, advocacy, social activism and HIV testing for those living inside the housing community, funded the classes at first, Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute now voluntarily provides the classes.

When the program began over two years ago, the children were unruly.  Mico recalls that it took the instructors nearly the entire class time just to get the children to behave and pay attention before they could teach Capoeira.  Now the kids are well-behaved, learning Portuguese through songs and improving their Capoeira skills.

“In an hour class, we would spend 55 minutes just trying to get them to pay attention,” Mico said. “It was really difficult.  For many days I left here kind of having mini freak outs, but I kept coming back.”

The program also encourages children to perform better academically.  In order to participate in Capoeira classes, they must turn in weekly academic progress reports.  Children with bad grades are placed on academic probation and must spend the Capoeira class doing their homework until their grades improve. Since the program started, the instructors have seen the children progress academically, as their grades have improved and fewer have been on academic probation.

“They get structure here that they don’t get at home,” said Natalie Castillo, program coordinator at Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute.

Gelene Bonilla, an 11-year-old student attending the Capoeira classes, is one of the many who has benefited from the program.   Mico said that when Bonilla began the program two years ago, she never smiled, never apologized and always looked unhappy.  Since then, due to the Capoeira training, she has matured and gained confidence.  She is now one of the best students in the class and spends her after-school time training instead of hanging out with older children in the community.

Tibwell and the instructors agree that the Capoeira classes provide an opportunity for the children, usually from Mexican or Central American heritage, to break free from the influence of drugs, gangs, violence and sexual behavior that surround them everyday inside the Redland Center.

“If it weren’t for the classes, they would come home, be out in the streets until the sun sets, not doing anything productive,” Castillo said. “And since there are a lot of drugs here, the kids are out and see it, and they would follow what they see.”

According to the Florida Department of Health, Florida ranks third in the nation in the number of persons living with HIV/AIDS. Nearly half of all cases in Florida reside in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Both Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute and Sembrando Flores try to address the problem by providing Capoeira as an alternative to behavior that might lead the at-risk children inside the Redland Center to contract HIV or get in trouble with the law.

Israel Prado, 30, a Mexican immigrant and father of three children in the Capoeira program has seen the difference the classes have made in the lives and behavior of his children. Though he forced them to attend the classes in the beginning, they now are eager to come because they enjoy it.

“The classes have helped them a lot and it has definitely changed and helped their behavior,” Prado said. “They were hyper and anxious, but now they are better behaved, a little bit more relaxed and focused on what they do.”

Prado said Capoeira classes will also help them be successful in the future, especially since their academic grades have improved.  He has seen the most academic improvement in Betsy, 8, one of his daughters, and his 6-year-old son, Israel, who now is enthusiastic about doing his homework.

In addition to Capoeira classes, Maculelê Miami Brazilian Arts Institute makes an effort to get involved in the children’s lives and keeping them out of trouble, particularly from getting involved with drugs that are prevalent in their community. They frequently sponsor day trips to Key Biscayne, to museums and to other parts of South Florida that the children wouldn’t otherwise know about.

In late March, instructors took three  girls from the class to the Brazil on the Beach event in Hollywood, Fla. To show of their Capoeira skills, and it early April, the class went to the Miami Art Museum for a field trip.

“Most of them had never been in a museum or the beach,” Castillo said. “They live in Miami, but they live in this different world where they think that the community is as big as it gets.”

Mico, Castillo and the other instructors try to expose these impoverished children to new things and new places, hoping to broaden the scope of what their students are used to and know. This includes riding an elevator, where most of them had never ridden before and were still talking about it a year later after their visit to one of Miami’s museums.

“This program is really special to us, and it’s our pride and joy,” Mico said, noting the positive impact it has on the children. “We are trying to turn them into good, productive citizens, and as they get older we will start seeing the benefits.”