João Pereira dos Santos or Mestre João Pequeno, was born on December 27, 1917 in the municipality of Araci, 210 km from Salvador, the capital of Bahia. The son of Maria Clemença de Jesus, potter and descendant of Indians and Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos, who was a professional cowboy at Fazenda Vargem do Canto in the Queimadas region.

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In 1933, a severe drought affected his home town.  At the age of fifteen, he fled on foot to Alagoinhas, then to Mata de São João, where he stayed and worked on a sugar cane plantation for ten years as an cow-herder.  It was during that time that he was first introduced to capoeira by Juvêncio at Fazenda São Pedro, who was a blacksmith and capoeirista.

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At the age of 25, João Pequeno moved to Salvador, where he worked as a train conductor and in the construction industry as a bricklayer, becoming a superintendent. He was working in civil construction when he met Candido who introduced him to Master Barbosa who worked in the loading docks in the Largo Dois de Julho, a historic district in the old center of Salvador. Barbosa taught the Capoeira classes and took his friends to Cobrinha Verde’s rodas on the weekend in the Chame-chame neighborhood.

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Around 1945, João Pequeno enrolled in the Capoeira Angola Sports Center, coordinated by Mestre Pastinha, and took him on as a Mestre. As a result, Mestre Pastinha's capoeira group ended up having two students named João. The older João came to be called João Grande (Big John) and he, being the younger of the two, came to be known as João Pequeno (Little John).

At the end of the Sixties, when Pastinha could no longer teach, he passed this responsibility over to João, saying: " João, you take care of this, because I am going to die. But, I die only the body and in spirit I live. While there is Capoeira, my name shall not disappear. "

Having to survive the harshness of the big city, João Pequeno also earned money by selling charcoal--carvão – at the market and eventually earned the nickname João do carvão. He lived in Garcia, in a simple home next to the Dique do Tororó.

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In the academy of Mestre Pastinha, João Pequeno taught capoeira to all the other capoeiristas, many whom today are known as great Masters, among them João Grande, that became a game partner, like Moraes and Curió. He was advised by Mestre Pastinha to work less and dedicate more to capoeira. Although he thought he would not live past the age of 50, he realized that he would live much longer when he reached his 50th birthday.

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Mestre João Pequeno’s first wife died, but sometime later he met Dona Mãezinha in Pelourinho, in the golden age of Mestre Pastinha's academy. They made a family and, with great effort, built a house in Fazenda Coutos, in a suburb, far from the city center, where they lived and received visits from capoeiristas from various parts of the world.

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Mestre João Pequeno believed that the Capoeirista should be an educated person and a good tree to bear good fruit. "Capoeira is very good, not only so the body stays flexible and young, but also as a way to develop the mind. It can even serve as therapy. In addition to having all these benefits, if you work it like you till the earth, you can even take sustenance from it."

Mestre João Pequeno saw capoeira as a process of individual development, a struggle created by the weak to face the strong, but also a dance, in which no one should hurt the pair with whom he dances. He defended the idea that the good Capoeirista knows to stop the foot so as not to hurt the adversary.

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Sometime after Mestre Pastinha's death in 1981, Mestre João Pequeno reopened the Capoeira Angola Sports Center (CECA) in Fort Santo Antônio Alem do Carmo in 1982, which would serve as the new base from which Capoeira Angola would spread thoughout world. Although he encountered many difficulties maintaining his academy, he managed to train some masters and a vast number of disciples.

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In the 1990s there were several attempts by the state government to vacate the fort of Santo Antônio for the purpose of reforming and modifying it. This effort to relocate the academy was in spite of the fact that it was an important cultural reference and that Mestre João Pequeno was widely honored--even receiving the title of citizen of the city of Salvador by city ​​council of councilors, Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Uberlândia, and Commander of Culture of the Republic by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.