São Paulo

São Paulo
/sowonn" pow"loh/; Eng. /sow" pow"loh/
1. a state in S Brazil. 30,942,600; 95,714 sq. mi. (247,898 sq. km).
2. a city in and the capital of this state. 7,032,547.

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City (pop.,2002 est.: city, 9,969,100; metro. area, 18,390,800), southeastern Brazil.

It is located 30 mi (48 km) from its Atlantic Ocean port of Santos. Founded by Portuguese Jesuits in 1554, it became a base for exploration in the 17th century and a city in 1711. In 1822 it was the scene of the declaration of Brazilian independence by Emperor Pedro I. It developed rapidly from the late 19th century. It is the foremost industrial centre in Latin America, producing steel, motor vehicles, machine tools, and a wide range of consumer goods, including textiles and appliances. It is also Brazil's largest city, an important cultural and publishing centre, and one of the most populous cities in the world.

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Brazil
Introduction
  city, capital of São Paulo estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It is the foremost industrial centre in Latin America (Latin America, history of). The city is located on a plateau of the Brazilian Highlands extending inland from the Serra do Mar, which rises as part of the Great Escarpment only a short distance inland from the Atlantic Ocean. The city itself sits in a shallow basin with low mountains to the west. It lies about 220 miles (350 km) southwest of Rio de Janeiro and about 30 miles (50 km) inland from its Atlantic Ocean port of Santos. The city's name derives from its having been founded by Jesuit missionaries on Jan. 25, 1554, the anniversary of the conversion of St. Paul (Paul I, Saint).

      With one of the world's fastest-growing metropolitan populations, São Paulo is also the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest conurbations in the world. It is a dynamic late bloomer, having been heavily overshadowed by Rio de Janeiro not only during the colonial era but also throughout the 19th century. Only when coffee became Brazil's vital export crop in the last decades of the 19th century did São Paulo become a major centre of economic activity with concomitant population growth. Migration, both from Europe and internal, led to great expansion and diversification. When São Paulo served as the main focus of Brazil's industrialization in the early decades of the 20th century, it rapidly closed the gap with Rio de Janeiro, which shortly before the turn of the century had been 10 times as large.

      By the 1940s and '50s, São Paulo was aptly referred to as the locomotive “pulling the rest of Brazil” and has since become the hub of an immense megametropolis. Its vibrant and energetic urban core is characterized by an ever-growing maze of modern steel, concrete, and glass skyscrapers in newer hubs within São Paulo's business centre, as well as in emergent outlying business districts. The great diversity of these modern buildings—many of which are truly striking—reflects a wide variety of architectural styles and materials. Glass towers of different hues mingle with impressive granite and marble-faced structures next to metal-sheathed ones. The city's creatively eclectic appearance, comparable to that of any of the world's great metropolitan centres, exemplifies the advanced state of Brazilian architecture. In stark contrast to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and most other major Brazilian cities, late-blooming São Paulo has few historical buildings and virtually no structures dating back to the colonial era. Indeed, any building erected before 1900 is deemed historical in São Paulo. Exceptions to the lack of antiquity in the midst of 20th- and 21st-century construction are the church and convent of Luz (1579), now housing the Museum of Sacred Art; the Carmo Church (1632); and the São Francisco Church (1676, rebuilt in 1791).

      By the end of the 20th century, the city of São Paulo proper had a population of more than 10 million, and the metropolitan region soared to about 19 million inhabitants. Area city, 576 square miles (1,493 square km); Greater São Paulo, 3,070 square miles (7,951 square km). Pop. (2005 est.) city, 10,277,500; Greater São Paulo, 19,037,487.

Character of the city
 São Paulo is notable for its immensity, dynamism, and drive. Sampa, as it is called by its inhabitants, combines the best and worst of modern oversized urban conglomerates. It is first and foremost a place to work, secondly a place to live, and lastly a city to enjoy. Even with its educational advantages and cultural facilities, São Paulo upholds its end of the Brazilian aphorism “Earn in São Paulo so you can spend in Rio.”

      São Paulo's vastness is unquestionably impressive at first glance; however, its depersonalizing scale of immensity also can prove depressing. Yet many of São Paulo's neighbourhoods possess humanizing features and individual characteristics belying the surface appearance of a stultifying similarity. For the minority of the teeming masses (Paulistanos, as the city's inhabitants are called) who are involved in São Paulo's invigorating vitality, it is a city of which to be proud, not one to be defended against criticism based on its disheartening crime and poverty statistics. Because São Paulo is Brazil's richest city, its poor appear even poorer in comparison with its large middle class and its numerous affluent. It also continues to attract people from the country's rural regions in a flow that constantly feeds the bottom of the social pyramid as life improves for those already there.

Landscape

City site
      The Brazilian Highlands are composed of ancient crystalline rocks, which in the vicinity of São Paulo form a surface of gently rounded hills mantled with a reddish clay soil. Rivers such as the Tietê (Tietê River), on which São Paulo is located, rise near the edge of the Great Escarpment and flow generally westward to the Paraná River. In their course, they cross stratified sandstones and limestones overlaying the crystalline base, as well as sheets of volcanic rock that form the Paraná Plateau. Here, rapids and waterfalls, as well as dams and reservoirs, supply great quantities of hydroelectric power.

      Located at an elevation of 2,690 feet (820 metres) above sea level, the city is surrounded by valleys and foothills, which have been virtually swallowed up by the spread of its industrial suburbs. The higher terrain constitutes the preferred residential areas; the lower parts are on alluvial land along the banks of three rivers—the Tietê, the Pinheiros, and the Tamanduateí—and these are occupied by working-class residences, factories, and commercial enterprises. Among the suburban communities that sprawl from São Paulo are Guarulhos, Osasco, Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, Mauá, Mogi das Cruzes, and Diadema. The rapidly disappearing open spaces on the perimeter of the city, where clay soils mix with sandy deposits, are used for intensive market gardening. A forest reserve of about 39 square miles (100 square km) is maintained in the nearby Serra da Cantareira, while the beaches of Santos and Guarujá provide pleasant resort areas.

