Madrid has the chulo, Buenos Aires the compadron, Lisboa the fadista, and Rio de Janeiro the capoeirista. The capoeirista supersedes his rivals in the various styles of quickness and physical skill. He is a talented acrobat. He jumps, he turns his body totally inside out to avoid falling, and gives a headbutt. And he does this quickly, calmly, and subtly, without being ostentatious. Two, three, four of his blows – which come continuously and simultaneously – embarrass, confuse, dizzy, and dominate his adversary.

He is a loyal enemy, never attacking when your back is turned. He is a brave guy. Also nicknamed capadócio (bum, tough guy) and malandro (street-smart guy, unsavory character), the capoeirista, as evidenced by the name, comes from the capoeiras of the colonial age. And it is not just the idle vagabonds, the runaway kids, the escaped slaves who are capoeiristas – it is also journalists, deputies, engineers, and generals. The famous capoeira played in the early morning hours in Rio at the old Café Londres involves scholars and military men.

In Rio de Janeiro of the old days, capoeira was an organization appropriately divided into teams: the guyamús, the nagôas, flor da gente, fransiscanos, luzitanos, conceição da marinha, conceição da glória, bocas-rasgadas, natividades, monduros, caxinguelês, etc. [All names of capoeira "gangs" in Rio around the turn of the 20th century]

These teams clashed daily in the streets in terrible conflicts, and because they were a serious threat to public security, they were energetically persecuted by a capoeirista himself: Dr. Sampaio Ferraz, the ex-chief of police. With their numbers lessened, today capoeiristas are rare and are no longer identified by their groups, but instead individually, by their own names.

A capoeirista's birthplace, neighborhood, women, physical and/or moral characteristics all influence the name and fame of the modern malandro: "Cardosinho da Saúde" [Cardosinho from Saúde (a neighborhood)], "Hespanholito" [Little Spaniard], "Canella de Vidro" [Glass Shin], "Galleguinho" [From Galicia (in Spain)], "Cabelereira" [Hairstylist], "Mulatinho do Catete" [Mulatto from Catete (a neighborhood)], "Camisa Pretas" [Black Shirt], "Treme-Treme" [Shake-Shake], "Carvoeiro" [Coal-Seller], "Cabo-Verde" [Cape Verde], "Bonitinho do Castello" [Pretty Boy from Castello (a neighborhood)], and "Paulo da Zazá."

The modern capoeirista, like the capoeirista of the old days, is unemployed. With his abilities and dispositions, he does the same thing as the fencers of the seventeenth century. He puts his acrobatic talents at the service of magnates, of politicians, and especially of owners of gambling houses, from the elegant clubs to the sordid establishments, from the cabarets to the ranchos. When guarding one of these lairs he is a lion, a domestic lion. He risks his life carelessly and it ends, invariably, in an explosion of tragedy. "Either I'll go up or go down," he says, referring to going to prison (going up) or dying (going down).

The real malandros are hungry for fame. They consider the job of guarding a gambling house a matter of life and death. They don't want to damage their reputation or lose face. We erroneously labeled the malandro as a bandit. However, he is not so low. You have to get to know him to see how he is nice, polite, and generous… as an enemy, he is cruel; but when he goes to visit you he brings news and presents: cigars, tobacco, and newspaper, having taken the precaution of tricking the guard.

But with the same hand that he offers these generosities, he will kill a man. And, with the same ease, he plays the guitar, the cavaquinho, the berimbau. These little tunes that we sometimes hear sung in the sleeping and deserted streets are composed by him, as a poet.