Percílio

Percílio, also known as Percílio Engraxate ("Percílio the Shoeshine"), was one of the 22 founding mestres of the Centro Nacional de Capoeira de Origem Angola, the historic gathering at Ladeira de Pedra in the Gengibirra area of Salvador's Liberdade neighborhood. This center, established in the 1920s during the era when capoeira was still criminalized in Brazil, served as the primary meeting place for traditional capoeira angola practitioners.

Like many capoeiristas of his era, Percílio worked as a shoeshine boy (engraxate) - a common occupation among Salvador's urban poor. The nickname "Engraxate" distinguished him from other practitioners, similar to his contemporary Juvenal Engraxate (Juvenal Hermenegildo da Cruz), who shared the same profession.

Mestre Noronha, who documented the history of Gengibirra in his manuscripts (later published as "O ABC da Capoeira Angola" in 1993), remembered Percílio among the "bambas" (skilled fighters) of capoeira's past. Percílio was present at the historic gathering when, on February 23, 1941, Mestre Aberrê introduced Mestre Pastinha to the roda at Gengibirra, leading to Pastinha's assumption of leadership and the eventual transformation into CECA.

No further biographical details about Percílio have been documented.