State of São Paulo

São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil. The capital, São Paulo, is also the largest city in South America (and the Southern Hemisphere).

Often dubbed the "locomotive of Brazil", the state alone is responsible for 40% of the Brazilian GDP, being the state with the highest GDP. In addition to increased GDP, São Paulo also has the highest Human Development Index, the highest GDP per capita, the second lowest infant mortality rate and the fourth lowest rate of illiteracy among the states of Brazil.

With 44,035,304 inhabitants in 2014, São Paulo is the most populous state in Brazil and the third most populous political unit of South America, only surpassed by that country and Colombia, ahead of all other South American countries. São Paulo's capital city is ranked thirteenth among the largest cities on the planet and its metropolitan area, with 20,935,204 inhabitants, is the seventh largest in the world.

Regions near the city of São Paulo are also metropolitan areas, such as Campinas, Santos, Sorocaba and São José dos Campos; other nearby cities include urban areas in the conurbation process, such as Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano, Diadema, Piracicaba, Guarulhos, Osasco, Taboão da Serra and Jundiaí. The total population of these areas coupled with the capital – the so-called Expanded Metropolitan Complex – exceeds 29 million inhabitants, i.e. approximately 75% of the population of São Paulo state-wide. The metropolitan regions of Campinas and São Paulo now form the first macro-metropolis in the southern hemisphere, joining 65 municipalities that together are home to 12% of the Brazilian population.

Early period
In pre-European times, the area that is now São Paulo state was occupied by the Tupi people's nation, who subsisted through hunting and cultivation. The first European to settle in the area was João Ramalho, a Portuguese sailor who may have been shipwrecked around 1510, ten years after the first Portuguese landfall in Brazil. He married the daughter of a local chieftain and became a settler. In 1532, the first colonial expedition, led by Martim Afonso de Sousa of Portugal, landed at São Vicente (near the present-day port at Santos). De Sousa added Ramalho's settlement to his colony.

Early European colonisation of Brazil was very limited. Portugal was more interested in Africa and Asia. But with English and French privateer ships just off the coast, the territory had to be protected. Unwilling to shoulder the burden of defence himself, the Portuguese ruler, King João III of Portugal, divided the coast into "captaincies", or swathes of land, 50 leagues apart. He distributed them among well-connected Portuguese, hoping that each would be self-reliant. The early port and sugar-cultivating settlement of São Vicente was one rare success connected to this policy. In 1548, João III brought Brazil under direct royal control.

Fearing Indian attack, he discouraged development of the territory's vast interior. Some whites headed nonetheless for Piratininga, a plateau near São Vicente, drawn by its navigable rivers and agricultural potential. Borda do Campo, the plateau settlement, became an official town (Santo André da Borda do Campo) in 1553. The history of São Paulo city proper begins with the founding of a Jesuit mission on January 25, 1554—the anniversary of Saint Paul's conversion. The station, which is at the heart of the current city, was named São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga (or just Pateo do Colégio). In 1560, the threat of Indian attack led many to flee from the exposed Santo André da Borda do Campo to the walled Colegio. Two years later, the Colégio was besieged. Though the town survived, fighting took place sporadically for another three decades.

By 1600, the town had about 1,500 citizens and 150 households. Little was produced for export, save a number of agricultural goods. The isolation was to continue for many years, as the development of Brazil centred on the sugar plantations in the north-east.

The city's location, at the mouth of the Tietê-Paranapanema river system (which winds into the interior), made it an ideal base for another activity: enslaving expeditions. The economics were simple. Enslaved manpower for Brazil's northern sugar plantations were in short supply. Enslaved Africans were expensive, so demand for indigenous captives soared. The task was, nonetheless, hard, if not impossible, to achieve.

Expansion
Among those who attempted to enslave the native were explorers of the hinterland called bandeirantes. From their base in São Paulo, they also combed the interior in search of natural riches. Silver, gold and diamonds were companion pursuits, as well as the exploration of unknown territories. Roman Catholic missionaries sometimes tagged along, as efforts at converting the native worked hand in hand with Portuguese colonialism. Despite their atrocities, the bandeirantes are now equally remembered for penetrating Brazil's vast interior. Trading posts established by them became permanent settlements. Interior routes opened up. Though the bandeirantes had no loyalty to the Portuguese crown, they did claim land for the king. Thus, the borders of Brazil were pushed forward to the Amazon region and the Andes.

Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in 1807 prompted the British navy to evacuate King João VI of Portugal, Portugal's prince regent, to Rio de Janeiro and Brazil became the temporary headquarters of the Portuguese Empire. João VI rewarded his hosts with economic reforms that would prove crucial to São Paulo's rise. Brazil's ports—long closed to non-Portuguese ships—were opened up. Restrictions on manufacturing were waived.

