Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul (Portuguese pronunciation: /kaˈʃias du ˈsuw/) is a Brazilian municipality in southern Brazil, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city was built where the Vacaria plateau begins to fragment into several valleys, crossed by small streams, resulting in a very irregular topography in its southern part. The area was inhabited by indigenous people since time immemorial, but was settled by the white man only in the 19th century, when the government of the Empire of Brazil decided to colonize the region with a European population. Therefore, thousands of immigrants, mostly Italians from the Veneto region, along with other groups of nationalities such as French, Spanish and Poles, crossed the sea and settled in an almost entirely virgin area.
After a beginning full of difficulties and deprivation, the immigrants were able to establish a prosperous city with an economy initially based on the exploitation of agricultural products, especially grapes and wine, whose success is measured in the rapid expansion of the commerce and industry in the first half of the 20th century. At the same time, the community's rural and ethnic roots began to lose importance in the cultural and economic landscape, urbanization advanced, an illustrious urban elite was formed, and the city opened itself to greater integration with the rest of Brazil. During the first government of Getúlio Vargas there was a serious crisis between immigrants and their first descendants with the rest of Brazil, when nationalism stood out and the cultural and ethnic roots of foreign policy were harshly repressed. After World War II, the situation calmed down, and Brazilians and foreigners began to work on an agreement for the common good.
Since then the city has grown rapidly, multiplying its population, achieving high economic and human development, and making its economy one of the most dynamic in Brazil, being present in many international markets. Its culture also became international, with several higher education institutions established and the presence of a life with artistic and cultural significance in its various manifestations, despite the typical problems experienced by cities with a high growth rate, such as pollution., the appearance of slums and the increase in crime.
History
Origins and Colonization
Before the arrival of Italian immigrants in the 19th century, the region was inhabited by the indigenous Caingang. Then comes its old name: Field of the Indians. Muleteers traveling between the south of the state and the center of the country also passed through there. In the region, the Jesuits tried to found some missions, but without success. In the second half of the 19th century, due to To the war of Italian unification, that European country was in serious social and economic problems and farmers could no longer make a living. At this time, the imperial government of Brazil decided to carry out the colonization of uninhabited areas in the south, encouraging the arrival of immigrants from Italy, after the success of a similar initiative with the German population. The chosen area was then known as Fundos de Nova Palmira, a region made up of vacant land, delimited by Campos de Cima da Serra to the north and the region of valleys to the south, of German colonization. In 1875 the first settlers arrived, mostly part of the Veneto region, after facing the arduous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which lasted approximately a month in overcrowded ships and where deaths from diseases and poor conditions in general were common. Initially, the immigrants stayed in Rio de Janeiro, where they remained quarantined in the so-called 'Immigrant House'. They boarded a steam train to the south, arriving in Porto Alegre, where they were taken to the old port of Guimarães, and today it is the city of São Sebastião do Caí. They then climbed the mountain range, crossing a region that was largely wild, until they reached their destination: the area where Nueva Milano is today in the municipality of Farroupilha. From there, they moved in 1876 to the so-called Sede Dante, current location in Caxias do Sul, the administrative center of the colony. They were then distributed in the rural areas assigned to them by the government. A year later, around 2,000 settlers were already in the place. On April 11, 1877, the official name of the place became Colonia de Caxias, in honor of the Duke of Caxias.
Development
Despite some government aid, the immigrants' initial conditions were very difficult. The families remained largely isolated from each other due to the absence or precariousness of roads. And they were also unaware of the wild environment in which they were left, the tools that the settlers possessed were primitive and scarce, and the agricultural techniques brought from Italy did not exist. They adapted to the local climate and soil. While agriculture did not bear fruit, sustenance came from gathering, hunting, and selling wood. Only the commitment of each family allowed their survival in the early days, as they tended to be numerous. This colony of Caxias grew rapidly, also due to the continuous flow of new immigrants, then structured its economy on a subsistence basis. The main products were wheat, beans and corn, followed by potatoes, barley and rye. Fruit species such as chestnut, quince, apple, pear, orange and cherry trees were introduced, and they raised chickens, cows, goats, pigs, sheep and rabbits. There was somewhat greater production of honey and silk.
Despite this profile, later there was a certain commercial and industrial development in the urban headquarters, in essence, designed to process and distribute the surplus of agricultural production, showing some dry goods houses, and small factories such as carpentry, ceramics, wood, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, mills, shoemakers and tailors, which gave the self-sufficiency of the emerging colony. The result of this activity was observed in 1881 with the first Agro-Industrial Fair, the origin of the Festival of the Current grape, focused on small agricultural and craft fairs and festivals that took place in the countryside. In 1883 there were 93 shopping centers in the colony that had a population of 7,359 inhabitants.