Climate
      The Tropic of Capricorn (seeTropics of Cancer and Capricorn (Cancer and Capricorn, Tropics of), at about 23°27′ S, passes through São Paulo and roughly marks the boundary between the tropical and temperate areas of South America. Because of its elevation, however, São Paulo enjoys a distinctly temperate climate. July is the coldest month, with an average temperature of 58 °F (14 °C) and occasional frost. The warmest is February, which averages 69 °F (21 °C). Rainfall is abundant, particularly during the summer season from October through March, averaging 56 inches (1,422 mm) per year. Humidity and air pollution combine to form a mist that often hangs over the city.

City layout
 In sharp contrast to Rio de Janeiro, where the ocean and mountains determine the city's configuration, dauntingly vast São Paulo sprawls virtually unrestrained in all directions. Although its nicer residential areas are to the southwest and west of the commercial centre, where elevations are generally higher, the spatial distribution of socioeconomic differences is not as distinct as it is in Rio. The lack of mountains or even significant hillsides means that São Paulo's favelas, or shantytowns, are horizontal, not vertical, and do not overhang or directly abut affluent neighbourhoods as in Rio de Janeiro. The new favelas that are rising are well removed from the centre and disconnected from city services. As they grow, only some are integrated into the city; most still suffer substandard conditions.

The city centre
   São Paulo's centre is marked by squares and parks, all within walking distance of one another. The vibrant commercial centre of São Paulo revolves around the famous Triângulo (“Triangle”), the city's original centre, bounded by Avenidas Direita, XV de Novembro, and São Bento and near the intersection of Avenida Ipiranga and Rua da Consolação. Rua da Consolação runs eastward to Dom José Gaspar Square, site of the grandiose Mário de Andrade Municipal Library (1926). This compact central commercial district is anchored on the west by Franklin Roosevelt Square, which abuts the elevated expressway locally known as Minhocão.

      From the Triângulo, Avenida Ipiranga is lined by towering buildings, including the notable serpentine Copan Building (1950; designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer (Niemeyer, Oscar)) and farther northeast, the 46-story Itália Building (1956). A short distance up Avenida Ipiranga lies Republic Square, with the municipal building at its west end and stores and cinemas lining its front. Just southeast are Ramos de Azevedo Square and the Municipal Theatre, built at the beginning of the 20th century and refurbished in the 21st. The theatre, like its Rio counterpart, is modeled on the Paris Opera.

 The bridgelike Cha Viaduct follows Rua Barão de Itapetininga through the Triângulo past San Antonio Church to Sé Square, which is dominated by the immense Metropolitan Cathedral (1954; renovated 2002), with Byzantine elements and twin Neo-Gothic towers. Reconstructed in the 1970s, large and bustling Sé Square sits atop the intersection of São Paulo's main subway lines. The broad Avenida 9 de Julho (July 9) runs from the city's sprawling western sector past the north side of nearby Bandeira Square until (with a name change) it continues beneath Anhangabaú Park, a plant- and flower-bedecked refuge for pedestrians that runs from the Cha Viaduct almost to the northern edge of the city centre.

      Northwest from Sé Square are Solar da Marquesa de Santos, an opulent 18th-century residence housing the City Museum, and the colonial-era Anchieta House (Padre Anchieta Museum), adjacent to the Pátio de Colégio, the site of São Paulo's founding in 1554, now a cultural centre. To their northwest, level with Ramos de Azevedo Square, are Antonio Prado Square, the 36-story Bank of São Paulo Building (1997), and the Martinelli Building—the city's first skyscraper (1929; restored 1979). To their northeast, past the São Bento Monastery, is the colossal Neo-Baroque Municipal Market (1928; renovated 2004), which houses a wide variety of restaurants and hundreds of food and produce stalls. The Santo Ifigênia Viaduct, a cast-iron pedestrian walkway over the broad avenue coming out from under Anhangabaú Park, dates from 1930 but was refurbished in 1978.

West of the centre
 Running northwest from the bottom of the Paraíso district and southwest of the Liberdade district is the wide expanse of Avenida Paulista, the throbbing centre of São Paulo's financial life, interspersed with pricey boutiques, restaurants, and nightclubs. The avenue was once an opulent row of coffee barons' and industrial magnates' mansions, each standing back from the street in a private manicured park. Running south-southeast from Rua da Consolação, its northernmost link to the centre, Avenida Paulista boasts modern office buildings, banks, and multinational corporations, as well as the São Paulo Art Museum (Museu de Arte de São Paulo; MASP), constructed during the 1960s and dramatically suspended between two red concrete arches over the Avenida 9 de Julho Tunnel. Just off Avenida Paulista are most of São Paulo's platoon of five-star hotels. Behind the MASP and abutting Alexandre de Gusmão Square is Trianon Park (the name by which it is popularly known, though it was formally renamed for 1920s political hero Lieut. Siqueira Campos). North of Avenida Paulista is the residential district containing the world-class municipal football (soccer) stadium Pacaembu, whence the once exclusive but still desirable residential district of Higienópolis runs northeast toward the centre.

 Directly south of the heart of Avenida Paulista is spacious Ibirapuera Park, the distinguished home of the state legislature, the 9 de Julho Palace. The Palace lies at the park's northern tip, and the prosaic former city hall (the city headquarters has been housed in the Matarazzo Building since 2004) faces it across a lake. Ibirapuera Park also houses the Modern Art Museum, a planetarium, and exhibition pavilions. The São Paulo Biennial, which began in 1951, is one of the largest international art exhibitions in the Southern Hemisphere, held every other October in the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park. Almost a mile south of the park is the Ibirapuera shopping center, a megamall with hundreds of stores. On the south side of São Paulo, level with Ibirapuera Park to its west, is Congonhas Airport, a domestic aviation hub on par with Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont.

