Madame Satã: What it Means to be a Malandro

Today's episode is about an extremely interesting legend in recent Capoeira history. We will be traveling to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1900's, only a few decades after slavery was abolished, and while Capoeira was still explicitly illegal. We are looking at a character who challenged what it meant to be a malandro, and really what it meant to be a man in Brasil at this time. Someone forced to the outskirts of society for who they were, but who nevertheless made a name for themselves that we remember today. A fighter, outlaw, dancer, and singer this person fully embraced all aspects of who they were, and that is not only incredibly inspiring, but also relates closely to Capoeira philosophies of duality and contradiction. We are talking of course, about Joao Francisco dos Santos, more commonly known as Madame Satã.

A note on pronouns: Though dos Santos was non-gender-conforming and was a very popular drag performer, all records indicate that he identified as a man. For that reason, I will primarily refer to dos Santos as "he/him" except when referring to him by the "Madame Satã" nickname where I will use "they/them".

The intro and outro music is from the 2002 movie "Madame Satã" which I highly recommend watching!

Link to discussion music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxepURsHSV8

Please send any questions/comments/stories to: desconfiado.mandinga@gmail.com