On April 12, 1884, it lost its colony status so that it was attached to the city of São Sebastião do Caí as its fifth district, when it had a population of 10,500 inhabitants. Its name was changed to Freguesia de Santa Teresa de Caxias, being an administrative unit and having a parish. On October 30, 1886, the city of São Sebastião do Cai established a Code of Postures for the parish of Caxias and appointed João Muratore as its first district administrator, but the de facto government was still in the hands of imperial officials., who viewed Italians as administrators with distrust. Only on June 20, 1890, Italians obtained positions in the Municipality, thus starting a tradition. On that date, the president of the State appointed the first board of Caxias, composed of the Italians Angelo Chitolina, Ernesto Sartori Marsiaj and Salvador, emancipating the parish, which became a town. In 1895 the telegraph lines had already crossed the town, and in 1906 the first telephone network opened.
On June 1, 1910, it received the first train, which linked the region with the state capital. In 1913, electric lighting was installed. Several cycles have marked the evolution of the city throughout this century. In its first decades the subsistence economic model predominated. Trade was favored by the railway and the gallery network created by the Germans, but soon the Italians were able to create their own marketing channels for their products, generating an important capital that allowed industrialization in the future on a larger scale. Caxias do Sul became an important commercial center through the industrial manufacturing of wines, butter and flour, with Porto Alegre as its main distribution point. Pioneers such as Antonio Pierucinni and Abramo Eberle stood out, respectively, as merchants of wine and metallurgical products, beginning marketing with São Paulo. The Merchants Association, founded in 1901, played a role of enormous importance throughout the region and It has become an important social force after independence and the Caxiense Municipal Council. Strict control was maintained over trade, having great influence with the powers that be, intervening beneficially in economic crises and local infrastructure problems, and working in the field of social assistance. The Association, despite some internal crises and disagreements with the authorities, took all issues in one way or another to the interests of the productive classes, even when these were purely agricultural issues, since all productive activities In this phase they flowed into trade.
Meanwhile, the local culture, although still closely linked to the traditional family organization model, with its rural roots, and its close relationship with the Catholic Church, began a process of refinement and secularization, while, with the At the end of the immigrant settlement phase, an urban elite appeared that acquired more information, was more courteous and could dedicate more time to leisure and culture in less folkloric and more cosmopolitan patterns, a fact that also benefited the population in general. Social clubs emerged that offered recreational and cultural programming, such as Clube Juvenil or Recreion de Juventude, and non-professional sports clubs, such as Esporte Clube Juventude, and SER de Caxias. Public education began to be structured in 1917 when the first municipal library was created. The first theaters and cinemas, such as the Cine Juventude, the Cine Teatro Apolo and the Centro de Cine, brought the film production of the time to Caxias, providing space for local traveling and amateur theater companies, and even opera groups. It is also important to mention the creation of the Menezes Tobias Barreto Culture Center in 1937, founded by Percy Vargas de Abreu e Lima, an important intellectual personality of the city, offering free humanities and science courses open to the entire population, also developing other activities. cultural, and was a focus of political discussion, based on the socialist ideas of its founder. The city's current House of Culture is named after him.
