were allowed to participate in primary elections before the 1881 electoral reform, this still meant that a
significant section of the male urban professionals had to be convinced to vote for the ‘right’ candidate.
The case of the malta Flor da Gente can illustrate how the politicians used capoeiras to get elected
through gang violence. This malta was based in the Glória parish, a residential neighbourhood south of the
centre, home to many famous politicians of the time. Luís Joaquim Duque-Estrada Teixeira was a member
of the Conservative party, for which he was re-elected several times as a deputy. He also served as a justice
of the peace, which meant he was responsible for law and order in his district. Apparently he had become
acquainted with capoeira when a student at São Paulo’s law faculty. Duque-Estrada became the patron of
the Glória capoeira gang and openly used its members in the 1872 elections. On the run-up to the elections,
a Liberal newspaper denounced that 65 National Guards, many of them veterans of the Paraguayan War and
reputed to be capoeiras, had been transferred to the Glória district, to support Duque-Estrada and the
Conservatives. On the day of the election, members of the capoeira gang registered under false names and
provoked Liberal voters. In the ensuing conflict, some prominent citizens got sliced up by the razor of
Augusto César de Lima, the malta leader. Despite these actions, he openly sat in the parish church next to
Duque-Estrada, who, in his function of justice of the peace, had to oversee the election process. No wonder
the Conservatives won the elections in the district. Duque-Estrada referred to his capoeira aides as the
‘flower of my people’, and that expression subsequently became the name of the malta.^101
Capoeira gangs have often been condemned because of their employment by political parties during the
Empire. There can be no doubt that they contributed to exacerbate political violence and to render elections
farcical. C.E.Soares has argued, however, that one should not take the manipulation of capoeiras by
politicians for granted. As his research demonstrates, the maltas hired by politicians nonetheless pursued
their own agenda. Whether one wants to subscribe to his idea of a ‘capoeira party’ or not, the fact remains
that the close relationship between capoeiras and politicians also resulted in considerable rewards for the
capoeiras: they gained impunity, autonomy of action, and influence.^102
The republican purge
The alliance between Nagoas and the Conservatives on one side, and Guaiamus and the Liberals on the
other meant that repression of capoeiras by authorities was usually partial, and therefore ineffective. It was
restricted to the gangs affiliated with the opposition party excluded from power, whereas the maltas
supporting the government or local authorities enjoyed protection. However, this basic scheme was
complicated by a number of factors. First, links between capoeiras and the Liberals were never as solid as
with the Conservatives. The Conservative party was primarily the party of power, constituting the
government for most of the Empire and thus better placed to offer protection to gangs. Moreover, Liberals
were more reluctant to rely on capoeiras, since their political strategy consisted in mobilizing, and even
extending, the popular vote and in advocating clean elections, which, they thought, would mainly benefit
them. Liberal newspapers therefore often denounced the manipulation of ignorant black voters, especially
freedmen, supposed to only follow voting instructions from their former masters. The Conservatives, on the
other hand, managed to build up a strong clientele among the black population. After the abolition of
slavery in May 1888—a law passed by a Conservative government—they succeeded in mobilizing former
slaves and more generally blacks in support of the ailing monarchical regime. The Black Guard, created in
July of that year, brought together those who were ready to use violent means for that end, and most
prominently among them, the capoeiras.^103
Given that even the movement for the abolition of slavery had made arrangements with some capoeira
gangs, the Republican party, founded in 1870, was one of the few political organizations of the Empire
CAPOEIRAGEM IN RIO DE JANEIRO 89