Mestre Leopoldina

Demerval Lopes de Lacerda, known as Mestre Leopoldina, was born on a carnival Saturday in Rio de Janeiro in 1933. His mother could not care for him, and he was often beaten and neglected by the relatives who took him in. As a child, he ran away and slept in train wagons, selling sweets to railroad workers at Central do Brasil station. His apelido allegedly derived from a Rio train station or a locomotive he used to imitate.

By seventeen, he had entered SAM (Serviço de Assistência ao Menor), a child care service, where he developed strong swimming skills. At eighteen, in 1951, he left SAM and began selling newspapers, eventually organizing a team of newsboys. It was during this time that he encountered Joaquim Felix - known as Quinzinho - a feared malandro with criminal convictions for murder, who led a gang and had already served time in the Colônia Penal.

Quinzinho was a capoeirista of the old style: tiririca, the capoeira without berimbau of the carioca reprobates, descended from the violent gangs of 19th-century Rio. His teaching method was informal - "do it like this... do it like that" - followed by harsh sparring. Leopoldina came every day at seven to train in front of Quinzinho's house. Within months, he became the only person who could truly play with his master.

A few years later, Quinzinho was arrested again and murdered inside the prison. Leopoldina disappeared from the streets, fearing reprisal from Quinzinho's enemies. When he returned, he learned that Valdemar Santana, a famous fighter, had brought a Bahian named Artur Emídio to Rio. Around 1954, Leopoldina became Artur's student, learning Bahian capoeira played to the berimbau - a completely different world from what Quinzinho had taught.

Leopoldina worked at Cais do Porto on the docks and joined Resistência, a dock capoeira group. He retired before age 45 due to a work accident, then devoted himself fully to capoeira. In 1961, he began teaching at Academia Guanabara in Rio de Janeiro. His classes were small - typically four to eight students - and he never taught for more than five years in the same location. He emphasized rodas and games rather than technique drills.

That same year, 1961, at age twenty-eight, he first paraded with Mangueira samba school at Carnival. Mangueira was the first samba school to include capoeira in its parades, giving the art great visibility. Leopoldina organized sixty capoeiristas to perform demonstrations in Mangueira's V.C. Entende wing. He maintained this partnership until about 1974.

Nestor Capoeira met Leopoldina in 1965 and was initiated into capoeira by him. Nestor would later become a prominent author and maker of the 2005 documentary "Mestre Leopoldina - A Fina Flor da Malandragem" (The Finest Flower of Roguishness), directed by Rose La Creta, which won the DOCTV 2004 contest and premiered internationally at Forum des Images in Paris. Celso Pepe also learned from Leopoldina at Academia Guanabara, absorbing the Angola game and São Bento Pequeno style.

Leopoldina taught capoeira at Atlética, the sports department of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Through capoeira, he traveled internationally to Switzerland, Italy, Amsterdam, Germany, and Senegal. From about 1990 onward, international travel became a regular part of his life. He developed close friendships with Grupo Senzala in São Paulo.

Beyond capoeira, Leopoldina introduced his students to Brazilian popular culture: samba, candomblé, and umbanda. He became associated with the spiritual entity Zé Pelintra from Umbanda - a trickster spirit that embodied the malandro philosophy. His famous saying, "A capoeira é a maçonaria da malandragem" (Capoeira is the freemasonry of roguishness), captured his worldview.

In 2005, when he was over seventy years old, he remained in excellent physical condition, playing at a fast pace with four or more young capoeiristas. He was one of the best-known masters of his time, alongside Mestres João Pequeno and João Grande. He died on October 17, 2007, in São José dos Campos.

Mestre Leopoldina was more than a capoeirista - he was a symbol of Rio's malandragem, cultural resistance, and the fusion between Capoeira Angola, Regional, and Carioca traditions. He is remembered by both Angoleiros and Regionalistas as a good-humored old master representing the authentic malícia and malandragem of traditional capoeira.