      The southwest quadrant of central São Paulo features upscale districts; one of the best-known is elegant and trendy Jardins (“Gardens”), featuring restaurants, stores, and a vibrant social scene. These favoured districts are home to a large proportion of the city's upper middle class. The El Dorado and Iguatemi shopping centres are nearby, and the still opulent Jockey Club is just across the north-south–flowing Pinheiros River. To its northwest in the Butantã district is the sprawling main campus of the renowned University of São Paulo, bounded to the north by the curving river. Just to its south is the posh residential district of Morumbi, featuring fortresslike mansions, luxury high-rise buildings, and gated communities (many with well-armed private security guards). Embedded in it is gigantic Morumbi stadium, São Paulo's answer to Rio de Janeiro's Maracana. It is home to the legendary São Paulo Football Club, which has won the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Club World Championship several times. The district also contains the state government's seat, the impressive Bandeirantes Palace. Beyond Morumbi and Butantã, less-prestigious residential districts stretch to the city limits before merging into industrial suburbs. In contrast, much of the growth of office buildings has taken place on Avenida Faria Lima southwest of Jardins.

South of the centre
      Directly south of Sé Square is Liberdade, São Paulo's large and colourful Asian (largely Japanese) district, with a great variety of restaurants and stores and a square that hosts folk festivals and a weekly open-air market. The Museum of Japanese Immigration is also in this district. West of Liberdade is the city's Italian district, Bixiga. Well to Liberdade's southeast is Independence Park, housing the Paulista and Zoological museums of the University of São Paulo. To its south are the districts of Jabaquara and Santo Amaro, site of the Empresarial Centre office complex (home to branches of many U.S. companies), which merge into the southwestern district of Campo Limpo, one of São Paulo's larger industrial districts. Its expansion has spilled over into its southeastern neighbour Socorro, where the Interlagos Autodrome is the venue for Brazil's Formula 1 Grand Prix competition races as well as other major auto races.

North of the centre
      North of São Paulo's centre are working-class neighbourhoods dotted with pockets of favelas, similar to those of other areas east and south of the centre. The run-down Luz district has been undergoing renovation since the early 2000s. The Jardim da Luz, a large park just above Luz Railway Station (1901), offers performance spaces and houses the Museum of Sacred Art (formerly the church and convent of Luz [1579]), a short distance farther north.

      The upper reaches of the neighbourhood of Ifigênia, along with Campos Eliseos and Santa Cecilia to the northeast, became part of São Paulo at the beginning of the 20th century. To the west is more-developed Bom Retiro, traditionally home to immigrants from the Middle East and a large Jewish community, but since the 1970s populated by Korean immigrants. Nearby, the former Julio Prestes grand Victorian railway terminal has been transformed into a concert hall—the São Paulo Concert Hall, home of the São Paulo State Symphonic Orchestra.

      Farther north the canalized Tietê River, with its bordering highways, provides a buffer for massive Anhembi Complex (1970), the site of a convention centre and the well-known Sambódromo, used for samba school parades during Carnival and for musical presentations.

      On the south side of the river is another of the city's large football stadiums, Canindé, home to the Portuguesa team. In the Água Branca neighbourhood, a mile south of the Tietê River and two miles north of Pacaembu, where the even more famous Corinthians now play, is the Palmeiras Sport Society's Parque Antárctica. Across the railroad tracks to the north lies the Thomas Edison Industrial Park, extending up to the Tietê. While much of the northwest is largely poor, the northeast, stretching up to suburban Guarulhos, contains middle- and upper-class neighbourhoods.

East of the centre
      The eastern boundary of the centre is constituted by long Dom Pedro II Park, a recreational oasis for Paulistanos, which runs along both sides of the canal of the Tamanduateí River reaching down from near the Municipal Market to the Minhocão elevated highway at the level of Liberdade. East of the park are a host of chiefly residential neighbourhoods of widely varying socioeconomic status. Like most outlying districts, they are characterized by low, red-roofed houses interspersed with high-rise apartments and office complexes, singly or in clusters. Farther south, in the populous working-class Moóca district, directly east of the city centre, yet another of the city's football teams, Juventus, plays in Rua Javari Stadium. Still farther out, in Tatuapé district, is São Jorge Park, the original venue for the Corinthians, who now play most of their games in much larger Pacaembu Stadium.

Surrounding areas
      São Paulo is surrounded on all sides by nearly two scores of industrial suburbs officially part of its metropolitan region. The largest include Diadema, São Bernardo do Campo, Santo André, São Caetano do Sul Mauá, and Ribeirão Pires to the south; Moji das Cruzes and Suzano on the east; Guarulhos in the north; and Osasco, Barueri, Cotia, and Itapecerica da Serra to the west. Guarulhos is the site of São Paulo's international airport, while Santo Andre, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul (locally referred to as the ABC suburbs) contain a high concentration of automobile and steel plants.

      What most sets São Paulo apart from the world's other large urban conglomerations is its unique proximity to other large metropolitan regions. The gap between São Paulo's southern suburbs and the north edge of Greater Santos has all but disappeared except for the steep drop down the escarpment. Similarly, São Paulo's northern suburbs reach out almost to the environs of Jundiaí, which itself is close to becoming an adjunct of Greater Campinas, whose steadily creeping southward edge is a mere 15 to 20 miles (25 to 30 km) away. Moreover, eastward toward Rio de Janeiro, the São Paulo suburb of Moji das Cruzes is about 20 miles from Jacareí, a satellite of São José dos Campos, which is fast becoming the hub of a metropolitan region that is not significantly smaller than Santos or Campinas, where Brazil's aviation and aerospace industries are located. To the west, the São Paulo suburb of Cotia is only a little more than 30 miles (50 km) from Votorantim, an annex of fast-expanding Sorocaba.

