Francisco Carlos Cavalcante Cidrão, known in the rodas as Mestre Samuray, was a capoeirista from the state of Ceará whose work helped connect popular capoeira with the Brazilian university environment. He was born in Tauá–CE in 1963 and became one of the important names of the Capoeira Terreiro lineage in Fortaleza.

He began training capoeira on 2 October 1982 together with his brother Danúzio (today Mestre Tallone) at the Centro Social Urbano Adauto Bezerra, in the Conjunto José Walter, Fortaleza. Their teacher was Mestre Moreno, the first student of Mestre Squisito, who in turn was a disciple of Mestre Tabosa. Through this chain – Tabosa → Squisito → Moreno → Samuray – he belonged to the Academia Tabosa / Associação Terreiro lineage.

Over the years, Samuray worked intensely to spread capoeira in Fortaleza, organising rodas and large events. In 1999, in Tocantins, he received the title of Mestre de Capoeira at an event of the Associação Terreiro, from the hands of Mestre Squisito himself.

As an organiser and articulator, he directed the Associação Terreiro do Bonfim, affiliated to the Associação Brasileira de Professores de Capoeira (ABPC), and was one of the people who took Ceará capoeira into the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). In 1993 and 1994, he organised the I and II Simpósio Universitário Cearense de Capoeira at UFC, combining rodas and practical classes with lectures by mestres and university professors, and creating a space where academic knowledge and capoeira knowledge could meet.

Inside the university he taught capoeira classes and extension projects at UFC (CEU/UFC and Campus do Pici), training students and community members. Later academic work describes him explicitly as a “jogador-estudioso” (player-scholar): a mestre who not only plays and teaches, but also stimulates research, debate and reflection among his students.

On 29 March 2003, Samuray founded the Associação Cultural de Capoeira e Arte – ACCARTE, in Fortaleza, continuing his work of formation and social projects. ACCARTE appears in the genealogy of groups descended from Mestre Tabosa and records list Francisco Carlos Cavalcante Cidrão (Mestre Samuray) as founder and president.

His legacy is visible in the generation of disciples who became mestres and contramestres, such as Mestre Caboré, Mestre Piqueno, Mestra Doralice, Contramestra Gata Braba, among others, many of whom today work as teachers, researchers and community leaders. Through his teaching style – demanding, organised, concerned with school performance, social issues and ethics – he helped shape capoeiristas who see capoeira as education, culture and social commitment, not just as a physical practice.