Chicão

Francisca Albino dos Santos, known as Chicão, was a formidable valentona (tough woman) who operated in the streets and brothels of early 20th century Salvador, Bahia. In a world where capoeira was criminalized and female practitioners were exceptionally rare, Chicão carved out a fearsome reputation that made her name synonymous with female defiance.

Chicão worked as a prostitute and was well-known to the police forces of Salvador. The book "Mestres e capoeiras famosos da Bahia" dedicates a chapter to her titled "Chicão: Tá pensando o quê?" (What are you thinking?), situating her among the legendary figures of Bahian capoeiragem.

The most documented episode of her life occurred on September 28, 1929. Pedro Porreta, one of Salvador's most notorious capoeiristas and the man known as one of "Os donos do quarteirão" (The owners of the block) in the Baixa dos Sapateiros neighborhood, invaded Chicão's room. He was searching for intimate clothing belonging to one of his female companions who resided with Chicão. Feeling violated, Chicão unleashed a barrage of precise blows that left Porreta badly beaten. The newspapers of the era reported the "valente Porreta" - this feared fish seller and pimp who had killed men and dominated entire neighborhoods - arriving at the police station covered in injuries.

Chicão was detained for the assault, but her story did not end there. Some time after this confrontation, Pedro Porreta was assassinated, and Chicão emerged as the main suspect. Whether she was ever convicted remains unclear in the historical record, but the episode cemented her reputation as a woman who could not only stand up to Salvador's most dangerous men but eliminate them entirely.

The academic Paula Juliana Foltran in her doctoral thesis "Mulheres Incorrigíveis: capoeiragem, desordem e valentia nas ladeiras da Bahia (1900-1920)" includes a chapter titled "Chicão, a última dos tempos dos valentes" (Chicão, the last of the brave times), examining how Chicão's story has been treated in capoeira historiography and challenging the "masculinization of bravery and disorder" that has often erased women from capoeira's violent past.

Chicão stands alongside other legendary valentonas of Bahia - Salomé, Maria Doze Homens, Angélica Endiabrada, Rosa Palmeirão, Massú, and Catu - women whose handling of razors, knives, and their own fists led researchers to believe they were indeed capoeiristas, even when formal proof is elusive. The scenarios were the streets, the brothels, the prostitution zones. The motives were jealousy, alcohol, personal rivalries. These were the defining characteristics of the old capoeiristas of Bahia, and Chicão exemplified them as powerfully as any man.