When Napoleon was defeated in 1815, João gave political shape to his territory, which became the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Portugal and Brazil, in other words, were ostensibly co-equals. Returning to Portugal six years later, João left his son, Pedro, to rule as regent and governor.

Empire of Brazil period
Pedro inherited his father's love of Brazil, resisting demands from Lisbon that Brazil should be ruled from Europe once again. Legend has it that in 1822 the regent was riding outside São Paulo when a messenger delivered a missive demanding his return to Europe, and Dom Pedro waved his sword and shouted "Independência ou morte!" (Independence or death).

João had whetted the appetite of Brazilians, who now sought a full break from the monarchy. The ever-restless Paulistas were at the vanguard of the independence movement. The small mother country of Portugal was in no position to resist—on September 7, 1822, Dom Pedro rubber-stamped Brazil's independence. He was crowned emperor shortly afterwards. The emperors ruled an independent Brazil until 1889. Over this time, the growth of liberalism in Europe had a parallel in Brazil. As the Brazilian provinces became more assertive, São Paulo was the scene of a minor (and unsuccessful) liberal revolution in 1842. When independence was declared, the city of São Paulo had just 25,000 people and 4,000 houses, but the next 60 years would see gradual growth. In 1828, the Law School, the pioneer of the city's intellectual tradition, opened. The first newspaper, O Farol Paulistano, appeared in 1827. Municipal developments such as botanical gardens, an opera house and a library, gave the city a cultural boost.

Regardless, São Paulo still faced many hurdles, especially transport. Mule-trains were the main method of transportation, and the road from the plateau down to the port of Santos was famously arduous. In the late 1860s São Paulo got its first railway line, developed by British engineers, to the Port of Santos. Other lines, such as a railway to Campinas, were soon built. This was good timing, because in the 1880s the coffee craze hit in earnest. Brazil, which had been growing it since the mid-18th century, could grow more. The Paraíba valley, which spans the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, had suitable soil and climate. São Paulo city, at the western end of the Paraíba valley, was well positioned to channel the coffee to the port of Santos.

Republican era
Meanwhile, the Brazilian monarchy had fallen in 1889. A feudalistic regime, it had friends only among the sugar planters of the Northeast, whose dominance Paulistanos, among others, despised. In 1891, a new federal constitution, which delegated power to the states, was approved. The new coffee elite saw its chance. São Paulo ironed out a power-sharing understanding—known as the "café com leite" (coffee-and-milk) deal—with dairy-rich Minas Gerais, Brazil's other dominant state. Together, they held a virtual lock on federal power. Brazilian politics now became a favourite pastime of the once-rebellious Paulistanos, who sent several presidents to Rio de Janeiro— including Prudente de Morais, Brazil's first civilian president, who took office in 1894.

Plantation labour was needed—this time for coffee, not sugar. Slavery had been fading since the import of enslaved Africans was outlawed in 1850. São Paulo, thanks to such figures as Luiz Gama (a former slave), was a centre of abolitionism. In 1888, Brazil abolished slavery (it was the last country in the Americas to do so) and the freed African-Brazilians who had been helping build the nation were then forced to beg for their jobs back, working for food and shelter only because of the failure of the system to integrate them as equal citizens with Euro-Brazilians. In an effort to "bleach the race", as the nation's leaders feared Brazil was becoming a "black country", Spanish, Portuguese and Italian nationals were given incentives to become farm workers in São Paulo. The state government was so eager to bring in European immigrants that it paid for their trips and provided varying levels of subsidy. By 1893, foreigners made up over 55% of São Paulo's population. Fearing oversupply, the government applied the brakes briefly in 1899; then the boom resumed. From 1908, the Japanese arrived in great numbers, many destined for the plantations on fixed-term contracts. By 1920, São Paulo was Brazil's second-largest city; a half-century before, it had been just the tenth-largest. Immigration and migration of Paulistas from other towns as well as Nordestinos and citizens from other states, the coffee industry, and modernization through the manufacturing of textiles, car and airplane parts, as well as food and technological industries, construction, fashion, and services transformed the greater São Paulo area into a thriving megalopolis and one of the world's greatest multiethnic regions.

Early 20th century
Between 1901 and 1910, coffee made up 51% of Brazil's total exports, far overshadowing rubber, sugar and cotton. But reliance on coffee made Brazil (and São Paulo in particular) vulnerable to poor harvests and the whims of world markets. The development of plantations in the 1890s, and widespread reliance on credit, took place against fluctuating prices and supply levels, culminating in saturation of the international market around the start of the 20th century. The government's policies of "valorisaton"—borrowing money to buy coffee and stockpiling it, in order to have a surplus during bad harvests, and meanwhile taxing coffee exports to pay off loans—seemed feasible in the short term (as did its manipulation of foreign-exchange rates to the advantage of coffee growers). But in the longer term, these actions contributed to oversupply and eventual collapse.

