Zeferina

Zeferina de tal was a female capoeirista and valentona from Salvador, Bahia, documented in newspaper and police records from the 1910s and 1920s. Little is known about her beyond her fierce rivalry with Idalina Maria do Sacramento, another legendary valentona of the era.

The conflict between Zeferina and Idalina was rooted in their competition over prostitution territory ("ponto de prostituição") in the Distrito da Sé, a notorious area in Salvador's Baixa dos Sapateiros that was home to capadócios, valentes, and the incorrigible women who challenged social order.

On April 24, 1920, the Jornal de Notícias reported on their confrontation: "Foi presa mais uma vez ZEFERINA DE TAL, por brigar com sua companheira Idalina Maria do Sacramento" (Zeferina so-and-so was arrested once again for fighting with her companion Idalina Maria do Sacramento). The newspaper described how "encontraram-se as desafetas e foram ao duelo a murro e pontapé" (the rivals met and went to a duel with punches and kicks).

Both women had extensive police records, charged multiple times with "capoeiragem" - the practice of capoeira, which was criminalized under the 1890 Penal Code. Their use of fighting techniques identified them as practitioners of the art, though the line between capoeiristas and general street fighters was often blurred in police records of the era.

Zeferina was one of hundreds of "mulheres incorrigíveis" (incorrigible women) documented by Paula Juliana Foltran in her groundbreaking doctoral research at the University of Brasília. This research, conducted in the Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia, dismantled the myth that capoeira was exclusively a male domain, revealing that women actively participated in the street culture of early 20th century Salvador.

The term "de tal" (so-and-so) in her name suggests either that her full name was unknown to authorities, or that it was deliberately omitted - a common practice for marginalized individuals whose identities were considered unimportant by those recording their arrests. Despite this anonymity, her repeated appearances in police records and her documented rivalry with Idalina demonstrate that she was a recognized figure in the violent underworld of Salvador's streets.