      At present rates of growth, São Paulo is at the centre of four metropolitan region “spokes.” With smaller but already populous projections filling in between these, an extended Greater São Paulo will embrace possibly millions more inhabitants. São Paulo's planners and policy makers must confront this daunting prospect and at the same time attempt to maintain and improve infrastructure and services for the region's several million favela inhabitants and hundreds of thousands more slum dwellers.

People
      The original settlers of São Paulo were relatively poor and largely from southern Portugal. They were, however, a restless people who sought actively to improve their status in life. Among them were the bandeirantes (explorers) who formed expeditions that pushed far into the interior of South America in search of slaves and mineral wealth, extending, in the process, the frontiers of what has become present-day Brazil.

      The great expansion of coffee cultivation in São Paulo state after 1880 instigated a massive immigration of Europeans—mostly Italians but also many Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans, and eastern Europeans. In the early 1900s other settlers came from Japan and the Middle East. Today more Japanese reside in São Paulo than in any other community outside Japan, and Brazilians of Japanese extraction constitute a large proportion of the highly educated professional strata. By the 1930s São Paulo's growth was based on internal migration, primarily from northeastern Brazil and some from the interior of the state. This migration, which continued for decades, included many descendants of African slaves. By 1970, many Koreans and Bolivians had immigrated to the city. A high degree of assimilation exists among the different ethnic communities, which are dispersed across São Paulo. Many well-to-do immigrants have their own social clubs. Rural immigrants from northeastern Brazil often gather on weekends at particular squares and parks in lower-income areas of the city. As in Rio de Janeiro, the dispersal of population is largely along socioeconomic lines; social tensions are generally much more rooted in economics than in ethnicity.

      In 1940 the city had a population of about 1,300,000 and its immediate suburbs slightly more than 100,000. By 1960, however, the population of São Paulo proper had tripled and that of the near suburbs was about six times larger; moreover, a second ring of suburbs had developed with a population approaching 300,000. By 1970 nearly six million people lived in the city and more than one million lived in the immediate suburbs, while the secondary ring roughly doubled and a third ring had begun expanding rapidly. Astonishing growth continued through the 1970s and '80s, as São Paulo remained a magnet attracting a surplus population from other regions. By the 1990s the growth of the city, with a population exceeding nine million residents, began to slow, but the expansion of the outlying areas of Greater São Paulo continued apace.

      As a result of these migratory inflows, nearly two-thirds of São Paulo's population is of European descent, and slightly less than one-third are of African descent or are mulatto (mulato; person of mixed African and European ancestry).

      The remainder of the population is made up of Asians, mainly Japanese, and other very small ethnic groups. Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, and the archdiocese of São Paulo is one of the world's largest in number of adherents; yet thriving Pentecostal Christian groups are making serious inroads. There is a significant Jewish community as well. Other religions are represented in smaller numbers, and many Paulistanos attend the rites of Afro-Brazilian, syncretic, and spiritist groups. Portuguese is the predominant language, although other languages, including English and Spanish, are spoken by the more highly educated.

Economy
      São Paulo is one of the world's largest diversified economic centres. It is an international leader in industry, from heavy to high tech; in banking and finance; in commerce; and in global trade. As the capital and core of a state with a gross domestic product (GDP) larger than that of most countries, it has an immense government services sector and looms large in communications and transportation.

Manufacturing
      Industrial development, beginning in the late 19th century but intensifying after World War II, has transformed metropolitan São Paulo into the foremost industrial centre in Latin America. The city has outgrown its status as the “Chicago of South America,” because it actually plays a greater role in Brazilian commerce and industry than any one city in the United States. The value of its industrial production is by far the largest of any Brazilian city. Its leading industries produce textiles, mechanical and electrical appliances, furniture, foodstuffs, and chemical and pharmaceutical products. Heavy metallurgical plants located in nearby Taubaté, oil refineries and chemical plants in Cubatão, and plants manufacturing motor vehicles, transportation equipment, and farm machinery in Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul, and Diadema make large contributions to production. Computer industries and the manufacturing of electrical appliances are on the rise, as are automobile components. The several thousand manufacturing establishments in São Paulo provide employment for more than one-tenth of the population. Despite its rapid growth in recent decades, however, the industrial sector has been able to absorb only a small fraction of the growing labour force. Hence, unemployment and underemployment are continuing problems for the poorly educated, contributing to high crime rates. On the other hand, the very active construction industry provides significant employment.

Finance and other services
      Commerce, both wholesale and retail, is well developed and spread over the city by zones according to specialty—for example, the wholesale garment district in Bom Retiro and Brás. Banks are concentrated in the central Triângulo, as well as along Avenida Paulista, but maintain branches in almost every district. All but the smallest Brazilian banks also represent interests from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. São Paulo's stock market has taken on global significance, and diversified financial services rival those of other world centres. No less important in terms of employment are street vending, peddling, and neighbourhood stores. Yet huge shopping malls have sprung up near residential neighbourhoods, and new service industries spawned by the computer age provide increasing employment opportunities for the great number of graduates produced by São Paulo's many universities and technical institutes.

Transportation
      Major arteries of transportation radiate in all directions from São Paulo. The city's three major airports—Congonhas within the city, Cumbica 15 miles (25 km) east, and Viracopos 60 miles (100 km) northwest—together with several smaller ones provide São Paulo with both international and domestic service. Marine transport is provided through the port of Santos. São Paulo is also a hub of railroads, which include a transcontinental line from Santos to Antofagasta, Chile. Highways connect with inland cities, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, and almost all the states of Brazil. Within the city, the first freeway was opened in 1969, and the subway system was inaugurated in 1976. Automobile traffic in the city and suburbs is heavy, and, despite street and highway improvements, congestion is a major and growing problem, which adds to the industrial city's serious conditions of air and noise pollution.

