Juvelino

Juvelino was a capoeirista in early 20th century Salvador who was killed during the brutal persecution led by Police Chief Pedro de Azevedo Gordilho, known as "Pedrito". This persecution, which began in 1920 when Pedrito assumed command of the Bahian police cavalry, represented one of the darkest periods in capoeira history.

Mestre Onça Preta, who witnessed this era as a boy and whose own legs were scarred by Pedrito's cavalry during a raid, recalled Juvelino among the fallen in a 1972 O Dia newspaper interview: "Besourinho, Doze Homens, Mãozinha, Antônio Galindéu, Geraldo Chapeleiro, Finado Manteiga, Nagé, Paulo César de Moura, Gasolinha, Juvelino e muitos outros" ("and many others").

According to Onça Preta, Pedrito's cavalry squad "empreendeu verdadeiro massacre entre os velhos mestres do jogo, não em combate aberto. Em geral os assassinava após a captura, aparecendo o corpo dias depois atirado ao mato, as costas abertas de facadas" ("undertook true massacre among the old masters of the game, not in open combat. Generally he assassinated them after capture, with the body appearing days later thrown in the bush, backs opened with knife cuts").

No further biographical details about Juvelino survive beyond this single reference in Onça Preta's testimony, making him one of the many anonymous victims of state violence against Afro-Brazilian culture and resistance. The brevity of his historical record stands in stark contrast to the life that was violently cut short.