Madame Sata was the artistic name of Joao Francisco dos Santos born in 1900, a drag performer and capoeirista from Brazil. He was born into a family of ex-slaves in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Having been convicted of murder, spending 27 years in prison, being a former gangster and father of 7, he found refuge in the dark Bohemian gay culture of Rio de Janeiro amid a lively world of pimps, prostitutes, deviants and samba composers. Claim to fame? Madame was a figure who fought to redefine himself while battling the stigmas of being a son of former black slaves, illiterate, and homosexual. In between drag performances, his days of a hustler and his conviction of murder, his image as the legendary cabaret performer of Madame Sata having been influenced by the 1930's film by Cecil B DeMille about a woman disguising herself as a notorious temptress to win back her errant husband. His character represented an expression of resistance in this abolitionist era in Brazil where black people, prostitutes, drag users and addicts were deemed useless to society. He was also a skilled street fighter and his battles against the police forces were legendary. He routinely fought barehanded against quartets of policemen with wooden clubs.It's once said he faced a 24-man platoon and battled them to a stalemate, forcing them to fly away after leaving seven of them badly wounded. Thus Madame Sata became a living myth that supported and represented the values and lives of such homosexual outcast of society becoming himself a revolutionary icon. He performed up till his death in 1976, and is now known as a figure who fought back against gay slurs and police brutality, and he upset gender norms. As Madame said "I was born an outlaw, and that's how I'll live.
