A UC Santa Cruz student was shot in the back of the head at a bus stop near Natural Bridges State Beach while being mugged on Monday evening. Santa Cruz Police said the victim, a 21-year-old female, was waiting at the bus stop when the suspect approached her and demanded she give him the contents of her pockets. The suspect pointed a rifle at her and the victim reported being hit in the back of the head with it, at which point she ran away up Natural Bridges Drive and eventually flagged down a passing car.

Police said the woman was taken to Dominican Hospital, where doctors discovered that she had been shot in the head. The bullet was removed and she is expected to make a full recovery.

The suspect was described as a light-skinned male, 5-foot-7-inches tall with a gruff voice and a red bandana wrapped around his face, possibly driving a white PT Cruiser, according to the police report. Police combed the area with search dogs and thermal imaging equipment after the incident but were unable to find the suspect. Police said the search is ongoing and encourage anyone with information relating to the case to call their anonymous tip line, given below.

SCPD Anonymous Tip Line: 831-420-5995 

 Santa Cruz local shot and killed outside of the Red Room bar

Pauly Silva, a 32-year-old Santa Cruz local, was killed in a drive-by shooting near the Red Room bar in downtown Santa Cruz just after midnight on Saturday. Silva, a martial arts instructor and plumber, was standing outside the bar when several shots were fired at him from a passing car, striking and killing him, Santa Cruz Police said.

Police identified a possible suspect vehicle as a gray or green ‘90s model Mercedes. Two suspects driving a matching car were arrested in Watsonville later that night, and a third suspect was arrested Sunday morning. Police said additional details regarding the possible connection between the arrested suspects and the Silva’s murder will be released at a later date.

There were several witnesses present during Silva’s murder, but police said many of them have refused to cooperate with the investigation so far. Police have threatened to arrest those witnesses under suspicion of shielding the suspects if they do not cooperate. Police said they believe the murder may have been gang related.

Police said that a clear understanding of the incident has not yet been reached and that their investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information relating to the case is encouraged to call the SCPD’s anonymous tip line.

Illustration by Leigh Douglas

After two hours of training, the gloves come on. Tired students circle up for full contact fights. The room fills with excitement and tension as fighters test their knowledge for two long minutes.

The Thai Self-Defense class considers sparring as a gift for a long day of training . It’s the kind of gift they measure in bumps and bruises.

“We have constant supervision for sparring,” said club member Marlo Custodio. “We operate under the saying that ‘iron creates iron, steel creates steel.’”

The class is UC Santa Cruz’s newest martial arts club of the 11 different martial arts clubs registered with OPERS. The club practices a form of southeast Asian kickboxing called muay Thai, which has been popularized stateside through Mixed Martial Arts fights.

Club founder George Chen pointed out the practicality of the martial art beyond competitive use.

“Muay Thai is the most realistic martial art,” Chen said. “It’s a good style if you’re ever confronted on the streets or if you want to compete. It can be applied in any situation.”

Chen considers the Thai Self-Defense class to be an alternative to gyms that charge monthly fees in the area. The club is free, with money being spent only on gloves, shin and mouth guards for sparring.

Muay Thai differs from other martial arts because fighters adopt a more square stance and usually keep moving forward into their opponent’s attack, as opposed to moving around it. Club signer Travis Trinh believes that muay Thai is a more psychologically intense form of fighting.

“It’s more an in-your-face style,” Trinh said. “Once you get into your opponent’s head, that’s how you know you’ve won the fight.”

Fighters are allowed to clinch their opponents and use their knees and elbows, moves banned by other kickboxing disciplines internationally for being too rough.

For Chen, Custodio and Trinh, muay Thai is a passion each developed while in college. Chen found his passion for the martial art through his older brother, while Trinh and Custodio both fell into the sport unexpectedly.

Trinh found muay Thai through seeing someone practice the martial art on the East Field. Trinh discovered that he was a member of a prominent gym in San Francisco. Despite interest, Trinh had never practiced martial arts before.

“Everyone watched Jet Li or Jackie Chan movies when I was a kid,” Trinh said. “I wanted to properly learn how to fight.”

Custodio, a former high school wrestler, found the sport at what he considered to be the lowest period of his life. Custodio was battling anxiety from being in community college for four years, while his mother developed cancer. To compound his problems, Custodio was also broke.

“I told the sifu [a Cantonese term for master or teacher] that I’d wash the mats, I’d clean the toilets, anything to get the training,” Custodio said. “I began to train with them six days a week for nine months. It became my life.”

Custodio credits muay Thai for providing discipline in his life. Custodio became an amateur fighter, amassing a 1–0 competitive record before choosing to finish college at UCSC as a film and digital media major.

