Mestre Cláudio São Bento

Mestre Cláudio São Bento is one of the two students trained by Mestre Inauá Mendes who helped maintain the Onça Preta lineage in Rio de Janeiro. His fellow student was Mestre King Kong (Nelson Luís do Carmo), who would go on to found Grupo Capoeirarte and train the next generation of this lineage.

This lineage represents an important thread of Bahian capoeira angola transmission to Rio de Janeiro. It traces back to Mestre Onça Preta (Cícero Navarro, 1909-2006), one of the legendary angoleiros who lived through the transition from the first to second generation of Salvador masters. Onça Preta trained alongside Samuel Querido de Deus, Pastinha, Amorzinho, and Noronha, and co-founded the legendary Roda da Gengibirra in Salvador. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1959 and lived on Ilha do Governador, where he trained Inauá.

Through Inauá, both Cláudio São Bento and King Kong received the traditional Angola teachings that Onça Preta had brought from Salvador. While King Kong's trajectory is well-documented through his founding of Grupo Capoeirarte and training of Mestre Baia (who founded Geração Nagô), Cláudio São Bento's activities remain largely undocumented in available sources.

Cláudio São Bento's contribution to the preservation of this lineage is acknowledged in the primary historical records, though detailed biographical information about his life, teaching activities, and any groups he may have founded or led remains unknown. His apelido "São Bento" (Saint Benedict) connects to the deep relationship between capoeira and São Bento, the patron saint of capoeiristas.