São Paulo's industrial development, from 1889 into the 1940s, was gradual and inward looking. Initially industry was closely associated with agriculture: cotton plantations led to the growth of textile manufacturing. Coffee planters were among the early industrial investors. The boom in immigration provided a market for goods, and sectors such as food processing grew. Traditional immigrant families such as the Matarazzo, Diniz, Mofarrej and Maluf became industrialists, entrepreneurs, and leading politicians. Restrictions on imports forced by world wars and government policies of "import substitution" and trade tariffs, all contributed to industrial growth. By 1945, São Paulo had become the largest industrial centre in South America. World War I sent ripples through Brazil. Inflation was rampant. Some 50,000 workers went on strike. Thus, the growing urban population grew increasingly resentful of the coffee elite. Disaffected intellectuals expressed their views during a memorable "Week of Modern Art" in 1922. Two years later, a garrison of soldiers staged a revolt (eventually quashed by government troops).

The stand-off was also political: politics had been long monopolised by the Paulista Revolutionary Party, but in 1926 a more left-leaning party rose in opposition. In 1928, the PRP amended São Paulo's state constitution to give it more control over the city. The turbulence was mirrored on Brazil's national scene. With the Great Depression, coffee prices plunged, as did real GDP. Americans, keen investors during the 1920s, backed away. The opening of the first highway between São Paulo and Rio in 1928 was one of the few bright spots. Into the breach stepped Getúlio Vargas, a southerner veteran in state politics. In Brazil's 1930 presidential elections, he opposed Julio Prestes, a favourite son of São Paulo. Vargas lost the election, but with backing from Minas Gerais state—São Paulo's ever-jealous former ally and neighbor to the north—, he seized power regardless.

Paulista War
The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 or Paulista War is the name given to the uprising of the population of the Brazilian state of São Paulo against the federal government of Vargas. Its main goal was to press the provisional government headed by Getúlio Vargas to enact a new Constitution, since it had revoked the previous one, adopted in 1889. However, as the movement developed and resentment against President Vargas grew deeper, it came to advocate the overthrow of the Federal Government and the secession of São Paulo from the Brazilian federation. But, it is noted that the separatist scenario was used as guerrilla tactics by the Federal Government to turn the population of the rest of the country against the state of São Paulo, broadcasting the alleged separatist notion throughout the country. There is no evidence that the movement's commanders sought separatism.

The uprising started on July 9, 1932, after five protesting students were killed by government troops on May 23, 1932. On the wake of their deaths, a movement called MMDC (from the initials of the names of each of the four students killed, Martins, Miragaia, Dráusio and Camargo) started. A fifth victim, Alvarenga, was also shot that night, but died months later.

Revolutionary troops entrenched in the battlefield. In a few months, the state of São Paulo rebelled against the federal government. Counting on the solidarity of three other powerful states, (Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro), the politicians of São Paulo expected a quick war. However, that solidarity was never translated into actual support, and the São Paulo civil war was won by the Federation on October 2, 1932.

In spite of its military defeat, some of the movement's main demands were finally granted by Vargas afterwards: the appointment of a non-military state Governor, the election of a Constituent Assembly and, finally, the enactment of a new Constitution in 1934. However that Constitution was short lived, as in 1937, amidst growing extremism on the left and right wings of the political spectrum, Vargas closed the National Congress and enacted another Constitution, which established an authoritarian regime called Estado Novo.

Late 20th century
Vargas's rule was a study in political turbulence. Elected in 1934, he ruled by dictatorship (albeit a popular one, thanks to his health and social-welfare programmes) from 1937 to 1945—a period dubbed the "Estado Novo". Thrown out by a coup in 1945, he ran for office again in 1950, and was overwhelmingly elected. On the verge of being overthrown from office again, he committed suicide in 1954. Vargas's main legacy was the centralisation of power. The encouragement of industry and diversification of agriculture, not to mention the abolition of subsidies on coffee, finally did away with the dominance of the coffee oligarchies. His replacement, Juscelino Kubitschek, focused on heavy industry. Kubitschek built car factories, steel plants, hydropower infrastructure and roads. Petrobras, Brazil's oil monolith, was set up in 1953. By 1958, São Paulo state controlled some 55% of Brazil's industrial production, up from 17% in 1907. Another of Kubitschek's pet projects was the creation of Brasília, which became Brazil's capital in 1960—the year Kubitschek stepped down. The University of São Paulo was founded in 1934; two years after São Paulo's failed uprising. It has established itself as the most prestigious higher learning institution in the country.

