Susana Dias

Susana Dias ( ) was a woman from São Paulo. She and her son, Captain , started the city of Parnahyba in the São Vicente region, which is now called Santana de Parnaíba in São Paulo, Brazil.

Dias was born around 1553 to Pero Lopes, who was Portuguese, and Beatriz Dias, who was Indigenous. Susana's grandfather was chief Tibiriçá. In 1580, she started a farm by the Anhembi river (which is now called the Tietê river) to help with the Portuguese colonization for minerals and Indigenous slaves. She built a well for Saint Anne, who she worshipped on this land, and from whom the city of Santana de Parnaíba gets its name. It is believed that her son, André, was two years old when the city was founded, but the area became its own town in 1625, breaking away from the larger São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which later became modern São Paulo.

She was married twice: first to Manoel Fernandes and then to Belchior da Costa, with the second marriage ending in 1625. She had 19 children. Many of these children became , exploring Brazil for minerals and Indigenous slaves. Some of them were Domingos Fernandes who founded the city of Itu, and Baltasar Fernandes, one of the founders of the city of Sorocaba.

References

Category:1550s births
Category:1634 deaths
Category:Brazilian people