Written by Chiara Lea
The origin myth of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu begins in the 1920s, when a young, rebellious, and wild Carlos Gracie, was forced by his father to learn Jiu Jitsu as a way to calm his temper. After moving to Rio de Janeiro, Carlos built a small and impoverished school where “the only people to see value in what Carlos Gracie had to teach were Law Enforcement officials” (Gracie Barra, 2018). The Marques de Abrantes school united the Gracie brothers in the goal of teaching and spreading Brazilian Jiu Jitsu across the world. The Gracie family has continued this tradition with the family still teaching and opening schools in multiple different countries. Yet, Helio Gracie is the real protagonist of this story. A small and weak fighter, Helio adapted Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to incorporate Caporea and a different style of fighting focused on group work. Helio and the other Gracie men opened the world of martial arts to the Brazilian public in a new way that appealed to the ‘underdogs’. Helio created a new martial art that anyone despite their physical strength or gender can engage in (Gracie Barra, 2018).
What others might not know is that the Gracie family were actually fallen aristocrats backed by a xenophobic dictatorship in an attempt to establish a Brazilian national identity of strength (Cairus, 2011). This changes the story a bit
Japanese Jiu Jitsu is a type of martial art focused on grappling and submissions. Originally named to mean the gentle art, it appears to solidify as a sport in Asia but it becomes the most popular with the samurai in Japan during the 1700s. The sport then travels to Brazil during the 1920-1930s when Japanese agricultural workers start to immigrate due to economic struggles (Cairus, 2011). Often treated like slaves, the Japanese immigrants were publicly discriminated against. During the 1930s, debates of how to classify the ‘race’ of the Japanese and bans on immigration from Japan were being openly held (Cairus 2020).
It was during those debates that Carlos Gracie opened his Brazilian school. At the same time, Getulio Varges led a coup to become the President and Dictator of Brazil, creating the Estate Novo period of Brazilian history. During Varges’ rule, racialist doctrines were put into policy. Assimilations or ‘Nationalism by Elimination’ defined Brazilian society. Vargas used nationalism and xenophobia to create a new cultural identity for Brazilians. The Japanese immigrants were often blamed for the economic problems that plagued Brazil in the 1930s. The Anti-Japanese movement led to the creation of a national quota on immigrants. Even in modern renditions of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, the anti-Japanese sentiment continues as in 2023 Gracie Barra states on their official history of BJJ that the immigration occurred “to help establish the Japanese colony in that [Brazilian] region”(Gracie Barra, 2018). This ‘colony’ never existed, in actuality, during a period of hardship in 1907 Japan signed an agreement to send Japanese laborers to Brazil to lessen their social security burden.
As Brazil became more nationalist the Vargas Regime was brought into power by the Integralist Party. Realizing it was losing power, the Integralists backed a fascist coup which failed. A list of party members was found during this time, on it was the name Helio Gracie.a The Integralist Party used nationalist rhetoric to preach about creating a Brazilian identity for the Brazilians. Tied to Nazism and Facism, the Integralist Party used techniques employed by Hitler to curry favour with both the elites and the working class. Using the phrase ‘God, Country and Family’, the Integralist Party of Brazil adopted green shirts as a way to label their members and a Nazi-like tag (‘Integralist Action (AIB)’, retrieved in 2023).
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu began to gain popularity during this time with law enforcement. Specifically, the Policia Especial created by Vargas were taught Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Cairus, 2020). As the fear of a successful revolt began to bubble up, the Police forces were given more authority as the civilian departments began to merge power with the armed services. Their primary loyalty was to Vargas as a way to avoid being swayed as prior groups in the government had been during the 1935 coup attempt (Cairus, 2020). Vargas’ fear of another coup led him to invest in the training of his guard which furthered the Gracie influence. They used the idea of a strong Brazil using only Brazilian knowledge to grow its base. Articles and adverts in the newspapers of the time claimed Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was a primary way to display one’s masculinity. As a result of the changing dynamic, the Gracie family and the Vargas Regime seized the opportunity to promote their ideal ‘Brazilian Man’.
As Brenin and Cooley write, sports becomes a way for a nation to view itself simplistically. During the shifting of Brazilian core values, the Gracies became like a football team, a family that Brazil could support against the ‘other’. Sports “ostensibly functions as a ‘protector’ of particular national identities; a space in which the ‘imagined community’ is performed, consumed and (re-)produced by society” (Brentin & Cooley, 2016). One need only recall the intensity of English football fans during the Euros in 2021. By using the connotation of ‘Brazilian’ Jiu Jitsu, the sport adopts a nationalistic role. The individual fighting becomes a symbol representing the nation through their encapsulation of that period’s ideal man. Sportive nationalism exists for two purposes; to reconcile any major ideological or political battles, and to unite the ‘nation’. In the case of Vargas’ Brazil, the national/nation was strictly defined. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fits itself into that definition of nationalism by becoming a weapon of the state. It was publicly shown as a tool against immigrants and against those that didn’t fit the definition.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu became a tool of the state through its image and its more literal violence. BJJ was a state sanctioned weapon used to protect Vargas’ ideals. Not only is it a theoretical tool of the state but a physical one as well. Focusing on the theoretical aspects, martial arts is an area rife with mythological characters. From Bruce Lee to Helios Gracie, many nationalists have used martial artists to boost the national image of strength. The success from sports becomes a source of national pride even more so when the success can be tied to cultural pride (Stein, 2023).
Gracie Jiu Jitsu or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is rooted in Brazilian nationalism. It starts as blending areas of existing martial arts which creates a uniquely Brazilian identity. It takes what it considers to be ‘lesser’ arts, Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Caporea, to create a higher art, BJJ. As President Vargas comes to power, BJJ becomes an ideal used to identify the ‘other’, Japanese immigrants. Used by the police, BJJ shifts into a physical symbol of oppression against anti-Vargas parties. Taking ideas from the ‘Fascist Man’, Vargas and the Integralist Party use BJJ to create their ‘Brazilian Man’, a uniquely Brazilian weapon. As of 2023, the Gracie Family still holds significant power in the martial arts space being linked with UFC Champions, Olympic Champions, and mythical heroes (‘Evolve MMA’, 2020). As BJJ has spread globally, the legend of the Brazilian man has survived through it.
a This has been published in a peer reviewed paper by José Cairus, but I have yet to fing the original source of this claim
Bibliography:
Brentin and Cooley . “Nationalism and Sport – the State of Nationalism.” Stateofnationalism.eu, June 2016. https://stateofnationalism.eu/article/nationalism-and-sport/.
Cairus, José. (2011). Modernization, nationalism and the elite: The Genesis of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, 1905-1920. Revista Tempo e Argumento. 03. 100-121. 10.5965/2175180303022011100.
Cairus, José. (2020). ‘Nationalism, Immigration and Identity: The Gracies and the Making of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 1934-1943’, Martial Arts Studies 9, 28-42. doi.org/10.18573/ mas.105
Evolve MMA. “The Rise of the Gracie Family and BJJ.” Evolve Daily, August 13, 2020. https://evolve-mma.com/blog/the-rise-of-the-gracie-family-and-bjj/.
Gracie Barra. “Gracie Barra,” January 20, 2018. https://graciebarra.com/why-gracie-barra/heritage/#:~:text=1925%20%E2%80%93%20The%20First%20Gracie%20School,could%20bring%20to%20one’s%20life..
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Identity Hunters 