With a transitional government from military to civil and a new currency that made stagnant the economy during the mid- to late 1980s, unemployment and crime became rampant. São Paulo, by now the world's third-largest city after Mexico City and Tokyo, was hard-hit. Wealthy Brazilians retreated to suburban highly secured housing complexes such as Alphaville, and favelas, pockets of substandard living slums that lined the periphery, had a tremendous growth. For the first time in history, Brazil experienced large segments of its population immigrating to continents such as North America, Europe, Australia, and East Asia, particularly to Japan.

Geography
The state of São Paulo has an area of approximately 248,200 km2 (95,800 mi2), and a population of about 44 million (21.7% of the population of Brazil), which makes it the most populous country subdivision in the Americas. The climate of São Paulo is tropical to subtropical, altitude being the largest contributor to what variation there is. The capital, São Paulo City, barely outside the tropics in the south of the state and about 780 m above sea level, has daily minima and maxima averaging about 18 °C and 28 °C respectively at the warmest time of year and about 11 °C and 21 °C respectively at the coolest time of year. Temperatures reach around 33 °C on the hottest days and fall as low as 6 °C on the coldest nights. In the low-lying northwest of the state, temperatures average around 4 °C (39 °F) higher.

São Paulo is the richest state in Brazil. It has the second highest per-capital income (lower than only the Federal District) and, with the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, the highest standard of living in Brazil, despite the poverty in some peripheral parts of the largest cities.

Demographics
According to the IBGE estimates for 2014, there were 44,035,304 people residing in the state. The population density was 177.4 PD/km2.

Urbanization: 98% (2013); Population growth: 0.2% (2000–2010); Houses: 14,490,000 (2013).

The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) research revealed the following numbers: 27,612,000 White people (63.1%), 12,842,000 Brown (Multiracial) people (29.3%), 2,810,000 Black people (6.4%), 451,000 Asian people (1%), and 54,000 Amerindian people (0.1%).

People of Italian descent predominate in many towns, including the capital city, where 65% of the population has at least one Italian ancestor. The Italians mostly came from Veneto and Campania. Portuguese and Spanish descendants predominate in most towns. Most of the Portuguese immigrants and settlers came from the Entre-Douro-e-Minho Province in northern Portugal, the Spanish immigrants mostly came from Galicia (Spain) and Andalusia. People of African or Mixed background are relatively numerous.

São Paulo is home to the largest Asian population in Brazil, as well to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan itself. There are many people of Levantine descent, mostly Syrian and Lebanese people. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the state, especially in the capital city but there are also communities in Greater São Paulo, Santos, Guarujá, Campinas, Valinhos, Vinhedo, São José dos Campos, Ribeirão Preto, Sorocaba and Itu.

People of more than 70 different nationalities emigrated to Brazil in the past centuries, most of them through the Port of Santos in Santos, São Paulo. Although many of them spread to other areas of Brazil, São Paulo can be considered a true melting-pot. People of German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, American, Bolivian, Greek and French background, as well as dozens of other immigrant groups, form sizable groups in the state.

According to an autosomal DNA genetic study (from 2006), European genes account for 79% of the ancestry of the people of São Paulo, 14% are of African origin, and 7% Native American. A more recent genetic study, from 2013, showed that people in São Paulo have 61.9% European, 25.5% African and 11.6% Amerindian ancestries, respectively. The disparity in these findings can be attributed to the small sample sizes of the tested populations the studies were conducted on, that have vastly different ancestral compositions, even within the specified regions.

Economy
The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 47%, followed by the industrial sector at 46%. Agriculture represents 6.5% of GDP (2004). São Paulo (state) exports: vehicles 17%, airplanes and helicopters 11.6%, food industry 10%, sugar and alcohol fuel 8%, orange juice 5%, telecommunications 4% (2002).

São Paulo state is responsible for approximately a third of Brazilian GDP. The state's GDP (PPP) consists of 1,003 billion dollars, making it also the biggest economy of South America and one of the biggest economies in Latin America, second after Mexico. Its economy is based on machinery, the automobile and aviation industries, services, financial companies, commerce, textiles, orange growing, sugar cane and coffee production.

Wealth is unequally distributed in the state, however. The richest municipalities are centered around Greater São Paulo (such as Campinas, Jundiaí, Paulínia, Americana, Indaiatuba, São José dos Campos, Santos, etc.), as well as a few other more distant nuclei, such as around São Carlos, Jaú, Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto and Franca

São Paulo, one of the largest economic poles in Latin/South America, has a diversified economy. Some of the largest industries are metal-mechanics, sugarcane, textile and car and aviation manufacturing. Service and financial sectors, as well as the cultivation of oranges, cane sugar and coffee form the basis of an economy which accounts for 33.9% of Brazil's GDP (equivalent to $727.053 billion).

Statistics
Vehicles: 26,543,338 (October/2014); Mobile phones: 65,924,091 million (March/2014); Telephones: 14.4 million (2013); Cities: 645.