In his training, Custodio developed an interest in the spiritual side of muay Thai fighting. He spoke of muay Thai’s storied origins when a single sifu freed the nation of Siam from colonial Burmese rule in the 18th century.

Custodio believes that muay Thai offers empowerment through its learning.

“Muay Thai isn’t just fighting,” Custodio said. “In order to learn it you must practice poise, composure and self-discipline. Moderation is heavily emphasized.”

Club founder George Chen said the muay Thai community provides a strong experience for UCSC students.

“We look to build that sense of belonging,” said Chen. “There’s a real brotherhood with fighting.”

The Thai Self-Defense Class is every Wednesday and Friday from 5–7 p.m. in the OPERS Multipurpose Room. The club also practices from 12–2 p.m. on Sundays at the OPERS Martial Arts Room.

Mac Layne’s day isn’t complete without a roundhouse kick in his face.

“One of the main reasons I do it is that it makes me feel more alive every time I do,” Layne says. Grappling the nerves with determination, the UCSC fourth-year awaits the moment to demonstrate his ability.

“Add that to the fact that I feel so energized – it’s like a drug,” he says.

In Santa Cruz lies a haven for those like Layne who can’t live without the addictive thrill of narrowly avoiding a foot smashed in their face. While it’s not an underground fight-club-turned-crime-syndicate led by a charismatic schizophrenic, the rapid pace of the sport of Capoeira provides a support system to help Mac and like-minded individuals continue to do what they love, on and off campus.

“Everything you learn you apply it to certain parts of your life. In the Roda [circle in which Capoeira is played], you have to be smooth, but you also have to be objective. That’s something I’ve thought about a lot, definitely something I’m expecting to apply soon,” Layne said, referring to his upcoming graduation from UCSC and his hopes in applying this philosophy to his post-graduation life.

A group of Capoeira students in Mestre Papiba’s class display their hard-earned cords.

The Santa Cruz chapter of Raizes do Brasil, an international organization founded in New York City that has worked to help spread Capoeira around the world, held their 17th annual Batizado in Santa Cruz on May 14th. Directly translating into “baptism,” a Batizado is an event held for all the members of a Capoeira community to celebrate the arrival of new members and the graduation of deserving ones.

Sitting on the floor in line with five others of his experience level — all relatively new members — Layne maneuvers his way towards the inner circle, awaiting his turn in the Roda, which is surrounded by Capoeiristas and musicians. A woman sings in Portuguese behind him. Her long, brown hair and the large Brazilian flag behind her complement the wooden floor, striking shades of earthy brown, green and gray to the plainly walled room. Musicians clump together on one side, hitting berimbaus and other percussion instruments with fervor while singing in Portuguese. Capoeiristas rotate between playing music, sparring and simply being an energetic part of the Roda. They all sing.

At the center, two players spin and kick circles in the air, each one narrowly dodging the other’s line of fire. Driven by the mounting music, the kicks become faster, making each dodge narrower and narrower. Even the audience is sucked into the powerful energy, or Axe as the Portuguese say; clap clap clap, clap clap clap, clapping their hands in rhythm with the music. Beats in groups of three resound throughout the community room in Santa Cruz’s Louden Nelson community center. Amid all the energy, Layne hopes to prove himself in the Roda against a master of the art — no easy task — and earn a higher place in the Capoeira order.

From the edge of the Roda, Layne rises and walks slowly towards the center to face his opponent. Crouching together to prepare their minds for the acuteness they will need, they shake hands respectfully, waiting for the musicians to signal them in. Five quick snaps of the berimbau — Layne dives sideways and kicks out with his right leg, missing his target by an inch. The crowd claps gleefully around them, celebrating the kind of physical freedom that Capoeira brings.

So what is Capoeira?

“Capoeira is a game — part of the art is to be able to show the movement,” said Capoeira instructor Colin Maher. “We don’t have to shove [the opponent’s] head or get your dirty feet all over his clothes to show that you got him — he knows.”

Maher teaches Capoeira at UCSC on Saturdays and Mondays, and one of the things he emphasizes about the sport is its playful and celebratory nature.

Though never quite at center stage in western pop culture, Capoeira has found a home in California in the last few decades, planting roots in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Cruz. While Capoeira is traditionally taught as a viable option for self-defense, some of the new lure of Capoeira stems from the sport’s spirituality, both musically and communally.

Video games and movies have provided some limited yet visible examples of the martial art as a combat technique, steering the focus away from spirituality and more towards the fluid fighting style itself. Martial arts movies like “Only the Strong” (1993) and “The Protector” (2006) brought Capoeira’s viability as a fighting technique to Hollywood.

