- Vila Carrão, São Paulo
Vila Carrão (pron. IPA2|'vila ka'ʁɐ̃w̃) is a small residential district in São Paulo, with 75,000 residents as of 2005. It belongs to the
Aricanduva borough.Vila Carrão is located about 13 km east of the city's center, on the west side of the
Aricanduva River . It was officially established in 1917, and is named after Councillor Carrão, a prominent public figure who owned the area at the end of the 19th century.History
Chácara Carrão
The earliest records about the place, from 1570, locate it along a trail used by hinterland explorers ("bandeirantes"). One of the first permanent residents was in fact the explorer
Francisco Velho , who settled along the Aricanduva, on land belonging toBrás Cubas . In 1642, his grandson Capt.Francisco Velho Moraes acquired the land's rights.Data over the next 200 years is lacking, but in 1851 there is a record of
Bento Fernandes de Souza selling the property, then called Sítio Tucuri, to EnglishmanGeorge Harley , who renamed it Bom Retiro ("Nice Retreat") and built a house near the Tucuri Brook, later renamed Córrego Rapadura. In 1865 the area was bought byJoão José da Silva Carrão , former gorvernor of the provinces of São Paulo andPará , senator, and minister of the Empire.The new owner made the land into large "chácara" (farm), Chácara Carrão. At its height, the farm had more than 15,000
grape vines, as well asfig ,pear , andpeach trees, and produced a renownedwine — which merited a visit by Emperor Pedro II in 1876.At the Councillor's death in 1888, the property was sold to
Carlos Teixeira de Carvalho ,Francisco de Almeida Nobre , andLiberto A. de Macedo andCristalino Luiz da Silva (1890). In 1907 the part belonging to Francisco de Almeida was bought byRanulpho de Campos Salles , who donated it to his sisters Doralisa andEvangelina Dantre Salles .Development
Around the turn of the 20th century, immigrant workers from
Portugal ,Italy ,Spain , and later fromJapan came to the area to work at the farm and at a wool mill, theLanifícios Minerva S/A , built there in 1906 by Belgian entrepreneursPaschoal Boronheid andFernand Delcroix .By that time the farm was being administered by dentist,
João Gomes Barreto , who in 1916 hired engineerHenrique Pegado to turn it into a residential town. The current street plan, largely based on a regular grid with 100 m by 100 m blocks, stands to this day, and most streets are still named after the land owners (Rua Evangelina ,Rua Doralisa ), the administrator (Rua Dentista Barreto ), the engineer (Rua Engenheiro Pegado ) and their relatives and friends. One street,Rua Francisca de Paula , was named after a former slave of Carrão. The preexisting access road, formerly known as theItaquera Road, became the presentAvenida Conselheiro Carrão , that cuts irregularly across the east edge of the street grid. The residential lots were put up for sale in 1917, which is reckoned as Vila Carrão's official foundation date.Still, in the 1920s there were only 10--20 houses, and most of the borough was occupied by small family farms. The first primary school (
Grupo Escolar Vila Carrão ) opened in 1924, and the Postal Office in 1929.In 1932 Vila Carrão was brushed by the Constitutionalist Revolt. Residents of the time tell of rifle and artillery fire in the streets, and houses being looted by soldiers.
Growth and integration
The borough's development had a substantial jump in the 1930s, when industrialist
Guilherme Giorgi (himself an immigrant from Italy) built there a large cotton mill, theCotonifício Guilherme Giorgi , which would be for many decades the mainstay of the borough's economy, and would come to employ 2800 workers. In the following decades three other boroughs would spring up west and south of Vila Carrão, within the former Carrão estate:Vila Nova Manchester ,Vila Santa Isabel , andJardim Textil , the latter deriving from house blocks built in the 1980s by the mill for its workers.Between the 1950s and the 1960s, Vila Carrão became integrated into the São Paulo urban area; most of its streets got paved at that time, and house wells and septic tanks were replaced by the city's water and sewer networks. At the time, the borough's social life revoved around the local sports and social club (
Clube Atlético Carrão , est. 1928), the Vila's only cinema (Cine Carrão ), and of course the local church.The Church
Built as a small
chapel dedicated toSaint Marina Virgin in 1924, with donations by the Giorgi family and other local residents, the local church got its first permanent priest (F.Thiago Franz ) in 1936, and was promoted to aparish church ("igreja matriz") in 1946. In 1956 it passed to a new priest, F.Eugenio Herter , who began the construction of a much larger temple — to be built around the existing chapel, so that services could continue during construction. F. Herter died when the new church was still half-built, and the project was finished by his successor F.Orídes Giroldo in the 1960s.Vila Carrão today
In the ensuing decades, Vila Carrão could not escape from the economic and social problems of the big city that engulfed it. It has long lost the quiet suburban atmosphere still remembered by its older residents, who until the 1960s and 1970s would put out chairs on the sidewalk, every evening, and spend some time chatting with their neighbours while their children played in the streets. Today, as in most parts of the city, houses are walled up, windows are behind bars, and the streets are no longer suitable for play or chat.
Still, many residents remain fond and even proud of the borough. They still frequent the Clube Atético to play soccer or
bocce . The metro station at Avenida Conselheiro Carrão, opened in 1986, greatly improved access to the rest of the city (compensating for the increased congestion of São Paulo streets) and did much to valorize the neighborhood. Many of the former single-story houses have now been replaced by middle class apartment buildings.There are about 800 families of descendants of Japanese immigrants, served by two Japanese cultural clubs (
Associação Okinawa andAssociação Cultural Recreativa e Esportiva do Carrão ). There is also a Soccer School, established in land formerly belonging to Cotonificio, currently with 400 students.Curiosities
One of the most famous natives of Vila Carrão was
soccer athleteAurélio Lombardi , who played for the Ipiranga, Santos, and Portuguesa teams in the 1930s and 1940s.Vila Carrão and the neighboring borough of
Vila Formosa share theVila Formosa Cemetery (est. 1949). It is believed to be the largestcemetery inLatin America , with 780,000 m2 and over 1,400,000 "permanent residents".By a strange coincidence, two of Brazil's five computational geometers were born in the Vila, within two blocks of each other — and only met many years after leaving the place. This event puts Vila Carrão on a par with the city of
Graz inAustria , the only other town where such a geometric coincidence has been recorded.External links
* [http://www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/portal/a_cidade/noticias/index.php?p=4642 Aricanduva/Formosa/Carrão Sub-Prefecture] (2005), a page by the São Paulo Mayor's Office.
* [http://www.revistain.com.br/exibe_conteudo_a.asp?id=1740 Article on Vila Carrão] (2004) from RevistaIN (in Portuguese)
* [http://revistain.com.br/exibe_conteudo_a.asp?id=455 Another one] (2003).
* [http://www.revistain.com.br/exibe_conteudo_a.asp?id=447 And another] (2001)
* [http://www.spsitecity.com.br/bairros/vcarrao.htm Vila Carrão, a return to the past] (2002), byVivian Nunes Navajas (in Portuguese).
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