Pinta Preta da Lapa

Antônio da Rocha Azevedo, known as Pinta Preta da Lapa, was the chief of the capoeiras of Glória and a member of the National Guard in Rio de Janeiro. His death on January 6-7, 1870, marks the first documented newspaper reference to the famous rivalry between the Nagoas and Guaiamús—the two great capoeira federations that divided Rio de Janeiro.

On the night of the Festa dos Reis (Epiphany or King's Day celebration), Pinta Preta led his Glória capoeiras in an attack on a "Sociedade de Reis"—a traditional celebration society—led by a man named Reginaldo. During the attack, they wounded a young man named Eduardo Felício from the Arsenal da Marinha who was playing piston (a brass instrument) with the society.

The wounding was taken as a grave insult. The following day, Manuel Maria Trindade (known as Manduca Tambor or Manduca Trindade), Antônio Pereira da Silva (known as Antonico Moleque or Antonico Capitão), Prudêncio José Ferreira, José da Silva Balão, and others planned their revenge. That night, while accompanying the same Sociedade de Reis, they received word that Pinta Preta and the Nagoas were on Rua da Alfândega. They went there disguised, beat him with clubs, and when he fell, Trindade delivered the fatal blow.

In a remarkable display of malandra cunning, Trindade and his companions whistled for the police, posed as victims of the Nagoas, and even helped with arrests of some Glória capoeiras. The next day, another man—João Maria da Silva Seabra, known as "Dr. Cereja"—was arrested for carrying a knife and boasting that he had wounded Pinta Preta. He was tried by jury and acquitted.

Two years later, in 1872, the chief of police was still investigating Pinta Preta's murderers, describing him in official records as a "member of the National Guard" and "chief of the capoeiras of Glória".

Pinta Preta's death triggered a cycle of vendetta killings documented by Plácido de Abreu in "Os Capoeiras" (1886): after Pinta Preta came the death of the "Caboclo Jacó" at Paula Matos, then the "Alemãozinho" near the Teatro Lírico do Campo, then César-Maneta on Praia do Peixe, and onward. As Abreu wrote, "these reprisals have continued until today".

His murder occurred on the eve of the return of Brazilian troops from the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), and historians suggest this timing was significant: the return of capoeiras who had been recruited for the war triggered a bloody struggle for positions with those who had stayed behind.