Perhaps most dear to fans of the video game Tekken, playable character Eddie Gordo specializes in Capoeira, challenging some of the most daring gamers to master his slippery style.

In addition, Capoeira has found its way into the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) arena. Andre Gusmao used elements of Capoeira to win many high-stakes fights in his professional career as a UFC fighter. While they bring media attention, these kinds of representations are often criticized for characterizing Capoeira as an aggression-sport and missing the deeper philosophy behind it.

Head of the Santa Cruz chapter of Raizes do Brasil, lead instructor Mestre Papiba noted that while Capoeira remains somewhat under the radar of the public, it has become increasingly popular with college. UCSC is a large contributor to the Santa Cruz community, and to his student base.

“The media promotes so many options to kids that endorse American culture at a young age,” he said. “Teenagers tend to endorse pop culture, and Capoeira is definitely not part of that pop culture. When people go to college they’re not really happy with what pop culture offers. Capoeira is complete, [it has] dance, music, action, [and] fun. It’s very fulfilling.”

“I think fundamentally this kind of culture is African,” Maher said.

Though known to have originated in Brazil, Capoeira is widely accepted as having its roots in Afro-Brazilian slave culture, particularly of the Yoruba tribe. As a way of resisting capture and containment, slaves and ex-slaves adopted a martial art that could be disguised as a dance and encouraged avoidance over offensive resistance.

Capoeira has since evolved from the days of the early freedom fighters, and today it is a widely practiced martial art.

“There’s Capoeira everywhere nowadays,” said Brian Cavalo de Faria of the Miami Capoeira Project in a promotional video addressing the popularity of Capoeira. “I know of at least one Capoeira group in every country — it’s something of a phenomenon … a few decades [ago] that was unheard of.”

Many still take up the sport as a form of self-defense, but some begin their training to access the spirituality and community that Capoeira can bring, especially in the United States.

“The reason I believe that Capoeira is getting really popular in the U.S. is the culture,” de Faria said. “The [Brazilian] culture is something that Americans love and is something that really draws a lot of non-Brazilians to the art.”

Like many activities with African roots, Capoeira utilizes percussion instruments to energize participants. Aside from momentous chants and energetic phrases in Portuguese, Brazilian drums, Berimbaus and bells are the mechanisms that fuel the Roda.

“The music drives the game,” said Maher of the indispensability of music to a game of Capoeira. “Not only does it give it the energy and the style, it drives it on and controls it. A Capoeirista has to be able to play music as well as dance. They have to do it all.”

Tagged out of the center of the Roda by another eager to play, Layne takes up a drum and begins to hit it to the beat of the music, demonstrating the need for this kind of fluency in different aspects of Capoeira. During the Batizado, students are tested on their ability to perform in all aspects of Capoeira in order to receive a promotion in rank, not just combat ability like many other forms of self-defense.

“I was baptized today,” said UCSC second-year Nick Larry, walking out of the Roda after sparring with one of his teachers. Larry started training Capoeira at the beginning of the year and is planning to continue as long as he attends UCSC.

“I was excited, and once I got out I was just happy,” Larry said. “I felt inducted in a sense, like it was my rite of passage.” As this is his first Batizado, Larry has just been promoted to the level of student, becoming one of the few to tackle the challenge of understanding the multi-faceted game of Capoeira and receiving a new cord to symbolize his growth in the sport. There are five ranks in total, symbolized by the many different schools in terms of belt color — student, graduate, formed, professor, and master. One is promoted based on his or her talent, but also by the level of dedication shown to the community through teaching and building a student base of one’s own.

UCSC sophomore Nick Larry proudly displays his new cord, signaling a promotion in the ranking system used by Capoeiristas. The cord reflects the growth in the sport he has shown during the Batizado, or Baptism, at the Louden Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz, on May 14.

“A lot of students expect the [promotion] to happen,” Papiba said. Papiba has been training in Capoeira for 25 years and teaching at the Santa Cruz chapter of Raizes do Brasil for 17 of them. The Batizado means something a little different for him.

“For me it’s the moment that we all get to come together and really be a family,” he said. “We talk a lot about philosophy — it’s a week of learning.”

Papiba has been teaching classes every day for the past week to help his students prepare for the event. With more than 10 schools coming together to participate in the annual Batizado, the days leading up to it are spent in training and preparation, fundraisers and workshops to enhance the experience.

