Valdevino

Valdevino was a capoeirista in Recife at the turn of the 20th century. His name appears in the historical record due to his arrest during police suppression campaigns against capoeira in the city.

According to Valdemar de Oliveira's 1942 work "Frevo, Capoeira e Passo", the police began a campaign against the capoeiras, sending Valdevino, João de Totó, and Jovino dos Coelhos to detention, others to the prison island of Fernando de Noronha, and others directly to the morgue.

The police campaign against capoeiras in Recife was part of a broader Republican-era crackdown. The suppression intensified under Police Chief Santos Moreira (1904-1908) and later Ulisses Costa (around 1911). Santos Moreira, following the example of Rio's Sampaio Ferraz, "sent some to the cemetery (for having resisted arrest), others to Detention, the most dangerous to Fernando de Noronha."

Valdevino was part of the generation of capoeiristas whose ginga and kicks, performed in front of the rival carnival bands of Recife, were eventually transformed into the "passo"—the foundational dance of frevo. The bands of "Quarto" (4th Artillery Battalion) and "Espanha" (National Guard) paraded through Recife protected by the agility, bravery, clubs, and knives of capoeiras like him.

The suppression of Recife's capoeira practitioners culminated around 1912, coinciding with the birth of frevo as a distinct musical and dance form. The jumps and ginga of these capoeiristas were their legacy to Pernambuco's culture.