Identity construction and social crisis
In 1925, the fiftieth anniversary of Italian Immigration in Brazil was celebrated, a period that was very propitious to begin a public consecration of the successes already achieved and consolidated, mainly with the objective of integrating the colonial elites into the historical vision. of the state, until then dominated by the Pastoral representations of landowners of Portuguese descendants. In this context, the Grape Festival is now the largest event in the secular city, uniting the glorification of the work of Italians with the possibilities of the celebration as an important economic forum. As Ribeiro Cleodes has already said,
"If the ritual of the liturgy of the Feast of the Uva served to proclaim the identity of the celebrants, to exhibit the result of the work developed for more than half a century and to claim the status of the Brazilians, their defining characteristics were explained by the symbolic vocabulary used in the ritual. The speeches, the exhibition and distribution of the grapes, the triumphal procession, the tendeiras in their costumes, songs, parties, the Congress and the flags lined up in the streets, all that reflected the efforts of the party's offerers in the process of self-representation. »
At the same time, in fascist Italy, interest arose in reconstructing the history of immigrants, interpreting it as a powerful contribution to the civilization of the Latin race in the New World, and urging Italians here to defend and feel proud of his ethnic origin. Benito Mussolini, in the prologue of the commemorative album of Cinquantenario della Colonizzazione Italiana nello Stato del Río Grande del Sud, declared the following:
"In the noble pride that elevates their souls, while you stop to contemplate the result of the long and tenacious fatigue, I see the sign of the noble lineage that printed a imperishable footprint in the history of the peoples. »
This patriotic and racist position was not exempt from foreign manipulation, but was suppressed by the government of Getúlio Vargas, which adopted a nationalist line of development, reducing the autonomy of the State and regional peculiarities, the so-called &# 34;social cyst" that had been formed "recklessly" in various regions, including in the south of Brazil. At this point, the overly optimistic and confident self-image built by the Italians began to be criticized, and instead of being considered as collaborators in the process of growth of the Brazilian population, immigrants began to be seen as potential enemies of the homeland.. This process reached its culmination with Brazil's entry into the Second World War alongside the Allies against the Axis countries, causing a rupture of the deep ties between Italy and Brazil, with serious consequences for the immigration region. Between 1941 and 1944 there were popular anti-Italian demonstrations organized by the National Defense League, which tried to suppress the signs that identified the foreign ethnic group, creating an atmosphere of terror in various public acts of aggression. At the same time, Italians and their descendants were prohibited from speaking in their dialect, forming a kind of wall of silence around them, since many could not express themselves in Portuguese. His turn began to depend on the granting of safe conduct, which seriously affected his interaction at all levels with Brazilians. This repression led to an effort of self-censorship by Italians on themselves and their descendants, discouraging the cultivation of memory even in their homes and cutting off the celebration of the Grape Festival in 1938. The same treatment as those who suffer, to a lesser extent, from other ethnic origins were foreigners.
Reconciliation and the resumption of growth
At the resumption of the Grape Festival, in 1950, coinciding with the celebration of 75 years of immigration in a spirit of reconciliation, immigrants began to be called "pioneers", which indicates a change in the identity that is constructed, with implications for the progressive opening It descends on non-Italians, since they are considered partners in the entire civilization process. Another event of great symbolic significance was the construction of the Monument to Immigrants, inaugurated in 1954 and later became a national monument.
The economic development of the city during the 20th century followed a pattern similar to that of Brazil, the use of technical and machinery developed in industrialized countries and their adaptation to local conditions. In the second half of large companies had branches in Porto Alegre and the city had already developed an important trade in pork products, dairy products, flour, wood and the wine industry. The metals industry was also growing, first taking on the artisanal work of blacksmiths, locksmiths and plumbers, but around the 1950s it acquired the profile of modern industries, especially with capital derived from savings and the expansion of its own facilities. A gap in economic development was the formation of deep ties of mutual trust in the community, the so-called social capital, allowing the organization of the economy on a more solid basis, the acceleration of the economic cycle and obtaining more significant results. The rapid Diversification of the economy is also due to progressive urbanization and the failure of the colonial system of the family plot. The subsequent fragmentation of rural properties among multiple heirs made them able to provide for their usually large families, leading to rural exodus and converting many of the farmers into old workers in industry and commerce.
Just as the first half of the XX century represented a greater openness and integration of the city in the state and national context, the second half is presented as a phase of opening towards the world, an integration characterized by the change in its productive, political and cultural profile, the beginning of its penetration into the foreign market and the consolidation of its position as one of the largest economies in Brazil. The city grew rapidly in this period, going from a population of 54,000 in 1950 to 180,000 in 1975 and around 360,000 people in 2000, bringing with it all the social, cultural, economic and environmental problems typical of Brazilian cities with great speed of expansion.. The industrial dynamism of the city intensified from the 1970s, based on the diversity of projects ranging from transportation equipment (the most important) to furniture, food, metal, clothing, footwear and fabric, making it the second area in economic importance in the state, attracting people from other regions of Rio Grande do Sul, and even other states. In recent years the local economy shows a drastic change of emphasis assuming great importance to the tertiary sector and growing computerization and automation in business, infrastructure, concern for the environment and the opening of new jobs and international markets on various fronts.
In 1994, the urban agglomeration of northeast Rio Grande do Sul was created, the second largest urban area in Rio Grande do Sul, highlighting the concentration of the population and the dynamism of its economic structure. The fragmentation of the former colony Caxias municipalities Flores da Cunha, Farringdon and San Marcos were born today. The city is also known as the Pearl of the Colonies.
