Bom Retiro, São Paulo

Bom Retiro is a central district of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is a mainly commercial place, the industrial and residential areas are greatly decreasing.

The district is attended by the line 1 (Blue) of the São Paulo Metro and by the lines A, B, D, and E of the CPTM.

Formation

In the late XIX century and in the early XX century, Bom Retiro was considered a modern region, when the [Luz and the Júlio Prestes Rail Road Stations, along with Jardim da Luz, then Sao Paulo's only public park, were elegant examples of European-influenced --Luz Station was actually built in England and assembled in Brazil-- architecture and landscaping.

It was previously an industrial concentration section. However, in the 1960s, factories began being replaced by active clothing and fashion retail stores and textile and weaving small businesses. Then, the neighborhood had a great influx of Mediterranean immigrants such as Italians, European Jews, Syrians, Lebanese, and a few Greeks. The area across from Tiradentes Avenue was mostly populated by Armenians. In greater numbers, the Italians eventually settled in the sections of Bela Vista, Bras, Ipiranga, and Barra Funda and other parts of the state. The Jewish presence was especially felt on the Rua Prates region, with the Renascenca school and college, synagogues, Kosher stores and restaurants, some of which are still active. After acquiring prosperity from their retail businesses, the Jews migrated to the newer and more affluent sections of Higienopolis, Cerqueira Cesar and Jardins. The Syrian-Lebanese then dominated the Rua Jose' Paulino shopping centers as well as the more affluent Paraiso and Vila Mariana sections near the starting point of the Avenida Paulista new financial center that has thrived from the 1970s on.

Integral part of Sao Paulo's cultural heritage, Bom Retiro was the entry gate of the immigrant arrivals from the port of Santos, who either landed in the city by train via Luz station, or continued their journey towards the coffee plantations in the state interior in the XIX century via the Santos-Jundiai line or shifted to the Sao Paulo Railway line, later E.F. Sorocabana at Julio Prestes station towards Sao Paulo State's SW, NW, and Parana' State. Julio Prestes now operates only local trains in the Greater Sao Paulo region and had some of its halls transformed into the State of the Art Sala Cidade de Sao Paulo concert hall, where the Sao Paulo Symphonic Orchestra plays. Luz Sta. has trains to the Eastern suburb cities of the Greater Sao Paulo region, such as Santo Andre, Mogi das Cruzes, Suzano and Poa'. In addition, the Jundiai line still serves that city and the Sao Paulo's Westside sections suburbs, such as Barra Funda, Lapa, Piqueri, Pirituba, Caieiras, Franco da Rocha, and Francisco Morato. A section of Luz station has been transformed into the interactive Museu da Lingua Portuguesa, the world's only Lusophone --Portuguese language related-- museum dedicated in the mid 2000s with the presence of Portuguese, Brazilian, and African and Asian authorities of those countries once ruled by the Portuguese crown. It is an important stop for those who study the language and the field of Linguistics,a s well as the population in general, since it is very interactive with a keen focus on anthropology, uses of language, folklore, language development and foreign influences, as well as dialects, poetry, music, origin of names of foods and utensils and other curiosities. The Pinacoteca --painting museum-- do Estado de São Paulo, the [Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo --Sacred Art Museum, with an impressive Brazilian Baroc Art collection and a giant Nativity Scene from Italy] , the Pinacoteca Station Art Institute, and the Centre for Music Studies - Tom Jobim are also in the area. The old building of the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo now holds the State of São Paulo Technical College and the State of São Paulo Technical School.

