Of fado singers and thugs: the Portuguese and capoeira

Abstract

The presence of immigrants, of predominantly Portuguese origins, and white men in the gangs at the court of the second reign was a sign of the richness and complexity of the capoeira culture in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Shrewd enough to survive decades of harsh persecution and flexible enough to incorporate disparate elements of the most diverse origins, capoeira revealed during these years its strength as an «entrance gate» to the city for strangers, foreigners and the uprooted. Italians, Argentineans, Paraguayans, Germans, North Americans, Chileans, Frenchmen and Spaniards - a veritable hotchpotch of nationalities sought hiding in the shadows of capoeira. Developed by Africans in Brazil, capoeira was to have its destiny shaped by the cosmopolitan character of the capital of the empire. The mass participation of Portuguese immigrants in the capoeira gangs can be attributed to three distinct factors. Firstly, the overwhelming majority of foreigners in the city were Portuguese, who also made up a considerable part of the working population. Secondly, the cultural life of the more impoverished urban classes in Lisbon and other large Portuguese cities was very similar to that of the urban culture in the growing Brazilian cities of the 19th century. The blend of the slave culture in Rio and the world of the Lusitanian «fado singer» produced a symbiosis of Rio de Janeiro in the latter decades of the 19th century and has left an indelible mark on the soul of the city. The proximity of the living and working conditions and the ties of solidarity woven from misfortune and misery suggest that capoeira was often the fundamental link between cultures separated by miles and miles of ocean and centuries of history. Bonded by their common misfortune, Africans, Creoles and Portuguese demonstrated in post-1850 Rio de Janeiro to their contemporaries and subsequent generations how much culture could be transformed by even its most humble protagonists.