São Paulo

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São Paulo
—  Municipality  —
The Municipality of
São Paulo

Images, from top, left to right: the Estaiada Bridge; Downtown São Paulo; Ibirapuera Park; São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo Cathedral; Brooklin district with office buildings alongside the Pinheiros River.

Flag
Seal
Nickname(s): Terra da Garoa (Land of Drizzle) and Sampa
Motto: "Non ducor, duco"  (Latin)
"I am not led, I lead"

São Paulo

Location in Brazil
Coordinates: 46°38′W / 23.55°S 46.633°W / -23.55; -46.633
Country  Brazil
Region Southeast
State São Paulo
Founded January 25, 1554
Government
 - Mayor Gilberto Kassab (Democrats)
Area
 - Municipality 1,522.986 km² (588 sq mi)
 - Metro 7,943.818 km² (3,067.1 sq mi)
Elevation 760 m (2,493.4 ft)
Population (2009)
 - Municipality 11,037,593 (1st)
 - Density 7,216.3/km² (18,690.1/sq mi)
 - Metro 19,889,559
 - Metro Density 2,469.35/km² (6,395.6/sq mi)
Time zone UTC-3 (UTC-3)
 - Summer (DST) UTC-2 (UTC-2)
Postal Code 01000-000
HDI (2000) 0.841–high[1]
Website City of São Paulo

São Paulo ([sɐ̃w̃ ˈpawlu]  ( listen); pronounced /saʊn ˈpaʊ.loʊ/, /sæn ˈpaʊ.loʊ/ or, commonly, /saʊ ˈpa.loʊ/ in English) is the largest city in Brazil and the world's 7th largest metropolitan area. (Also the largest city proper in the Western World).[2][3] The city is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. It is also the richest city in Brazil. The name of the city honors Saint Paul. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. São Paulo is considered an Alpha World City.[4]

The city has many renowned landmarks, such as the Museu Paulista do Ipiranga, the gothic Metropolitan Sé Cathedral, the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), the Monumento à Bandeira Portuguese to Monument to the flag and Niemeyer's Ibirapuera complex Bienal, planetarium, and museums; and more recently the Estaiada bridge in the South Side. Paulista Avenue, in Midtown is the most important financial center in the country and South America.

The city is home to the São Paulo Stock Exchange, or BOVESPA, the Future Markets, and the Cereal Market Stock Exchanges. São Paulo has been home to several of the tallest buildings in Brazil, including the Mirante do Vale Building[5] and Itália Building.[6]

With an estimated population of 11,037,593 residents[7] within an area of 1,523 square kilometers (588.0 sq mi),[8] São Paulo is the most populous city in the Americas, 6th largest in the world as well as most populous in the Southern hemisphere.[9]

The city also lies at the center of the heavily urbanized São Paulo metropolitan area, with an estimated 19,889,559 people in 2009[10] over 7,944 square kilometers (3,067.2 sq mi),[11] is the largest metropolitan area in the nation. Depending on which definition is used, the São Paulo metropolitan area is ranked as either the most populous or second most populous in the Americas.[12]

People from the city of São Paulo are known as paulistanos, while paulistas designates anyone from the whole of São Paulo state, including the paulistanos. The city's Latin motto, which it has shared with the battleship and the aircraft carrier named after it, is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead."[13]

A famous nickname for the city is "Sampa." São Paulo is also known for its unreliable weather, the size of its helicopter fleet, architecture, gastronomy, and multitude of skyscrapers.[14] The São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport operates many domestic and international flights.

History

The first coastal settlement in Brazil, São Vicente was founded in 1532.[15] It was the first permanent Portuguese colony in the New World.[15] Twenty two years later the Tibiriçá Chief and Jesuit missionaries Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded the village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga 42 miles (68 km) inland from São Vicente, on January 25, 1554.[15] The clergymen established a mission at the Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga, aimed at converting the Tupi-Guarani indigenous Brazilians to the Catholic faith, as well as make it easier for the Portuguese crown to rule them. Anchieta is said to have killed a native, which brings a degree of protest from Indian rights groups against his canonization by the Vatican. The Jesuits were later also often at odds with the Portuguese authorities, mainly the Marquês de Pombal, who eventually expelled them from Brazil for protecting converted natives in their missions. Located just beyond the Serra do Mar cliffs, above the port city of Santos, and close to the Tietê River, the new settlement became the natural entrance from the South East coast to the vast and fertile high plateau to the West that would eventually become the richest Brazilian state.

São Paulo officially became a city in 1711. In the 19th century, it experienced a flourishing economic prosperity, brought about through coffee exports, which were shipped abroad from the port of the neighboring city of Santos. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, waves of immigrants from Portugal, Italy, Spain and other European countries emigrated to São Paulo in order to "bleach the race," as Luso-Brazilian authorities feared Brazil's black population would grow far more than the other society's groups. Many of them were granted lands as incentives to immigrate and some worked in an indentured fashion at the enormous coffee plantations established in the State. Newcomers and their descendants ended up "making the America," as they said in Italian and Portuguese and some of Brazil's greatest entrepreneurs have Italian, Portuguese, and German last names, for example Mattarazzo, Diniz, and Mueller.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the coffee cycle had already plummeted due to, among other factors, a sharp decline in international coffee prices. With the New York Stock Exchange 1929 crash, coffee barons started losing their influence and status. Many committed suicide and the Paulistan economy looked for other alternatives such as sugar cane planting and the production of alcohol. With the difficulties brought about by World War II, when industrialized items were more difficult to reach Brazil, and following the national incipient trend of import-substitution, São Paulo began industrializing itself for domestic consumption. Brazil already showed a pattern of huge importation of most fashionable and industry-manufactured products from Europe, which was maintained well into the late twentieth century, and created huge trade deficits despite the equally huge and lucrative coffee and sugar exports.

Local entrepreneurs then started investing in the industrial development of São Paulo, attracting new contingents of immigrants to the city, mainly Italians. In addition to Europeans, Japanese and Syrian and Lebanese immigrants arrived in large numbers in the first half of the 20th century. Along the 20th century, the booming economy of the city also attracted huge waves of migrants from the poorest regions in Brazil, such as the Northeast. São Paulo maintained a high economic 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 center.