Crime
São Paulo state's attack on its crime rate has seen numbers steadily fall from the 1990s. São Paulo's annual security budget of about $4.8 billion currently dwarfs the less than $250 million in similar funds the government hands to all 26 states each year. However, according to data published on February 2, 2010 in the Official São Paulo State Press.

Education


There are more than 578 universities in the whole state of São Paulo.

Educational institutions

 * Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN) (Nuclear and Energy Research Institute, Public);
 * Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) (Aeronautics Technological Institute, Public);
 * Universidade de São Paulo (USP) (University of São Paulo, Public);
 * Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp) (Federal University of São Paulo, Public);
 * Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) (Paulista State University, Public);
 * Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) (University of Campinas, Public);
 * Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) (Federal University of São Carlos, Public);
 * Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia (Mauá) (Mauá Institute of Technology, Private);
 * Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Private);
 * Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (Mackenzie) (Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Private);
 * Universidade de Sorocaba (UNISO) (University of Sorocaba, Private)
 * Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) (Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Private);
 * Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Private);
 * Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC) (Federal University of ABC, Public);
 * Faculdade de Medicina de Marília (FAMEMA) (Marília Faculty of Medicine, Public);
 * Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto (FAMERP) (São José do Rio Preto Faculty of Medicine, Public);
 * Universidade Metodista de São Paulo (UMESP) (Methodist University of São Paulo, Private);
 * Faculdade de Teologia Metodista Livre (FTML) (Free Methodist College, Private);
 * Faculdade de Tecnologia do Estado de São Paulo (FATEC) (São Paulo State Technological College, Public);
 * Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (UNAERP) (Ribeirão Preto, Private);

Culture


São Paulo state is a cosmopolitan region, due to its history as a land influenced by the encounter of different traditions, beginning with the Tupi-Guarani native American nation and others, the intrusion of Iberian and other European elements and the traffic of enslaved Africans. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, European, Asian, and Middle-Eastern immigrants also made their way there. Earlier, the land had been the starting point of the bandeirantes expeditions, which sought to enslave the Natives of the hinterlands and explore their mineral wealth. Hence, São Paulo influenced most of Western Brazil, as well as the states of Minas Gerais, its neighbor North of it, and Paraná, which was originally part of the old São Paulo province. A very distinctive character in the culture of São Paulo state is the Caipira tradition, a mixture of Luso-Native-Brazilian and immigrant elements, mainly Southern Italian, which influenced its dialect, somewhat different from the Portuguese spoken in São Paulo city, although the latter is also heavily Italianized. The caipira culture is strong in countryside cities, although centers like Piracicaba, São Carlos, São José do Rio Preto, Araraquara, Ribeirão Preto, Barretos, Campinas, Marilia, Assis, Presidente Prudente, Jaú and Bauru also have a strong retroflex R pronunciation and unusual usage of words. It seems that the influence is actually from the Calabrian or Sicilian Italian dialect though, and many of the words peculiar to the region are actually archaic Portuguese forms. Native languages might also have stressed the more nasal sounds of words ending in /m/ or /n/, which is also a feature of other dialects in Brazil.

The Caipira food is known for being tasty and abundant. It expresses itself through fried or barbecued beef steaks, fried eggs, couve (collard green), taioba, or cabbage, manioc or corn flour farofa or stuffing, frango Caipira (fresh baked or pan-seared farm nonfrozen chicken) or frango a Passarinho (fried small chicken pieces), fried breaded sardine or fish fillet, pork chops or whole baked pork with plenty of smooth ot Boston type lettuce or thinly tossed cabbage, and tomato, seasoned with garlic, lemon, and onions salty juice. Bean stew with carne seca or dried charque beef, toicinho or bacon, white rice are always the staple, but macarronada, or spaghetti are always present on Sunday luncheons and fried sausages can be a daily menu. Mildly spiced legumes, such as zuchini and other types of squash are often prepared as a stew with or without meat, and sometimes with quiabo (ocra) and abobora or butternut squash are a favorite dessert, as are sweetened sidra, canjica (white corn kernels cooked in milk, coconut, and condensed milk and peanut bits). Pudim de leite, or milk custard, pave' (mounted cookies in rich condensed and heavy cream sauce) and manjar (white flan) are other mouth-watering treats. If none of these desserts are present, countryside meals will rarely leave out citrics such as oranges and mexericas, bananas, caquis or abacaxi (pineapple). Home-made loaves or regular bakery fresh rolls with butter or corn meal or orange cakes are served with coffee and milk or mate tea in the afternoon before dinner or before bed. Pastries like chicken coxinha fried dumplings and risolis, and the Mediterranean or Syrian-Lebanese kibe and open sfihas are often served in birthday and wedding parties followed by a glazed cake, guarana' and other sodas, champagne, caipirinha sugar-cane liquor or beer. Chopp or draft beer is a must in weddings celebrations.

