Diario las Américas., 1958-05-16
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Neighbor
By o RUIZ

BRAZIL = Sac Paulo, the most
important industrial city in Latin
America, was founded on jan
uary 5, 1854, by Jesuit missionar-
les Manuel da Nobrega and Jos
de Anchleta. The first colonizers
CAME from Sac Vicente, a small
village on the Atlantic coast,
founded in 1880 by Martin Alfonso
da Souza, a Captain OF the Guards
of the King of Portugal. Sac vi
cente was the first attempt at Or
ganized colonization in the south
of Brazil.
Between the sea and the site
chosen by Noblega and Anchie-
ia for the foundation of the new
city, there rises the massive "Se-
ira do Mar" or Sea Range, and
between high peaks of this range
there is an immense plateau call
ed Pirantininga by the Indians.
Any attempt at colonizing the
highlands was retarded for at least
twenty years by the difficulties
encountered in trying to scale the
mountains, defend the coast-line
and convert the Indians.
Some colonizers, facing count
less dangers, had already managed
to reach the plateau OF Piratininga
among them the Portuguese Joao
Ramalho, who managed to make
friends with the Indians, married
the daughter Of the native Chief
Tibirica, and founded the village
OF Santo Andre da Borda do Cam
pc. The following year, the Jesuit
missionaries, On a spot overlooking
the rivers Tamanduatel and
Anhangabau, built a church and a
school, crude buildings which gave
rise to the City of Sac Paulo. On
the 9Th of January, 1854, the date
in which the foundation of the CT
ty was officially declared, the first
Mass Was celebrated there. :
From Old Sac Paulo, a humble
village surrounded by a palisade,
the task of civilization initiated by
the Jesuit Fathers, spread forth;
their political and colonizing abil-
ity transformed the place and
converted the native chieftains in
to valuable allies. Depending for
the life of the inhabitants on the
small farms surrounding it, the vii
lage of Sac Paulo had no more i'm
portance at first than that of a di-
minutive outpost of civilization in
America. But its important geo.
graphical position and the driving
power of its inhabitants were de-
Stined to give Sac Paulo a very
important role in the world of
Portuguese colonization in Brazil.
The need of Indian slaves to
work on the farms and plantations
surrounding Sac Paulo originated
the famous expeditions into the
interior of the region, which were
called 'entradas' or "bandeiras."
On these raiding expeditions the
destroyed many of the immense
Indian reservations founded by
the Jesuits in the south of Brazil,
and once the discovery of gold and
precious stones had been made,
they swept through the whole, vast
and unknown interior of the coun-
try reaching the Paraguay and
Amazone rivers, on their way to
the fabulous gold and silver mines
of Peru.
The "Bandirantes," a name given
tothe participants in these s'bandei
ras" Or excursions, and later given
to all the inhabitants of Sac Paulo,
thus managed to push back the
Meridian of Tordecillas, a dividing
line defined by the Pope in the
dispute between Portugal and
Spain over New World territor.
les. With their incredible con-
quests, these fearless explorers and
adventures added more than five
million square kilometers to Bra
lillian territory.
Continued tomorrow
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