Caboclinho

Alfredo Martins Teixeira, known as Caboclinho, was a saveirista (operator of traditional saveiro sailing vessels) and capoeirista who became one of the most notorious figures at the Cais Dourado (Golden Wharf) in Salvador during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His name appears among the legendary practitioners of the era, specifically noted for his expert handling of the navalha (straight razor)—a weapon that became synonymous with the street capoeira of that period.

Caboclinho's life centered on the waterfront. As a saveirista, he was part of the maritime economy that connected Salvador to the Recôncavo Baiano, transporting goods like cachaça, tobacco, and sugar from ports like Santo Amaro and Cachoeira. The Cais Dourado was his stronghold—a universe of dock workers, stevedores, porters, and sailors who practiced capoeira amid their labor. The waterfront district of Pilar and the surrounding markets were notorious gathering points where capoeiristas congregated, played, and inevitably clashed.

He was "always a target of the police headed by José Alvaro Cova, a man who entered history as the greatest persecutor of capoeiras." Yet Caboclinho also had access to Major Cosme de Farias—the famous rábula (self-taught lawyer) who became known as "the greatest defender of capoeiras," intervening in legal proceedings and serving as "the lawyer of the disadvantaged." This duality was typical of the era: capoeiristas existed in a liminal space between persecution and protection, often serving as political muscle (capangas) while simultaneously being hunted by the same authorities.

One documented incident captures Caboclinho's violent world. On the Tabuão—a steep street connecting the Upper City (Cidade Alta) to the Lower City (Cidade Baixa)—he fought with Mangue Sêco, another capoeirista of the docks. Caboclinho "delivered a violent razor blow" and was arrested afterward at the Cais Dourado. The Tabuão itself was infamous for capoeira violence, including the 1889 "Massacre do Tabuão" when capoeiristas of the Guarda Negra ambushed Republican demonstrators.

Caboclinho is listed among the "exímios manejadores da navalha" (expert razor handlers) of Bahia, alongside Inocêncio Sete Mortes and Noca de Jacó. This skill with the navalha was not merely criminal—it was a survival art in an era when the razor served as "the greatest symbol" of capoeiragem before the berimbau took its place. Practitioners wore silk scarves (esguião) around their necks specifically to deflect razor strikes.

His contemporaries at the Cais Dourado included the legendary Besouro Mangangá who arrived from Santo Amaro via saveiro, Pedro Porreta the fish seller who dominated the Baixa dos Sapateiros, Tico the porter, Antônio Corró the cart driver, and many others—Mata Escura, Manoel Thié, Marinheiro, Mangue Sêco himself, and figures like Ignácio Loyola, Pedro Mineiro, and Três Pedaços. Together they formed a community that kept capoeira alive through the years of criminalization (1890-1937).

Like many of his generation, Caboclinho's fate after the early 20th century is unknown. He remains one of the anonymous ancestors who preserved the art during its most dangerous years—an era when documentation came not from celebration but from police records and newspaper accounts of street violence.