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Antônio Raimundo Argolo
Mestre Aberrê (ABR)
6/Aug/1895 - ?/Sep/1942
ABC of M ABR
1895 - Antônio Raimundo Argolo was born on the 6th August in Salvador, same year as Besouro, son of Ângelo Argolo and Maria R. de Argolo.
1910-12 - Learned capoeira with M Pastinha and/or with M Antônio de Noronha. Later trained on the lowland of Matatu Preto, in Matatu neighborhood.
1935 - Started to teach M Canjiquinha (who was then 10 years old).
1936 - Aberrê challenged Bimba in Parque Odeon in Salvador on 25th March and Onça Preta (Cícero Navarro) on 16th May.
1938 - Possibly appears on Ruth Landes' photos on 23rd October [see more below!].
1939 - On the 23rd February started to work as a mason in Santa Casa de Misericórdia da Bahia. He lived in Pitangueiras, n° 50.
1941 - He helped M Pastinha to return to capoeira Angola.
1942 - Died in September in Fuisco de Baixo [Crossing?] , Jacaré [Slope?], according to M Pastinha's manuscripts.
Places of importance
In the words of M Canjiquinha, 1989
«I learned capoeira in 1935 and my master was the deceased Aberrê. If I know anything, I thank him for it.
I was a boy, a boy. There was a lowland called Matatu Preto, a hill in the Matutu neighborhood and there at the bottom was a square, a shrie. There came, on Sundays, all these capoeiristas, came Onça Preta, Geraldo Chapeleiro, Totonho Maré, Creoni, Chico Três Pedaços, Pedro Paulo Barroquinha, the late Barboza and this citizen called Antonio Raimundo, called Aberrê by everybody. Every Sunday I went there to watch, until one day he called me and said: «My son, come here. You want to learn capoeira?» I said: I do. So he told me to duck and vupt, gave a kick. I quickly jumped back and he: «Look, my son, from today on I will start to teach you.»
From that day, I was there every Sunday and was on this: go there and come here, this is like this, duck there, negativa and quera de rim. And so on. Sometimes he told me to stand and pushed me. I asked: «Why do you push me like this?» And he: «Why push? and if tomorrow you are on the street and a guy pushes you? You know how to fall?»
[..]
ABERRÊ used a blue and white shirt with a deep cut [see the photo below!] full of medals, but that time there was no dispute.
[..]
My mestre died like this: he ended up eating beans with fat. In the old days it killed. Nowadays it doesn't because it's all frozen. He ate breakfast, sang some capoeira. Then one of his students went to play. Took a rasteira. With this, he choked, started the game. When he gave an cartwheel here and a cartwheel there, he fell all purple. (...) That time, there was no car to take him to First Aid. When he got to the Reception that was on the Ajuda Street he was already dead.»
In the words of M Pastinha
«In the beginning of the year of 1941, my ex-student Raimundo, known more by the nickname of “Aberre” always invited me to return to practise capoeira, to take care of one [roda] as an instructor, to which I always responded: I already distanced myself and am not coming back again to this sport. Aberre then invited me to go and see him play in Jinjibirra, to which I agreed, on the 23rd February 1941.»
In the words of M Onça Preta
«[I jumped around with] Aberrê (a strong black guy, who only fought in his white suit and had a red scarf around his neck) and many others, who today are deceased. [..]
- I remember well when Aberrê died. It was in a lively roda, in Lower City. In the center, where there's the Estrela de Salomão. Aberrê was dominating the adversary. Suddenly, without anybody expecting, he fell. The other waited him to get up, because in the real capoeira fight, you don't kick a guy who's down on the ground. But Aberrê didn't get up. Only then we understood: he was dead. It was a heart attack. For weeks, nobody played capoeira in Bahia. Everybody understood that we had lost a great master, an excellent friend.»
