Maitá

Maitá was one of the famous capoeiristas of Santo Amaro da Purificação in the Recôncavo Baiano during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was notable enough to have a samba song composed in his honor—a rare distinction that speaks to his cultural significance beyond just the roda.

His fame comes to us primarily through the testimony of Mestre Cobrinha Verde, who listed Maitá first among the many mestres from whom he learned after Besouro Mangangá's death in 1924. In his autobiography, Cobrinha Verde stated: "I learned from many mestres in Santo Amaro. I will give their names one by one: Maitá (who even had a samba song named after him), Licurí, Joité, Dendê, Gasolina, Siri de Mangue, Doze Homens, Esperidião, Juvêncio Grosso, Espinho Remoso, Neco Canário Pardo."

That Cobrinha Verde placed Maitá first in this list and immediately noted the samba song suggests Maitá held a special status in the Santo Amaro capoeira community. The existence of a samba de roda honoring him indicates he was a figure of considerable local renown—samba de roda being the traditional music of the Recôncavo Baiano that shares deep roots with capoeira.

Santo Amaro da Purificação is historically recognized as "the birthplace of Bahian capoeira," in Cobrinha Verde's own words, and Maitá was part of the generation that made it so. He belonged to an era when capoeira was practiced informally in streets, docks, and festivals, before the establishment of formal academies. These proto-mestres passed down the art through lived experience rather than structured curriculum, training the next generation amid police persecution and the daily struggle of working-class life in the Recôncavo.

Nothing more is currently known about Maitá—his full name, his profession, his life story, or the lyrics of the samba that bore his name have not survived in documented sources. He remains one of the shadowy figures of capoeira's oral history: known to have existed, known to have been important, but preserved only in the memory of those who came after.