Carlson Gracie’s legacy in Chicago

By Guilherme Cruz

Photos personal archive

Master Carlson Gracie passed away three years ago, but his legacy remains alive, and not only in Brazil. Living for two years inChicago, USA, André “Negão” is working hard to promote the gentle art since 2007, where the black belt began to teach at Carlson Gracie Chicago, but started an independent project.

"We decided to follow our path and enter the company of an academy in the heart of Chicago, where we have a larger structure and began to build our group. I had the honor of graduating three students of the wistful Master Carlson Gracie” says André. "All three are persons aged above 40 years and began to train with the Master when he moved to Chicago and, after his death, lost the pleasure to train, because, for them, the Jiu-Jitsu had to be with someone real. I don’t know if it was a gift from God or because we resist the cold and the snow (laughs), I got this big responsibility and honor to teach the latest people who have had the pleasure of taking classes with Master Carlson".

Initially with 30 black belts, André and his wife, Hannette Quadros, already account the success of the duo in Chicago. "At exactly one year ago, my partner had about 30 students. Today, the school already shows positive results after this partnership, where we almost tripled the number of students. It was almost a year of hard work together with Hannette", said the black belt, who formed, next to Hannette, his first black belt inAmerica. "We made our first belt delivery here in Chicago, where 12 students were graduated: eight in blue, three in purple and a one black belt".

Seven times world champion of Jiu-Jitsu, Hannette celebrated the success of her student, the North American Sharon. "Sharon started with Hannette for about a year. She debuted at the Pan and made four fights, staying in third place. Right after that, she fought the International Novice and was champion, making three fights. Our job is ours and we are already reaping the fruits that we started to plant recently. Make a student is something completely different then getting somebody ready, so I let my congratulations to the excellent work that Hannette is doing, because today she divides her time helping me in male classes, their training, which are of about four hours per day, private lessons and her female class", says André.

With the work in Chicago, André makes his objective clear. "I want to teach the real Jiu-Jitsu, from A to Z, step by step, how we learn and how it works. We don’t see the no-gi as the main method in our teaching, we are worried to keep what is taught in Brazil. We don’t care about the many MMA academies, where you learn a little of everything. We want to make black belts of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, give opportunity to the weaker, the helpless, the insecure, the women and children to be able to learn this noble art", concluded the black belt.