Another distinctive character in the state of São Paulo is the so-called "Brazilian erudite culture." São Paulo was the home of the Brazilian Week of Modern Art (Semana da Arte Moderna), organized mostly by poets and artists from São Paulo, like Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Menotti del Picchia, Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malfatti, Victor Brecheret and Lasar Segall. São Paulo was also the birthplace of Brazilian classical composers, like Carlos Gomes (the most famous Brazilian opera composer), Elias Álvares Lobo and Camargo Guarnieri. OSESP, the São Paulo state orchestra is known internationally and it has had both national and international directors. São Paulo has some of the most impressive museums in the country, such as the Museu Paulista do Ipiranga, which honors the site of the independence of Brazil and has numerous Native American artifacts, funeral urns and other historic objects, besides the monument resting place of Brazil's first emperor and his wife. The Museu de Arte de São Paulo or MASP on Avenida Paulista is the most important Latin American collection of European paintings, and the Pinacoteca do Estado on Avenida Tiradentes exhibits paintings and sculptures. The Museu de Arte Sacra in the same avenue features national Barroc art and an Italian nativity scene, besides having in the chapel next door, the tomb of Frei Galvão, the first Brazilian saint. Across from Pinacoteca is the Luz station built in Britain and assembled in Brazil with the innovating Museu da Língua Portuguesa, the first interactive language museum in the world. Ibirapuera park features Museu do Presepio or Creche museum, AfroBrasil, the African-Brazilian museum, Bienal book and art fair site conducted every two years. The city of São Carlos in the center of the state has the Museu do Avião, an open airplane museum, and Campinas, Ribeirão Preto, Bauru, São José do Rio Preto, Piracicaba, Jaú, Marilia, Botucatu, Assis, and Ourinhos are important university, engineering, agricultural, zootechnique, technology, or health sciences centers. The Instituto Butantan in São Paulo is a serpentary that collects snakes and other poisonous animals, as it produces venom antidotes. The Instituto Pasteur produces vaccines. The state is also at the vanguard of ethanol production, soybeans, airplanes in São José dos Campos, and its rivers have been important in generating electricity through its hydrelectric plants. Moreover, São Paulo is one of the world's most important beans, rice, wheat, orange and other fruit, coffee, sugar cane, alcohol, flowers and vegetables, corn, cattle, swine, milk, cheese, wine, and oil producers. Textile and manufacturing centers such as Rua José Paulino and 25 de Marco in São Paulo city is a magnet for retail shopping and shipping that attracts customers from the whole country and as far as Cape Verde and Angola in Africa.

Tourism
A significant portion of the state economy is tourism. Besides being a financial center, the state also offers a huge variety of tourist destinations: Capital: The capital city is the center of business tourism in Brazil, which gives the city about 45,000 events per year. São Paulo also has the largest hotel network in Brazil. Because of real estate speculation in the mid-1990s, nowadays there is an excess supply in the number of vacancies. The city also has demand in gastronomic tourism after receiving the title of world capital of gastronomy. Cultural tourism is also highlighted given the amount of museums, theaters and events like the Biennale and the Biennale of Arts of the Book.

Coast: The coast of São Paulo has 622 km of beaches of all kinds and sizes. Among the cities that receive the most tourists in the summer are Santos, Praia Grande, Ubatuba, São Sebastião, among others.

Countryside: In the interior, it is possible to find resorts, rural tourism, eco-municipalities with a European like climate, waterfalls, caves, rivers, mountains, spas, parks, historical buildings from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and Jesuit church architecture archaeological sites such as the Alto Ribeira State and Tourist Park (PETAR). Those looking for intense entertainment can browse the Hopi Hari, a major theme park in Brazil, in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. In terms of ecotourism, Sprout Juquitiba has a fine infrastructure. In winter, the city of Campos do Jordão emerges as the main tourist reference state, with the Winter Festival and several other attractions in an environment where the temperature can drop down below 0 Celsius.

Major airports


Every day nearly 100,000 people pass through São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, which connects Brazil to 28 countries. There are 370 companies established there, generating 53,000 jobs. The original airport's two terminals are designed to handle 20.5 million passengers a year, but the recently opened third terminal expanded the capacity for 42 million users. São Paulo International Airport is also one of the main air cargo hubs in Brazil. The roughly 100 cargo flights a day carry everything from fruits grown in the São Francisco Valley to medications. The airport's cargo terminal is South America's largest and stands behind only Mexico City's in all of Latin America. In 2013, over 343 thousand metric tons of freight passed through the container terminal.

Congonhas-São Paulo Airport or just Congonhas Airport is one of São Paulo's three commercial airports, situated 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the city downtown at Washington Luís Avenue, in the Campo Belo district. It is owned by the City of São Paulo and managed by Infraero. In 2013, it was the busiest airport in Brazil in terms of aircraft movements and the second busiest in terms of passengers, handling 209,555 aircraft movements and 17,119,530 passengers.

