Luiz Gonzaga De Sa Junior was born in Colinas do Tocantins on 19 July 1981, the child of Luiz Gonzaga de Sá and Josefa Assunçao de Sá, who currently live in the town of Palmas de Tocantins.
His first contact with capoeira was in 1989 in the town of Palmas de Tocantins, which was barely a year old. His attention was drawn to a capoeira class on a football pitch given at the time by Marcos Garcia Miranda, known today in the world of capoeira as Mestre Marcos. The course he was giving was part of a teaching project for underprivileged children in the new district of the new capital Palmas in the state of Tocantins. At the beginning, many children took part in this project, but as time went by, many stopped learning capoeira and only Luiz Junior remained from this first group of Mestre Marcos’ students.
1992 was the first baptism for the students of Mestre Marcos. In fact, it was their first contact with the great masters of Capoeira. And it was the same year that Luiz Junior received his first Capoeira grade, in other words, his Capoeira ‘baptism’, from his godfather Mestre Soldado em memoria, one of the best Capoeira Masters of the time.
In 1994, Luiz Junior represented the state of Tocantis and Tocantins capoeira in the jebs (Brazilian student games). The result was a great success for capoeira and the sport of Tocantins, with his placing in 4th position as the best capoeirista in Brazil at the time. This result enabled him to take part again the following year, but this time in the higher category, placing him among the top 10 capoeiristas in the competition. This marked his debut in the world of Capoeira championships, and he went on to win several regional, national and world titles.
Luiz Junior began his professional life in Capoeira in 1996. He started out as an instructor, giving lessons to schoolchildren. This is how he created his first group of students. Over time, he also began teaching Capoeira to adults.
In 2001, he began to take a new direction in his life as a capoeirista, joining the Abada Capoeira group. In 2002, he joined the Grupo Muzenza group.
In 2007, he felt the need for a new direction in his life as a capoeirista. On 30 November 2007, he founded the Grupo Capoeira Mandara in Barcelona, Spain. The founding of this group was the result of a great deal of reflection. The group’s beginnings were not as easy as all beginnings, but today the group is a reality and a recognised entity in international capoeirista society. The group is present in several countries, including Brazil, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Angola, Mexico and France.