Administration and society

Government
      São Paulo city is divided into subprefectures that are governed by a mayor (prefeito) and city council, who serve four-year terms. Elections alternate every two years. The city also is the seat of state government, headquartered in the Bandeirantes Palace in the southwestern Morumbi district. In addition to the multitude of state offices and departments that have headquarters in the capital, many agencies of the federal government are represented there. Scores of countries also maintain consulates in São Paulo.

      São Paulo's governor is generally considered the country's second most important elected official after the president. The city's mayor is viewed as more significant politically than the governors of all but the largest states, and it would not be uncommon for a politician to move up to the governorship after serving as the city's mayor or for a former governor to run for mayor after encountering term limits. The governor and mayor of São Paulo are elected in alternate even-numbered years and are often political rivals, frequently with competing rather than complementary programs. Their plans of action are often determined by their respective political relationships with the president and other officials in the country's capital, Brasília.

Municipal services
      Due to rapid population growth and territorial expansion, São Paulo faces serious difficulties in providing urban services and facilities to its inhabitants. The city and state have constructed a chain of various reservoirs, tunnels, and canals to supply fresh water to the populous metropolitan area. The Cantareira water supply project, begun in 1969, has increased water supplies greatly, but demand has continuously outstripped supply and made it necessary to undertake more large-scale projects requiring financial support from the federal government and international lending institutions. Pollution has been an ever-present danger. São Paulo's polluted rivers and streams, carrying industrial waste, have been used to power hydroelectric projects, contaminating reservoirs used for drinking water. Efforts have been made to clean up the Tietê River, however.

      Electricity has been available in abundance to São Paulo since 1900. First, the waters of the Tietê were dammed and dropped through penstocks from the Great Escarpment to generators below. Subsequently, dams on many rivers to the west, including distant Itaipú, a joint project with Paraguay and one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world, have been built to sustain the city. Natural gas is imported from Bolivia in large quantities. Telecommunications were greatly improved after privatization in the 1990s, and the shift to cellular phones has greatly eased the onerous backlog of small businesses and households waiting for landlines.

Health
      Public and private health facilities are numerous, including hospitals for civil servants, maternity hospitals, and hospitals specializing in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis, and other illnesses. The ratio of doctors to population in the city is one of Brazil's highest. Moreover, a good number of São Paulo physicians and surgeons enjoy international reputations in their specialties and conduct considerable front-line medical research.

Education
      São Paulo has a well-developed system of primary and secondary education, both public and private, and a variety of vocational-technical schools. More than nine-tenths of the population is literate, and roughly the same proportion of those age 7 to 14 are enrolled in school. Among the many institutions of higher education, the largest and most esteemed is the state-supported University of São Paulo (USP), established in 1934, which incorporated the historic College of Law (Faculdade de Direito) in the old São Francisco Square. USP, as it is generally known, enrolls a very high proportion of Brazil's doctoral students and has spawned a wide variety of research institutes and policy centres. Affiliated institutions include the Butantan Institute, a world-famous centre for research on snakes and the production of toxins and antitoxins.

      The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo was established in 1946 and has earned an enviable reputation among the continent's private institutions of higher learning. Also of note among Greater São Paulo's many other public and private colleges and universities is the School of Business Administration of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation.

Cultural life
      São Paulo became a prominent cultural and intellectual centre in the 19th century, largely owing to the opening in 1827 of the College of Law, one of the first two in Brazil, where many of the country's most eminent leaders were educated. The São Paulo Geographical and Historical Institute, founded in 1894, is one of the oldest cultural associations in the state. The city is also a leading centre for libraries, publishing houses, and theatres. The municipal library is housed in one of São Paulo's skyscrapers.

      In 1922 São Paulo's Modern Art Week, celebrated by a group of young writers, artists, and musicians in the Municipal Theatre, introduced Modernism into the arts of Brazil. By that time, Paulistano writers, led by Oswaldo de Andrade (Andrade, Oswald de) and Mário de Andrade (Andrade, Mário de), pushed the city into Brazil's intellectual forefront, a trend matched in painting and theatre. The São Paulo Art Museum, founded in 1947, is one of the best in South America, and the Museum of Contemporary Art is also outstanding. The São Paulo state symphony orchestra is similarly advanced in the field of music. Major international orchestras, soloists, dance troupes, and other performing artists appear at São Paulo's Municipal Theatre, and the city has frequent shows by Brazil's leading performing artists, including such Paulistanos as Francisco (“Chico”) Buarque de Hollanda and rock star Supla (Eduardo Suplicy, Jr.).

      Publishing and broadcasting have long been established in São Paulo. Several of the country's largest and most influential newspapers are published in the city, including Folha de São Paulo (“Newspaper of São Paulo”; 1921) and O Estado de São Paulo (“The State of São Paulo”; 1875). Editora Abril, publisher of a wide variety of magazines including Veja, one of the popular weeklies, is based there. Dozens of weeklies with one million-plus circulations are produced in São Paulo. Television was introduced in 1950, and several of the country's largest networks are based in the city. São Paulo also is headquarters of some of the most important Latin American radio stations.

      Paulistanos are noted for their enthusiasm for sports. Football (soccer) is the predominant sports attraction, as evidenced by the gigantic Morumbi and Pacaembu stadiums as well as the other major stadiums for the city's roughly half dozen international-calibre teams. Brazil's national league brings big-name teams from other states to compete in São Paulo. Also popular are swimming, tennis, volleyball, basketball, and auto racing, for which São Paulo has one of the world's largest tracks, at Interlagos, on the city's south side. The city also contains countless parks, plazas, and playgrounds. The São Paulo Zoo (1958) is one of the world's largest. Although overshadowed by Rio de Janeiro, the annual São Paulo Carnival is a major activity for hundreds of thousands of Paulistas, particularly those from rural communities.

