Manoel dos Reis Machado - commonly known as Mestre Bimba - was born September 23 of 1899 in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). He would later be known as the legendary founding father of Capoeira Regional.

He started learning Capoeira when he was 12 years old, with a capitão da Companhia Baiana de Navegacão (Navigation Captain) in Salvador called Bentinho, even though, in those days, Capoeira was still being persecuted by the authorities.

Mestre Bimba's Capoeira was unique in that it retrieved movements from the original Capoeira fights, and added movements from another African fight called Batuque - a vicious grappling type of martial art that he learned from his father (of which his father was a champion), and he introduced movements created by himself.

In 1928, a new chapter in the history of Capoeira began, as well as a change in the way black people (of African descent, brought to Brazil as slaves) were looked upon by the Brazilian society. After a performance at the palace of Bahia's Governor, Juracy Magalhães, Bimba was finally successful in convincing the authorities of the cultural value of Capoeira, thus ending its official ban in the 1930s.

Mestre Bimba founded the first Capoeira school in 1932, the Centro de Cultura Fisica e Luta Regional, at the Engenho de Brotas in Salvador, Bahia. In 1936, Bimba challenged fighters of any martial art style to test his Regional style. He had four matches, fighting against Vítor Benedito Lopes, Henrique Bahia, José Custódio dos Santos (Zé I) and Américo Ciência. Bimba won all matches.

In 1937, he earned the state board of education certificate after he was invited to demonstrate Capoeira to the then President of Brazil, Getúlio Dorneles Vargas. Capoeira was proclaimed a Brazilian national sport.

In 1942, Mestre Bimba opened his second school at the Terreiro de Jesus - rua das Laranjeiras; today rua Francisco Muniz Barreto in Salvador, which is still open today. He also taught capoeira to the army and at the police academy.

For Bimba, Capoeira was a fight but "competition" should be permanently avoided since he believed it was a "cooperation" fight, where the stronger player was always responsible for the weaker player and helped him to excel in his own fighting techniques.