“Some say it looks like dance-fighting, [but] its actually pretty dangerous,” said Amber Michaelson of the Capoeira club on campus. The club has shrunk considerably since its beginnings a few years back. Originally focused solely on the physical practice of Capoeira, it has since expanded to include a class on the fundamentals of Capoeira music. Michaelson is a current UCSC fourth-year and has been training Capoeira for four years, including a brief stint in Chile, which she now describes as her life.

“It’s a family — it’s exercise, there’s a lifestyle and a community when you do it,” she said.

Perhaps none would understand that better than Papiba himself — and after 25 years of practice, he seems to have settled into life inside the Roda as well as he has life outside of it.

“I feel a little more relaxed,” he said. “It becomes more of a spiritual experience now — I let the flow of Capoeira guide me. A lot of Capoeira is instincts. Naturally it becomes a lifestyle.”

Capoeiristas gather in a Roda, or circle where they get together to make music and play Capoeira.

In the 17 years he has taught at his school, Papiba has noticed the rising maturity of his students. Though the community has remained relatively the same size in number since the foundation of the school 17 years ago, he sees a noticeable growth in the core strength of the Santa Cruz community.

“You learn to let the rhythm come in and guide you,” said Trigo, who prefers to be called by her Brazilian name, and is Papiba’s first student. “You begin to think as you grow older that you have to learn to use your mind as well as your body — [it] really is a way of life.” Trigo has been to every Batizado in the last 17 years, and in that time she has seen herself grow in many ways through her training in Capoeira.

“I’m a coach for competitive soccer and also teach Capoeira to kids,” she said. “All of that comes from the confidence I get doing Capoeira.”

Throughout the day, many were promoted, some graduated, and a few received a dry baptism, the only moisture to touch their bodies being the few drops of sweat still clinging to their skin from the exertion. Near the back wall of the room, UCSC fourth-year Layne exits the Roda, walking forward with a new cord wrapped around his waist despite suffering a swift take-down from one of the masters present.

“Oh, you saw that, huh?” asks Layne, his laughing eyes showing no disappointment, only satisfaction. “It was fine — you just have to get back up and smile. You have to have a good attitude — you gotta have that playfulness. Just get back in there.”

Between two pairs of flying feet, two spinning forces of furious Axé, Layne dives back into the fray, just as he and his fellow Capoeiristas have plenty of times before, and will many times again.

Two students spar during the Krav Maga club’s practice. Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art that focuses on redirecting the attacker. Photo by Kyan Mahzouf.

“When people come to me asking me for a specific defense move, I tell them to go out for cross country, so that they can run away,” said second-year Zack Schick, co-founder of the UC Santa Cruz Krav Maga club. “I get a lot of stupid questions outside of the class, like ‘What happens if you get hit?’”

Schick and Cynthia Friedman, also a second-year, began UCSC’s first Krav Maga club last spring in an effort to educate fellow students as well as improve their own skills.

“We both really missed [Krav Maga] and we didn’t feel that there was anything parallel to it in Santa Cruz,” Friedman said.

Krav Maga, or “contact combat,” was developed in Israel after World War II and was used mostly by the Israeli army. Since then, the fighting style has expanded and is now a common form of self-defense across the world due to the effectiveness of its movements and attacks.

“It’s 100 percent practical fighting,” Friedman said. “There are no Krav Maga tournaments. It’s based on situations where you are at gunpoint or at knifepoint: How do you survive and get out with your life?”

New club members learn the basics of fighting and defending themselves.

“It’s practical. I learned how to punch properly,” said first-year Ben Lilly, swinging his arm to demonstrate how it is “just like grabbing milk from the back of the refrigerator.”

The more advanced students work on situations in which they practice defenses against armed attackers. The play knives and play guns are used by the attacker and the goal of the exercise is to redirect the weapon and counteract the offensive move

“The goal is: When attacked, become the attacker,” Schick said, while demonstrating a move to break his attacker’s nose and successfully gain control of the bright yellow rubber gun.

Schick’s and Friedman’s club has grown since last spring and it now has about 15 regular participants.

“It’s grown through word of mouth,” Schick said. “It’s become more goal-oriented. We get to learn more.”

Last Friday, the group’s lesson began with a warm-up. Then Schick and Friedman focused the day’s work on ground work, a rarity in Krav Maga.

“The motto of Krav Maga is ‘Don’t go to the ground,”’ Schick said. “If you do, get the fuck up.”

The group split off into pairs, doing two minute wrestling-on-your-knees-sorts of stunts — pushing, shoving and trapping opponents in between legs and then elbowing at the attacker’s crotch in order to get free.

“It’s a mentality of doing whatever you can to get out of there. If you could get away by kicking in the groin, then we teach you to do that,” Friedman said.“If your attacker has you in a dangerous situation, then you should hurt them.”