Geography
Caxias do Sul is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is located at a longitude of 51º 10'06" west and a latitude of 29º 10'05" South. It belongs to the Northeast Rio-Grandense Mesoregion and the Caxias do Sul Microregion. According to the Economics and Statistics Foundation, it has an area of 1643.9 kilometers2, 1,638.34 kilometers 2 according to data from the City Council, or 1,644 km², the second or FEE. It is 127km from the state capital, Porto Alegre and 1,900km from Brasilia, the federal capital. It borders the municipalities of San Marcos, Campestre da Serra and Monte Alegre dos Campos, in the north, Vale Real, Nova Petrópolis, Gramado and Canela to the south, São Francisco de Paula to the east, Flores da Cunha and Farroupilha to the west.
Relief and hydrography
It is located in the physiographic region of Rio Grande do Sul called Encosta Superior do Nordeste, part of the Sierra del Mar, the urban core of the original city was built on a peninsula-shaped extension of vacaria plateau, an ancient basaltic spill, on a granite base, whose topography is a continuous slope, but without problems, from the border of the state of Santa Catarina, with an average slope of about 2m/km. Caxias do Sul is located in a watershed between 740 and 820m altitude, where the Vacarian plateau crashes and begins to fragment into several valleys cut by small rivers and streams that head south and west tributaries of Tacuarí, which They go to the south and southeast, tributaries of the Caí River, and drain to the north, tributaries of the Antas River, Pelotas River and São Marcos River. The city's main river beds are the Master Stream (north-northeast), the Biondo Stream (northeast), the Caravaggio Stream (southwest) and the Pine Stream (south). This network of valleys has extensive interval fields ranging from 50 to 60km wide. Towards the south, however, a succession of relatively small valleys branched, with small intervals ranging from 4 to 5 km wide. The interfluvial areas of the southern valleys are generally located almost simultaneously with the Caxias plateau, which ranges between 670 and 790 m high, while the bottom of the ravines, where red sandstone outcrops, usually less than 200 m altitude. The main water features of the city are artificial reservoirs built to supply the population, including the Maestra Dam (5.4 million m³), the Dal Bo Dam (1,770,000 m³) and Faxinal Dam (32 million m³).
Environment
The city of Caxias do Sul is located within the Atlantic Forest biome, with predominant vegetation of Araucaria Forests, known as Araucaria angustifolia. Towards the east, north and northeast it merges with the forested vegetation zones of the Campos de Cima da Serra, which occur in shallow soils. The landscape is very deteriorated due to agricultural management and industrial expansion of the urban area, with a great reduction in the presence of Araucaria. The relief of the less rugged, are more extensive patches of fields and, unlike the more dynamic are the relief forms, they are denser and more continuous Araucaria forests, especially in the headwaters of the main valleys. The lower areas of the valleys are covered with a forest of transitional forests on the slopes, with greater botanical diversity, which is defined as Mata da Figueira. The soils, created in the basalt cover, are generally very fertile.
The city has an IBAMA post. The City Council applies and enforces the extensive environmental legislation created by the City and maintains an Environment Department, responsible for conservation actions and management of natural resources. Among its activities are environmental education programs, such as planting a tree, the repopulation of the Araucaria, the Conference on the Environment, the Ecological Calendar, the Environmental Olympic Games, Environment Week and others. The city has an average of 17.32 square meters of green area per inhabitant, with 46 squares and several other green spaces and preservation areas, such as the small Sartori Mato, near the center, the 186 hectares that surround the basin of Caxias do Sul, in the district of Souza agricultural, the largest environmental preservation area for the extraction of water from the Atlantic, and the Rincón de las Flores discharge, which has most of its area of 275.8 hectares designated for maintenance. Several parks have areas of native flora and urbanized areas with equipment for sports and recreational activities, including the Monkey Park, the Cinquantenaire Park and the Dr. Celeste Gobatto Park. There is also a 50-hectare botanical garden, preserving the flora local, while providing, through collection and reproduction, the recovery of degraded areas.
Climate
The climate of Caxias do Sul is temperate (Cfb), with cool summers and relatively cold winters with frequent frosts. It may snow in the coldest months, but generally of little intensity, although relatively large rainfall has already been recorded. The average annual temperature of the municipality is 16.5 °C. The hottest months are January and February, with an average of 21 °C, while the coldest are June and July with an average of 12 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1,915 mm, which is distributed regularly throughout the year. The rainiest month is March with an average of 206 mm, the least rainy is May with an average of 109 mm. Accumulated rainfall reached 105 mm in 12 hours. Episodes of strong winds occasionally occur, with gusts greater than the 100 km/h. In 2009, a tornado passed through.
According to data from the Fundação Estadual de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Fepagro) and the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), since 1960 the minimum temperature in Caxias do Sul was -3.0 °C, on July 14, 2000, while the maximum was 34.6 °C observed on January 6, 1963 and January 26, 1964. The greatest amount of accumulated rain was 168 mm on June 18, 1962.
