“Going home with bruises, aches and pains is a small price to pay to learn the art of kajukenbo the way it was meant to be.”

“I'd do anything for him, all of us would, he's just that kind of man.”

“Not every road is a straight one. Sometimes there are detours on the road to fulfilling your dreams. We still get there, we just have to approach it from another avenue. Never give up. There's more than one way to get where you want to go."

Words like this don't come easily for kajukenbo grandmaster Emil Bautista. His dream of going to college and becoming a physical education teacher looked as though it had ended, almost before it began when he found himself enlisted in the Army with a wife and child to support. He didn't give up on the dream; he simply approached it from a different avenue.

The detour happened to be through a martial art school. And the avenue wasn't really so different after all. The school, run by the late kajukenbo pioneer instructor Aleju Reyes, was located on Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. 

“Back in 1961, just after I got out of the Army, I worked for a vending machine company and through them I had base privileges,” Bautista recalled. “I'd walk by the base gym every week and watch them train in one of the wrestling rooms. It looked interesting and so I started taking classes there. I trained for a little under a year and then the company lost its bid for the contract. That was the end of my training.”

Or so he thought. Less than six months later, he came across the Tony Ramos kajukenbo school in Fairfield and began training again, not realizing until weeks later that it too, was a kajukenbo school. 

“Tony Ramos taught me kajukenbo,” Bautista explains. “He gave me back my dream of being a physical education teacher, maybe not in the strictest sense of the word, but what he gave me has been the basis for my entire adult life. In my heart, I know that if it weren't for Tony Ramos, I wouldn't be here teaching, I wouldn't be where I am today.”

Paying Their Respects

Today, Bautista is the owner of the longest-running martial art school in Vallejo, Calif., and one of the longest-running kajukenbo schools in the world. Bautista has conducted classes in the Benicia Road facility four nights a week since 1968 and if the recent celebration of the school's 35th anniversary is any indication, still looks to be going strong. To commemorate the important milestone, over 250 past and present students, parents, friends and family recently gathered for a two‑day affair, which included a day‑long seminar and picnic.

“So many people came to pay their respects to the school and to grandmaster Bautista,” declared sifu Clarence Isadore, a fifth-degree black belt instructor for the school's teen class. “The turnout was even better than we expected. It shows what a really great reputation the school has had all these years.”

Bautista's school has also had the distinction of being the Northern California Headquarters for the Kajukenbo Self‑ Defense Institute, Inc., an honor conferred upon it back in 1993 by the organization's founder and one of the style’s original creators, sijo Adriano Emperado.

After 35 years of teaching students, he's seeing the second- and third-generation of some families now training at the school. Bautista can also lay claim to teaching a Grammy Award winner, two pro football players, a three‑time NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, and a Super Bowl ring recipient. But he says he's most proud of those students who train hard every day, especially those who make it earn their black belts.

Coming Back for More

The school has a good track record of those too. In many cases, students who reach black belt tend to fade away, some opening schools of their own, some eventually losing interest, others simply moving on to new things. That has not been the case with the Bautista’s kajukenbo school. There are currently 20 black belts training with Bautista on a regular basis. Most are his own, but some are visitors from others schools, either seeking advanced knowledge or just looking for a friendly place to train while away from home. 

"Grandmaster's love of teaching and training in the martial arts has been a great source of inspiration to me,” notes black belt Nick Melas. For the past 11 years the fifth degree has traveled twice a week from his home in San Francisco to the Vallejo school. What should be an hour's drive one way, can sometimes take two or more because of the high volume of commuter traffic. But Melas wouldn't have it any other way.

“His dedication by example allowed me to always keep the enthusiasm in training throughout the years,” he adds. All of his black belts seem to feel the same way. Professor Mitch Powell, one of two professors under Bautista says, "I still train at the school because I like being around grandmaster Bautista. He's a great martial artist, a very humble man, a father figure, and a true friend. What more can you ask for?” 

Bautista follows the “three A’s” philosophy in his teaching “Attendance, Attitude and Ability,” he explains. “You need all three of these to succeed in our school. You can have the attendance and the ability but without the right attitude, you just won't survive. I have a rule, ‘You show me, and I'll show you.’ Show me you are willing to work hard and that you really want to learn and I'll teach you everything I can.” 

And he doesn't let them stop there. He's been known to encourage his black belts to go out and seek other schools and styles. He believes in the theory that knowledge is good and more knowledge is even better. 

“As long as they remember that their home is here and that kajukenbo is their heart,” the grandmaster notes.

Bautista, who welcomes students from other schools, has a saying, “As long as these doors remain open, we'll be here for anyone who wants to train.” 

“Grandmaster just enjoys teaching. He is the most humble man that you will ever run across,” claims Albert Saddler, a student at the Vallejo school for over ten years. The fifth-degree black belt is the grandson of George Seronio, one of Joe Emperado's original students in Hawaii.

“If you don't know grandmaster, you wouldn't know what to call him. He never wears anything to indicate that he is a grandmaster. We students can only wish to be as humble as him.

A Step Beyond

Bautista believes that his instructors have taken his teachings and gone a step further.

“What sifu Clarence Isadore and sibok Shannon Harris have put together for the teen and kids classes is a program that's not just about martial skills, but about the history of the arts and especially about the rich history of kajukenbo,” Bautista says with pride.

“There are classes where the school's philosophy and protocol are emphasized, where they learn about the respect we pay to the teachers and students who have come before us. And just as important, they learn that they have a say in the future of kajukenbo. If you can get them interested, get them involved, then you have a student for life.”