Jardim da Luz is considered the oldest park and one of the few green areas in the city's central region. Despite its beauty and elegant European style with sculptures and grottoes installed and maintained by the Pinacoteca museum next door, it has an intense movement of prostitutes, and a few country music singers and players, as well as itinerant preachers and peddlers. Across from the park through the Luz station in the Old Centro direction, drug activity is not uncommon, which gave the region a bad reputation as the "Cracolandia," or "Crackheadland." Despite the City's attempt to revamp the terribly delapidated area by demolishing and remodeling buildings, and giving incentives to big businesses to settle and build apartment and office buildings in the area, it is still premature an effort as it is unsafe to stroll along in the area, particularly at night, because of rampant crime, illegal activities, and the presence of "noias," or glue-sniffer children and adolescents who roam the streets. There are also entire old buildings invaded by "Sem-Terra" or "Sem-Teto" homeless individuals. With the Sao Paulo Old Centro Renaissance efforts, a few "noias" have moved toward the Republica and Se' Squares regions. However, it is always wise to visit the attractions of Bom Retiro section within a group of people and during daytime or inquire about bus guided tours. The Luz metro and train stations are well served with police cops and, after a robbery of important works of art at the Pinacoteca Institute, as well as at the MASP Sao Paulo Art Museum at avenida Paulista, greater surveilaince is being done in the museums.

Today, most people live in "cortiços" or tennements in Bom Retiro. The Rua Jose' Paulino clothing retail shops and sweatshops, together with the Rua 25 de Marco bargain clothing stores near Parque Dom Pedro/Bras have increasingly been managed by Koreans who employ their own country fellows and Latin Americans such as Bolivians in a demeaning and inhumane slavish fashion often punished by the government. Bom Retiro has now become the second largest Asian stronghold in the city, after the traditional Liberdade Japanese section. Koreans are now known to control two thirds of the clothing retail business and their materials travel all over Brazil. Moreover, retailers and lovers of budget and yet fashionable articles fly across the country and from African countries as far as Angola and Cape Verde just to shop in this international bargain shopping center. (Bibliography: Information added by Cirilo J. Paulino aka Sean Cyrillo, a Sao Paulo native who thoroughly knows the city and its origins and frequently travels to Sao Paulo from New York City. M.Ed & M.A. from Columbia University in Humanities and Education. Reading Specialist, Fluent in Portuguese, English, and Spanish)

Borders

* North: Tietê River;
* South: Mauá Street/Railway of CPTM (Lines A, D, and E);
* East: Cruzeiro do Sul Avenue and Estado Avenue;
* West: Railway of CPTM (Line B), Engenheiro Orlando Murgel Viaduct, Rudge Avenue, and Casa Verde Bridge (beginning).

Neighboring Districts

*Santana (São Paulo) (North);
*Pari (São Paulo) (East);
*Brás (Southeast);
*Sé and República (South);
*Santa Cecília and Barra Funda (very little) (West).

Principal Attractions

*Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo;
*Luz Station (CPTM);
*Museum of the Portuguese Language;
*Júlio Prestes Station;
*Sala São Paulo;
*Pinacoteca Station;
*Museu de Arte Sacra;
*Igreja de Santo Antônio de Sant'Ana Galvão.

Curiosities

*The "Hospedaria dos Imigrantes" ("Immigrants' Inn") was previously situated in Bom Retiro. It remained there until the 1880s, when it moved to Brás.
*Bom Retiro was once a neighborhood where the Italian and Jewish communities predominated. Nowadays, the Korean, Chinese, and Bolivian presence is very strong.
*Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, one of the main soccer teams in São Paulo, was founded by residents of Bom Retiro, in the year of 1910, in Rua José Paulino. [pt icon [http://www.campeoesdofutebol.com.br/hist_corinthians.html Corinthians History] ]

See also

O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias is a film that takes place in 1970 in Bom Retiro. The film is mainly about the 1970 FIFA World Cup and the military dictatorship that took place after the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. It also shows how strong the central European Jewish and Italian immigrant concentration was (a soccer match between the Italians and the Jews was held periodically in Bom Retiro).

External links

*pt icon [http://www.comprasnobomretiro.com.br Compras no Bom Retiro]
*pt icon [http://www.achetudoeregiao.com.br/SP/bom_retiro/historia.htm History of Bom Retiro]

References