 Average climate parameters of Caxias do Sul | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Ene. | Feb. | Mar. | Open up. | May. | Jun. | Jul. | Ago. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Annual |
| Temp. max. abs. (°C) | 34.6 | 33.6 | 32.3 | 30.4 | 26.8 | 25.8 | 26.6 | 29.6 | 31.2 | 30.6 | 33.9 | 34.3 | 34.6 |
| Average temperature (°C) | 26.6 | 26.4 | 24.6 | 21.7 | 18.9 | 16.9 | 17.3 | 18.1 | 19.7 | 21.6 | 23.7 | 25.7 | 21.8 |
| Average temperature (°C) | 20.6 | 20.6 | 19.1 | 16.2 | 14.3 | 12.1 | 12.3 | 12.7 | 14.4 | 15.8 | 17.8 | 19.6 | 16.3 |
| Temp. medium (°C) | 16.7 | 17.0 | 15.7 | 12.6 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 8.7 | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.7 | 15.4 | 12.6 |
| Temp. min. abs. (°C) | 5.1 | 7.4 | 5.2 | 1.5 | -1.6 | -2.2 | -3.0 | -2.3 | -1.6 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 5.7 | -3.0 |
| Total precipitation (mm) | 164.4 | 146.9 | 161.2 | 100.2 | 122.8 | 139.8 | 163.5 | 185.4 | 178.6 | 169.6 | 122.6 | 168.1 | 1823.1 |
| Precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 13 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 124 |
| Hours of sun | 208.3 | 185.8 | 183.9 | 185.1 | 165.6 | 146.6 | 154.2 | 141.9 | 142.3 | 180.9 | 199.7 | 212.1 | 2106.4 |
| Relative humidity (%) | 77 | 79 | 82 | 81 | 80 | 80 | 78 | 78 | 77 | 78 | 75 | 76 | 78.4 |
| Source: INMET | |||||||||||||
Demography
The municipality is a pole of migratory attraction in the region, and has 40% of the population of the Urban Agglomeration of the Northeast of Rio Grande do Sul (AUNe), with growth rates between 25 and 30% per decade. The AUNe is made up of the municipalities of Bento Gonçalves, Carlos Barbosa, Caxias do Sul, Farroupilha, Flores da Cunha, Garibaldi, Monte Belo do Sur, Nova Pádua, Santa Tereza and São Marcos. Forming an agglomerate that in 2010 had a population of 716,421 inhabitants.
In 2009 the total population of the municipality was 413,890 inhabitants, with a demographic density of 251.8 inhabitants/km². Life expectancy at birth in 2000 was 74.11 years, the Infant Mortality Rate in 2007 was 9.04 per thousand live births. In 2000 the urbanization rate was 92.5%. 25.18% of the population was under 15 years old, 69.16% were between 15 and 64 years old, and the rest were over 65 years old. 97.9% had access to a refrigerator, 97.3% to television, 59.9% to a telephone and 17.7% to a computer. The Human Development Index was 0.857, making the city occupy 12th position among Brazilian municipalities and 4th position at the state level.
As of October 2017, a law confirms the Veneto-Italian dialect Talian as the co-official language of the municipality.
Economy
The municipal GDP is estimated at 9.8 billion reais, close to 4.9 billion dollars. The agricultural sector accounts for only 1.70% of the Gross Added Value, with industry accounting for 40.79% and services accounting for 57.51%. In 2007 there were 30,068 companies of all economic categories in activity. In 2005 the city had an Economically Active Population (EAP) of about 150,000 workers, but of these only 55% were formally in the market. In 2005, the city achieved the highest socioeconomic development index in the state for the sixth consecutive year, with an index of 0.844. In recent years, the municipality's economy has been showing very good performance, with 10,779 new jobs created between January and July 2010, breaking a national record.
Sports
There is a significant sporting activity in the city, with some teams with a long tradition. In football, the Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul stands out, whose headquarters is the Francisco Stédile Stadium. This team was already state champion in 2000. The other great team in the city is the Esporte Clube Juventude, whose stadium is the Alfredo Jaconi and has the third largest fan base in the state. Currently this team is in Serie A. It became gaucho champion in 1998 and won the Brazilian Cup in 1999. In basketball the Caxias do Sul Basquete team has already won the state championship and participates of the Brazil Cup.
Minority languages
Outside the national Portuguese language, Talian, a dialect of the Venetian language, is also spoken. Basically Talian is Veneto but with Portuguese influences; It is only spoken in southern Brazil.
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