Mestre Querido de Deus

When Onça Preta was still a boy on the streets of Salvador, one name already passed from mouth to mouth among the dock workers and fishermen: Samuel Querido de Deus. By the 1930s, he was considered the undisputed king of capoeira in Bahia de Todos os Santos.

Samuel Francisco Barreto de Souza earned the nickname "Querido de Deus" (Beloved of God). He was a fisherman by trade, operating his own saveiro from the Port of Bahia, crossing the seas to southern waters and returning to sell his catch at the Mercado Modelo. Jorge Amado described him in 1944 as a tall, muscular man with an "indefinite color" shaped by years at sea - his complexion defied categorization, showing traces perhaps of indigenous or Italian blood mixed with African heritage, all weathered by sun and salt wind into something uniquely his own. His curly hair had begun turning white by then, marking over sixty winters of life.

There was no better capoeira player at the festivals of Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia in the first week of December than Querido de Deus. These annual celebrations at the basilica in Salvador's Cidade Baixa drew capoeiristas from across Bahia to demonstrate their skill. Samuel dominated these gatherings year after year, defeating all challengers with a game that combined patience and devastating precision. "Whoever he plays - it could be a 20-year-old guy, it could be the most agile or most technical guy in the world - Samuel Querido de Deus shows that he is still the Capoeira king of Bahia", wrote one chronicler. "Even his students stare wide-eyed with amazement at his rabo-de-arraia, because no one has ever seen such elegance".

In 1936, the Bahian press covered a public challenge between Samuel and Mestre Bimba, then a rising figure promoting his Luta Regional Baiana. The newspapers O Imparcial and Diário da Bahia reported the dispute over who held the true title of "maximum capoeira master" in the state. Bimba's response was measured: "Regarding Mr. Samuel de Souza, it is completely up to him to arrange a fight or a demonstration, so that the people who know us so well are not deceived". Whether they ever faced each other directly remains unrecorded.

The following year, 1937, brought Samuel into the intellectual spotlight. Edison Carneiro, the folklorist and researcher, included him as a key informant on Capoeira Angola in his book "Negros Bantus". Carneiro would later declare Samuel "the best capoeirista we've ever seen" - high praise from a scholar who had witnessed countless mestres. On January 14, 1937, Samuel led a Capoeira Angola exhibition at the II Afro-Brazilian Congress in Salvador, demonstrating the traditional art before intellectuals, researchers, and dignitaries. He played his famous game against Onça Preta before luminaries like Edison Carneiro and Jorge Amado.

Samuel's legacy extends into literature. Jorge Amado featured him in "Capitães de Areia" (1937), where he appears as "Querido de Deus" - a capoeirista friend of the gang who taught the art to some of its members. The character was drawn directly from the real Samuel, complete with the mystique and skill that made him legendary on the docks of Salvador. Amado returned to him in "Bahia de Todos os Santos" (1945), painting a vivid portrait: "the Capoeira king of Bahia de Todos os Santos".

On September 18, 1938, American anthropologist Ruth Landes, accompanied by Edison Carneiro, witnessed a roda in Itapagipe. Her photographs - now archived at the Smithsonian Institution - captured Samuel in action against Onça Preta. In her book "The City of Women" (1947), Landes described arriving at the spot where men were forming for capoeira: "Two capoeirists were squatting facing the musicians - one was the champion Beloved of God, with the Christian name of Samuel. He was tall, mulatto, middle-aged, muscular, a fisherman by profession". She documented how he smiled constantly while performing complex movements with prodigious agility.

His fame crossed borders. North Americans paid dearly to see him fight, and Brazilian cinematographers filmed his exhibitions. Yet Samuel showed a characteristic generosity - when poor Brazilian filmmakers approached him, he not only declined payment but invited them to lunch, though he had demanded large fees from wealthy foreign spectators.

Mestre Waldemar, reflecting in 1989, offered a more critical assessment: "Samuel Querido de Deus was good but was also a sopeiro. Just in the game. He would wait for you to jump to give you a headbutt. When you wanted to attack him back, he didn't want to play anymore. He was a crocodile". This patience - the ability to draw opponents into attack and then deliver devastating counters - was perhaps the secret of his dominance.

Samuel trained at least one formal student who carried his legacy forward: Juvenal Hermenegildo da Cruz, known as "Juvenal Engraxate" (Juvenal the Shoeshine). Samuel formally granted Juvenal the title of mestre, recognizing his qualities and potential. "This title was given to me by Samuel Querido-de-Deus", Juvenal later recounted. "Samuel liked my qualities and saw my future". Juvenal described his teacher as "uma onça" (a jaguar) and proclaimed that "Querido-de-Deus never lost a fight!" After Samuel's death, Juvenal continued the lineage, teaching at the ramp of the Mercado Modelo to dock workers and stevedores - the same community Samuel had served as a fisherman.

Despite not founding an academy or leaving behind many formal disciples, Samuel's influence remained profound. He left no written teachings, but his legacy lives through songs, stories, and the admiration of later mestres. He stands alongside Aberrê, Antônio Maré, Besouro, Bimba, and Pastinha as one of the first generation of modern capoeira mestres - the group born in the late 19th century who transformed a persecuted street practice into a recognized art form.

Samuel Querido de Deus died sometime in the mid-1940s. By January 1948, when O Cruzeiro magazine interviewed Juvenal about his roda at the Mercado Modelo, they spoke of Samuel in the past tense. The king of capoeira had passed, but his crown lived on in the memory of every capoeirista who had witnessed his elegance in the roda.