Roque

Roque was an early twentieth-century capoeirista from Salvador, Bahia, who taught in the Curva Grande neighborhood of the city's Centro Histórico. He is documented as one of three teachers who instructed young Gaguinho Preto (Everaldo Arcanjo de Assis, 1934-2002) starting when the child was just four years old, around 1938. According to velhosmestres.com, Gaguinho Preto "learned with Menino Gordo da Curva Grande, with Roque and Victor H.U., passing by Pastinha's CECA and Zeca do Uruguai".

The Curva Grande neighborhood, part of Salvador's historic center, had established capoeira activity since at least 1917, when Mestre Noronha documented a roda there. That year, capoeiristas were invited to a roda at Curva Grande that turned out to be a trap set by the Military Police—a violent confrontation ensued. This context illustrates the dangerous environment in which Roque and his contemporaries practiced and transmitted capoeira during the era of persecution.

Roque taught alongside two other mestres in Curva Grande: Menino Gordo da Curva Grande and Vitor Agaú (Victor H.U.). Vitor Agaú was a more prominent figure who would later be present at the founding of CECA in 1941 and was remembered by Mestre Onça Preta as one of his teachers. Together, these three men formed young Gaguinho Preto's foundational training before he moved on to formal instruction at Pastinha's Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola.

This Roque is distinct from the better-known Mestre Roque Mendes dos Santos (born 1938), who became one of the four founding lineages of contemporary capoeira in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio-based Roque was born in 1938—the same year that this earlier Roque was teaching in Curva Grande—making them clearly separate individuals.

Nothing is known of this Roque's full name, his teachers, or when he died. Like many early capoeiristas who operated outside the formal academy structure, his legacy survives only through brief mention in the oral testimony of those he taught.