History

The early period
      São Paulo was the first highland settlement established in Brazil. Occupying the lower terraces of the Tietê River in the midst of tall grasses and scattered scrub trees, it began as a small Indian settlement. In 1554 Portuguese Jesuit priests Manuel da Nóbrega (Nóbrega, Manuel da) and José de Anchieta (Anchieta, José de) founded a mission and school there (the Pátio de Colégio). The community grew slowly and had only 300 inhabitants by the end of the 16th century. Yet, São Paulo became a township in 1560 and had a town council that could enact and enforce laws. In 1683 it succeeded São Vicente as seat of the captaincy, or hereditary fief, and the inhabitants already had become known as Paulistanos or Paulistas.

      Seventeenth-century São Paulo was a base for expeditions (bandeiras (bandeira)) into the hinterlands by armed pioneers (bandeirantes) in search of Indian slaves, gold, silver, and diamonds. In the process, Portuguese explorers expanded the frontiers of what was to become present-day Brazil into areas claimed by the Spanish. In 1711 São Paulo attained the status of a city, yet it remained an agrarian town that had yet to see any significant prosperity. Large-scale gold and diamond mining brought about remarkable changes in the colony's economy and stimulated immigration from Europe. But most of the wealth that the explorers had helped to discover escaped their grasp when Minas Gerais was granted status in 1720, and its riches passed through the more accessible and developed Rio de Janeiro.

The city after independence
      The Portuguese regent Dom Pedro (later Pedro I) (Pedro I) declared Brazil's independence on Sept. 7, 1822, on the plain of Ipiranga, now within São Paulo. By 1840 São Paulo was still a town of 20,000 inhabitants centred on a low hill and the neighbouring Anhangabaú valley. The Tamanduateí River was straightened in 1849 and a municipal market constructed in 1867. But not until 1875 was the colonial centre linked by a new street to what is today called Republic Square. By then brick houses were being built, and gas streetlamps and horse-drawn streetcars were coming into use.

      As coffee became Brazil's main source of export earnings, São Paulo and Santos, its port, grew at a spectacular rate, and the surrounding countryside was transformed from an isolated frontier to an agricultural heartland. Coffee provided employment for many of the immigrants who began arriving in great numbers from the 1870s. Italians, who accounted for more than 600,000 of the nearly 900,000 foreigners coming to the state between 1888 and 1900, soon came to outnumber native Brazilians. The ethnic mosaic was further enriched by Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans, and eastern Europeans, followed by Syrians, Lebanese, and Japanese. Coffee planters' townhouses sprang up in Higienópolis and Campos Eliseos in the west, and crowded workers' housing extended through Moóca and Brás in the east. Three-story buildings began to appear on the central Triângulo (“Triangle”), and in 1892 an iron viaduct was built across the Anhangabaú valley from Cha Hill, where tea (cha) plants had been grown only a few years earlier. The population jumped from 44,000 in 1886 to nearly 130,000 by 1893.

      By 1905 new industries included textile mills, shoe factories, and others using local raw materials. Cotton textile mills alone employed 39,000 workers. Most of the new factories and warehouses were established in the neighbourhoods of Brás, Bom Retiro, Moóca, Água Branca, and Ipiranga. During the period 1899–1911, Mayor Antônio Prado widened streets, completed the monumental Luz train station (of British design and materials), built new plazas (including Prado Square), and started construction of the Santa Ifigênia Viaduct, opened in 1913. His successor remodeled Sé Square, created Patriarca Square, and completed Dom Pedro II Park, begun in 1911. By that time opulent mansions of the wealthiest coffee barons lined Avenida Paulista, and concrete buildings of five to six stories were becoming common in the city centre, which was crowned by a seven-story marvel of reinforced concrete. São Paulo's population grew from about 240,000 in 1900 to 580,000 by 1920. Whereas in the late 19th century São Paulo had only one-tenth the population of Rio de Janeiro, by 1920 it was just more than half as large.

From city to metropolis
Physical and demographic changes
      São Paulo maintained a high growth rate through the 1920s, driven by interrelated streams of immigration, rapid industrialization, and investment. In the early 1920s the Sampaio Moreira Building reached an unprecedented 14 stories, and by the end of the decade the Martinelli Building attained more than twice that height. Growing fleets of automobiles and diesel buses allowed hordes of service workers to commute from their outlying homes to jobs in the city centre.

      Although a modern face had emerged in São Paulo's better areas by the 1930s, larger portions were basically unchanged. São Paulo had lacked any city plan before 1889, and no zoning law was passed until 1972. Indeed, well into the 20th century much of the city retained a colonial aspect, with narrow unpaved streets, shabby buildings, and a few old churches of Jesuit and Franciscan styles.

      Between 1920 and 1940 the population more than doubled, reaching 1.3 million. Although Rio de Janeiro had itself grown spectacularly during this period, São Paulo trailed it by only 460,000 inhabitants and would leapfrog ahead within two decades. During 1939–45 the engineer-mayor Francisco Prestes Maia built the multilane Avenida 9 de Julho and widened numerous other streets despite resistance from displaced residents. By 1947 the new star of São Paulo's skyline was the São Paulo State Bank building, and, starting with the Mário de Andrade Municipal Library, the city's architecture moved beyond the short period of Art Deco design.

      By 1950 São Paulo had grown to a metropolis of 2.2 million compared to Rio's 2.4 million, but a decade later São Paulo led with 3.7 million to Rio's 3.3 million, thus solidifying its reputation as one of the world's most dynamic urban centres. Famed architect Oscar Niemeyer (Niemeyer, Oscar) was lured from Rio to design the sinuous curves of the Copan Building, and the Itália Building became its towering neighbour. The highly imaginative São Paulo Art Museum (begun in 1956 and completed in 1968) was built over the juncture of Avenida 9 de Julho and eight-lane Avenida Paulista.