Located 14 kilometers from downtown Campinas and 99 kilometers from the city of São Paulo, Viracopos-Campinas International Airport can be reached by three highways: Santos Dumont, Bandeirantes and Anhanguera. The city of Campinas is one of Brazil's leaders in technology. Besides excellent highway connections, it is the location of major universities and many high-tech companies. Because of this, the airport is one of Infraero's highest investment priorities. The old "landing field" as it was called has become one of the main connection points in Latin America. The air cargo import/export terminal has an area of over 81,000 square meters. The airport began to concentrate in the international air cargo sector in the 1990s and today this is the airports leading source of revenue. Since 1995, Infraero has been investing to implement the first phase of the airport's master plan, making major improvements to the cargo and passenger terminals. The second phase of the passenger terminal expansion project will be ready in early 2005. The first phase was completed in the first half of 2004, when the airport received new departure and arrival lounges, public areas and commercial concessions.

Metro


The first of such systems in Brazil, it began operations in 1974. It consists of four color-coded lines: Line 1-Blue, Line 2-Green, Line 3-Red and Line 5-Lilac; Line 4-Yellow started to work in May 2010, and will be completed only in 2016. The metro system carries 2.8 million passengers a day. Metro itself is far from covering the entire urban area in the city of São Paulo. Another company, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), works along the metro system and runs railways converted into light rail service lines, which total six lines (7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12), 261 km long, serving 89 stations. Metro and CPTM are integrated through various stations. Metro and CPTM both operate as State-owned companies, and have received awards in the recent past as one of the cleanest systems in the world by ISO9001. The São Paulo metro transports three million people by day.

For Line 3-Red, as in the case of Line 1-Blue, a very bold political interference in relation to urban was approved. Construction works related to urban planning measures were taken at the Cathedral Square and the Republic, in broad Memory of Arouche and Santa Cecilia, in the central region of the city, beyond the implementation of a major Intermodal Passenger Terminal and construction of the Memorial of Latin America, in the western area of town. During the design of Line 3-Red, we sought to achieve effective integration between the internal spaces of the metro and the urban area through the use of large openings that allow penetration of air and natural light from the surface to the lower levels stations.

By adopting this concept, the architectural design of Line 3-Red helped to reduce the number of ventilation towers and equipment for electro-mechanical ventilation, which was widely applied in 1-Line Blue. Thus, simpler and more economical solutions were implemented and areas with better environmental quality and comfort were created. The basic feature of the concept of architecture adopted for the projects of the surface stations of Line 3-Red is the innovation of coating materials used. It consists of tiles of metal lattice, which allowed coverage of large distances, significantly reducing costs and conditions of the construction works.

The application of color on the roof of metal latticework, and on the front roof resulted in a strong element of identification for the stations, turning them into major landmarks in the urban landscape. The implementation of multimodal terminals, such as the Intermodal Terminal Palmeiras-Barra Funda, where the commuter trains as well as the municipal bus lines, intercity and interstate connect with the metro network, thus consolidating its role in structuring the transportation of different way. This deployment also considered the policy of decentralization to the terminal road, initiated by the city of São Paulo in 1977.

The 5th International Biennial of Architecture of Buenos Aires, received the architects of the Metro with the "Premio del Jurado Special" to the set of architectural plans by the Company of Metropolitan Trains. Of all the projects of Line 3-Red were awarded as follows: Station Barrafunda (arqui. Robert MacFadden); Station Marshal Deodoro (arqui. Robert MacFadden); Station Cathedral (arqui. John Paul and Robert MacFadden); Station Pedro II ( arch. Meire Gonçalves Selli); Station Artur Alvim (arqui. Katumi Sawada) and Station Corinthians-Itaquera (arch Meire Gonçalves Selli and Renato Viégas). The design of the Trianon-MASP-2 Green Line Architects Robert Mac Fadden, Renato Viégas and Hote Eduardo Parada Inglesa Station of Line 1-Blue's arch. Francisco Hideu Nunomura Station and the future Incor Line 4-Yellow, by the arch. Nery Filho Alfredo was also awarded.

Converting lines for metropolitan subway surface


The project of converting lines to metro area came up with the great demand of passengers using the lines of metropolitan São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company and the need to recover the old stations. Currently, the interval between trains is six minutes during peak hours in lines 9, 11 and 12, and seven minutes in rows 7:10 and ten to twelve minutes on weekends. In the operational extensions of the lines 7:08 interval ranges from 22 to 30 minutes, and there are stations built in the 19th century that were never modernized. With the dire need to recover stations is discovered the conversion plan, which is nothing but the modernization of stations, purchase of new trains and reduction in headway (interval between trains) to less than three minutes, according to international standards.

Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, this project of re-skilling the lines of the CPTM, inherited from the Federal Railways and Fepasa, began converting some lines for surface metropolitan subway. This experiment began on Line 11 in its passage known as "East Express", which serves the East Zone and runs parallel to Line 3–Red. The section completed (within the capital, until the station Guaianases) now has modern stations and trains, plus a new track. The stretch between the station Guaianases in the capital, and Estudantes in Mogi das Cruzes, which also covers the towns of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, Suzano and Poá had forecast a resumption of construction in 2007, but was again postponed, this time to 2008.

Aiming to facilitate the location of stops along the rows, the São Paulo Metro and CPTM have adopted numbers to identify the lines. This change was implemented in early 2008.

Highways


Main highways of São Paulo:
 * Rodoanel Mario Covas (SP-021)
 * Rodovia Raposo Tavares (SP-270)
 * Rodovia Anhangüera (SP-330)
 * Rodovia dos Bandeirantes (SP-348)
 * Rodovia Castelo Branco (SP-280)
 * Rodovia dos Imigrantes (SP-160)
 * Rodovia Anchieta (SP-150)
 * Rodovia Ayrton Senna (SP-070)
 * Rodovia Carvalho Pinto (SP-070)
 * Rodovia Washington Luis (SP-310)
 * Rodovia Floriano Rodrigues Pinheiro (SP-123)
 * Rodovia Santos Dumont (SP-075)
 * Rodovia Dom Pedro I (SP-065)
 * Rodovia Luiz de Queiroz (SP-304)
 * Rodovia General Milton Tavares de Souza (SP-332)
 * Rodovia Jornalista Francisco Aguirre Proença (SP-101)

Government and politics


The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) has formed the government of the state since 1994, and was re-elected in 2014 for four more years. The current governor is Geraldo Alckmin (2015–2019).

Local politicians of note (with party affiliations) include: former president of Brazil (1994–2002) Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB), former president (2002–2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), José Serra (PSDB), Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB), Mário Covas (PSDB), Antonio Palocci (PT), Eduardo Suplicy (PT), Aloízio Mercadante (PT), Marta Suplicy (PT), Gilberto Kassab (PSD), and Paulo Maluf (PP). Maluf is a controversial figure in São Paulo City politics, and is frequently accused of corruption. However, many voters used to support him because of his achievements during his governments, which the most well-known was the São Paulo subway system (the first in Brazil) and the Costa e Silva expressway, also known as Minhocão. Maluf has, however, failed to be elected in the last elections for governor of the state of São Paulo and for mayor of the state capital.

The last two Brazilian presidents, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), were both politicians from São Paulo, although Cardoso was actually born in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and Lula in Pernambuco. Cardoso and Lula respectively live in the cities of São Paulo and São Bernardo do Campo.

Sports
Football is the most popular sport in the state. The biggest clubs from the state are Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Corinthians, Guarani, Portuguesa, Juventus, Ponte Preta, XV de Piracicaba. Other sports like Basketball and Volleyball are also quite popular. In basketball, famous Brazilian players such as Hortência Marcari, "Magic" Paula and Janeth Arcain are from São Paulo. Many of the internationally recognized racing drivers, like Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barrichello, Hélio Castroneves and Felipe Massa are also from São Paulo.

São Paulo hosted the opening game in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, that took place in Brazil.

Corrida de São Silvestre
The São Silvestre Race takes place every New Year's Eve in São Paulo. It was first held in 1925, when the competitors ran about 8,000 metres across the streets. Since then, the distance raced has varied, and it is now fixed at 15 km. Registration takes place from 1 October, with the maximum number of entrants limited to 15,000. In 1989, The São Silvestre Race became two races, the masculine and the feminine competition. There is also a children's race called São Silvestrinha.

Brazilian Grand Prix
The Brazilian Grand Prix (Grande Prêmio do Brasil) is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos. In 2006 the Grand Prix was the final round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso won the 2006 drivers championship at this circuit by coming second in the race. The race was won by the young Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, driving for the Scuderia Ferrari team.

Federal senators

 * Aloysio Nunes Ferreira – PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
 * José Serra – PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)
 * Marta Suplicy – PT (Worker's Party)

Main cities
São Paulo, Guarulhos, Campinas, São Bernardo do Campo, Osasco, Santo André, São José dos Campos, Sorocaba, Ribeirão Preto, Piracicaba and Santos.

Other cities include: Americana, Araçatuba, Araraquara, Bauru, Franca, Guarujá, Indaiatuba, Jacareí, Jaú, Jundiaí, Limeira, Marília, Mogi das Cruzes, São José do Rio Preto, Praia Grande, Presidente Prudente, São Caetano do Sul, São Carlos, São Vicente and Taubaté.