CRUZ DAS ALMAS: A BRAZILIAN VILLAGE 



By Donald Pierson 



THE VILLAGE 



Six miles from the Brazilian seacoast at Santos, 

 an escarpment rises abruptly 2,400 feet. This 

 is the edge of the vast Brazilian pJancdto which 

 extends interior 400 miles to the Parana Valley 

 in the west and 1,300 miles to the Amazon Basin 

 in the north. Up on the plateau, 24 miles from 

 its edge and in the midst of gently rolling hills, 

 lies the modern city of Sao Paulo, with nearly two 

 million people and a rapidly expanding industry 

 which has made it the principal industrial center 

 of Latin America. Her inhabitants proudly call 

 Sao Paulo the "fastest growing city in the world." ^ 



Starting as a brook in the mountains 60 miles 

 to the east of the city, the historic Tiete Kiver 

 flows shallow and sluggish through the metropolis. 

 It then continues on in a generally westward di- 

 rection toward the Parana, where its waters, a por- 

 tion of which have come interior almost from the 

 very rim of the j)latialto, turn and flow southward 

 and finally, after having traveled some seventeen 

 hundred miles, reach the Atlantic below Buenos 

 Aires in Argentina. It was this river which 

 served as the main artery of advance to the west 

 for the famed handeirantes who in the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries periodically set out from 

 the region around Sao Paulo to explore, and to 

 some extent to exploit, inunense areas in the cen- 

 ter of the South American continent; hardy ad- 

 venturers who penetrated previously unknown 

 areas as far west as Peru, as far south as Paraguay, 

 and as far north as the edge of the Amazon Basin. 

 The first towns to rise along or near the banks of 

 this river, historic settlements like Parnaiba, Itii, 



' There is some justification for this statement. The popula- 

 tion in 1872 was only 31,3S5 ; in 1890. 64,934 ; in 1900, 239.820 ; 

 in 1920, 579.033 ; and in 1940, 1,318,539. It is estimated to be 

 at present (1948) 1,881,566. 



Porto Feliz and Tiete, became important hocas do 

 sertdo (gateways into the wilderness) . 



Westward from Sao Paulo, the Tiete Eiver is 

 followed rather closely by a dirt road which is 

 rough and dusty or muddy with the season. 

 Within a few miles, the terrain begins to turn 

 more rugged until by the time one has reached 

 Paratinga, he is in the midst of quite hilly coun- 

 try. From here a well-worn and occasionally 

 rough trail leads over the hills. At times this 

 trail is wide enough to accommodate the two 

 wheels of an oxcart; then the vegetation closes in 

 for a while and first one track and then the other 

 disappears in the weeds and tall grass. At the 

 end of this trail, nestling among the hills of the 

 Serra de Sao Francisco, less than a hundred miles 

 from the eastern rim of the vast Brazilian planalto, 

 lies the village of Cruz das Almas which everyone 

 in the area around calls simply, A Vila, or "the 

 village." 



If one prefers, however, on the way out from 

 Sao Paulo he may continue on from Paratinga 9 

 miles to Piracema and then, by doubling back on 

 the second arm of a V, reach the village after 7 

 miles. The advantage is that the road from 

 Piracema, although rough and imeven, is wider 

 and clear of vegetation. One may also reach the 

 village by another and longer road from Sao 

 Paulo, now kept in quite good repair, which runs 

 some miles to the south of the river. At Boa 

 Vista, one turns northward to take a rather rugged 

 dirt road over the hills 11 miles to the village. 



A railroad also runs out from Sao Paulo in the 

 same general direction. A 2-hour ride brings one 

 to a small town hidden in the hills, Sao Jose dos 

 Patos, where he may be able to arrange a horse to 

 take him over the steep hills 9 miles to the village. 



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