      In the 1960s São Paulo came to include almost half of the population of São Paulo state (São Paulo) (Brazil's most populous state) and to account for about one-third of the country's total industrial employment. Because automobiles were becoming a São Paulo family staple, expressways were built along the canalized Tietê and Pinheiros rivers in 1967, and the Bandeirantes expressway provided access to the city centre. Highway expansion continues to be an ongoing process because the roads running alongside the rivers are among the heaviest used in the country. However, no amount of highway construction and street widening could more than briefly alleviate the intolerable traffic congestion. Construction of a subway system was begun in the late 1960s in hopes of improving the situation, and new subway lines continue to be expanded and added.

The political mix
      In the latter part of the 20th century, São Paulo governors and mayors, seeking to use their position as a springboard to national office, began to emulate Mayor Prestes Maia by undertaking sorely needed public works programs. The bon vivant Adhemar de Barros, who was the state's appointed chief executive during 1938–41, subsequently won elections for mayor and governor on the basis of such projects as the Anchieta and Anhanguera expressways, the massive Hospital das Clínicas, the electrification of the Sorocabana railroad, and the Vila Leopoldina sewage treatment plant, which met nearly three-fourths of São Paulo's needs. These accomplishments earned him the slogan “He may rob, but he gets things done,” and helped his presidential campaign in 1955. However, de Barros was defeated by Juscelino Kubitschek, who had achieved similar success, but with no taint of graft, as mayor of Belo Horizonte and governor of Minas Gerais—then Brazil's fourth city and second state.

      The populist reformer Jânio da Silva Quadros (Quadros, Jânio da Silva) served as mayor in 1953–55 and governor in 1955–59. His major undertakings included finishing Prestes Maia's street-building plans, straightening the Tietê and Pinheiros rivers, and building hydroelectric projects to meet the city's insatiable appetite for power. De Barros, who subsequently reclaimed the mayor's office (1957–61) and the governorship (1963–66), completed some projects begun by his rival and initiated construction of the subway and the Tietê and Pinheiros expressways.

From metropolis to megametropolis
      Under the Brazilian military regime of 1964–85, São Paulo's economy grew, and additional public works projects were initiated. However, favelas also began to envelop parts of the city during the 1960s and '70s, when as many as 300,000 people—many of them from Brazil's impoverished northeast—poured into the metropolitan region each year. The conservative Paulo Salim Maluf, who served both as appointed mayor (1969–71) and indirectly elected governor (1979–82), extended water and sewer services, removed favelas from central areas, and built public housing complexes on the periphery. With his eye on the presidency, he built the Inmigrantes expressway and extended the Bandeirantes expressway.

      Quadros, who won the 1985 mayoral elections, promoted public safety and leveled favelas to make way for new construction. In 1989–92 the radical reformer Luíza Erundina concentrated on social welfare and low-cost housing, notably in the favelas, but Maluf, who was reelected in 1993, ended those policies, preferring massive public housing projects on the outskirts of the city. His terms were marred by corruption involving public works projects, and he was indicted. A Maluf protégé, Celso Pitta, succeeded the mayor; his term (1997–2000) was also beset with scandal. In 2000 Marta Suplicy, a Workers' Party member, occupied the office and implemented programs aimed at improving lower-income communities while discontinuing many of Pitta's lavish public works and construction projects. In 2004 her bid for reelection was thwarted by José Serra, one of the founders of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), former health minister, and runner-up in the 2002 presidential elections. During his 15 months in city hall, Serra concentrated on balancing the budget and improving health services. Like others before him, he used the office as a political springboard, winning election as governor in 2006. His successor, Gilberto Kassab of the right-wing Liberal Front Party (PFL), came into office in the midst of major urban renewal projects, transportation expansions, and massive cost overruns.

      São Paulo retains its status as one of the world's most populous and dynamic urban areas, though it continues to be plagued by favelas, traffic congestion, lack of public services, and rates of murder and other violent crimes disproportionately high for Brazil.

Ronald Milton Schneider Aureliano Leite C.W. Minkel

Additional Reading
Studies of geography, population, economics, and politics include Joseph L. Love, São Paulo in the Brazilian Federation: 1889–1937 (1980). Stefan Geyerhahn (ed.), São Paulo, trans. from Portuguese (1977), is an illustrated general description of the city. John D. Wirth and Robert L. Jones (eds.), Manchester and São Paulo: Problems of Rapid Urban Growth (1978), focuses on economic conditions. Vinod Thomas, Pollution Control in São Paulo, Brazil: Costs, Benefits, and Effects on Industrial Location (1981), studies one of the city's major problems.Richard M. Morse, From Community to Metropolis: A Biography of São Paulo, Brazil, new and enlarged ed. (1974), is a standard history. Joel Wolfe, Working Women, Working Men: São Paulo and the Rise of Brazil's Industrial Working Class (1993), is a revisionist's perspective on labour relations and industrial development during the period 1900–54. Historical analyses of ethnic relations, poverty, and social problems include George Reid Andrews, Blacks & Whites in São Paulo, Brazil, 1888–1988 (1991); Michael George Hanchard, Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, 1945–1988 (1994); and Teresa P.R. Caldeira, City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in São Paulo (2000), which focuses on violence in the city.Ronald Milton Schneider

Introduction
 estado (state) of southeastern Brazil, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast and bounded by the states of Minas Gerais (northeast), Rio de Janeiro (east), Paraná (southwest), and Mato Grosso do Sul (west). São Paulo constitutes the heart of the Southeast, Brazil's most developed and populous region. The state itself is the most economically productive and populous in the country, accounting for more than one-fifth of the national population. It produces more than half of the country's manufactures and much of its leading crop—coffee. The overwhelming majority of its population is urban and suburban. The state capital, São Paulo, is the largest city in Brazil (having overtaken Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s) and one of the largest urban centres in the world. Area 95,834 square miles (248,209 square km). Pop. (2007) 39,838,127.

Physical and human geography

The land
Relief and drainage
      São Paulo has a coastline 370 miles (600 km) long. The narrow coastal zone is broken by lagoons, tidal channels, and mountain spurs. It is bordered by the slopes of the Serra do Mar (Mar, Serra do), on the edge of an extensive plateau with wide, grassy plains, about 1,500 to 3,000 feet (460 to 920 metres) above sea level. Isolated ranges of low elevation break the surface in places, but, in general, the undulating tableland slopes toward the Paraná River, the state's western boundary.

      The Paraná (Paraná River) and its tributaries—the Paranapanema (Paranapanema River), Tieté (Tietê River) (which traverses the whole state), Pardo, Canoas, Inferno, Anhanguera, Turvo, and Dourados—flow westward into the estuary of the Río de la Plata. The extreme eastern part of the tableland, however, slopes to the east, and, from a little east of the city of São Paulo, the Paraíba do Sul River turns northeastward and flows parallel to the coast, meandering across a wide floodplain used for the production of rice.

      On the coast the average temperature is about 68 °F (20 °C), and the annual precipitation is about 79 inches (2,007 mm); on the plateau the average temperature varies between about 64 and 68 °F (18 and 20 °C), and in the mountainous areas annual precipitation reaches 59 inches (1,500 mm). The lower third of the state is crossed by the Tropic of Capricorn, and the weather in general is mild and healthful. The coastal zone has a hot climate and heavy rainfall. On the plateau rainfall is ample as well, but diurnal temperatures are lower because of increased elevation.

Flora and fauna
      The remaining patches of evergreen forest in the highlands are reminiscent of the wealth of vegetation in Brazil in days gone by. The vegetation is greatly diversified and includes several kinds of hardwoods (such as rosewood), wild fruits, and plants that are used for medicinal and ornamental purposes or for making textiles.

      The state's animal life is largely relegated to highland forests and coastal wetlands. Among the larger animals are jaguars, cougars, tapirs, capybaras (edible rodents related to the guinea pig), howling monkeys, parrots, macaws, and alligators.

The people
      Before the arrival of the Portuguese, the two principal indigenous groups were the Tupí-Guaraní, who lived on the coast and on the plateau, and the Tapuia, who lived farther inland. Black African slaves were introduced to the region by the Portuguese during the 17th century. With the devastation of the native peoples and with further European immigration (mostly Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish), from the end of the 19th century onward, the population of the state was reduced to three elements—white, black, and mulatto. Subsequently a small number of Middle Eastern and Japanese immigrants also arrived.

      Brazilian-style Portuguese is the language in general use, and English is relatively widely spoken. São Paulo is predominantly Roman Catholic, though other Christian denominations are found.

      Under federal law all citizens are entitled to primary education, which is free and compulsory; the cities have the best educational facilities. Institutions of higher learning include the University of São Paulo (with its constituent colleges and affiliated institutes), Mackenzie University, Pontifical Catholic University, and the Polytechnic School of Engineering—all of which are in the city of São Paulo—and Luis de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture in Piracicaba.

The economy
      Manufacturing and services, mostly focused on the city of São Paulo and its environs, account for the vast majority of the state's production and employ most of its workers. Manufactures include electronic equipment, automobiles, consumer goods, and food products.

      Agriculture is largely mechanized; it owes its modernization largely to the Luis de Queiroz school and to the Institute of Agronomy of Campinas. Coffee, formerly the main source of wealth of the state, still accounts for a considerable portion of the total value of its products. Besides coffee, crops include sugarcane, cotton, corn (maize), rice, beans, Indian or Paraguay tea (maté), potatoes, and such fruits as bananas and oranges. Hogs, sheep, horses, and goats are also raised.

      The state has an extensive network of highways. Santos is the nation's busiest port and the largest coffee-shipping port in the world. The ports of São Sebastião, Iguape, Ubatuba, and Cananéia, which are considerably smaller, serve the coastal trade. São Paulo city has an international airport and is the centre of the state's most important cultural institutions.

History
      The area that was to become São Paulo was settled in 1532 by the Portuguese under the explorer Martim Afonso de Souza (Sousa, Martim Afonso de), who established a flourishing settlement at São Vicente, now a resort town near Santos. When Brazil was divided into captaincies, or hereditary fiefs, the captaincy of São Vicente, comprising the whole of Brazil south of Rio de Janeiro, was granted to Souza (1534). The Vicentinos (inhabitants of São Vicente) had begun to explore the hinterlands, and new villages began to appear on the coastline and on the plateau, which became the main region of inland settlement. In 1681 the captaincy was renamed São Paulo, and the town of São Paulo (founded 1554) was designated the capital.

      In the 18th century the Portuguese inhabitants of the captaincy (called Paulistas, or Paulistanos) continued to penetrate the west, north, and south by forming large slave- and gold-hunting expeditions called bandeiras (bandeira). São Paulo existed on its commerce, sugar growing, and diversified agriculture until the introduction of coffee planting in the 19th century opened a new economic era.

      The national independence of Brazil was proclaimed in São Paulo in 1822, at which time the captaincy became a province of the new Brazilian empire. The region of São Paulo became a state when the republic was formed in 1889. Political importance grew with the economy. The nation's first three civilian presidents after the downfall of the empire in 1889 were Paulistas. Since the mid-20th century, Paulistas, who first served as mayors of the capital city, as governors, or as local political or industrial leaders, have occupied the presidency, cabinet, and other federal positions with significant regularity.

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Universalium. 2010.

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