Jerônimo de Sousa Monteiro

Jerônimo de Sousa Monteiro
President (governor) of Espirito Santo (elected by the people)
In office May 23, 1908 – May 23, 1912
Preceded by	Henrique da Silva Coutinho
Succeeded by	Marcondes Alves de Sousa

Jerônimo de Sousa Monteiro (Cachoeiro do Itapemirim ES, June 4, 1870 - October 23, 1933) was a Brazilian politician. He was a representative (in the local Espirito do Santo's Chamber of Representative and in the Brazilian Federal Chamber of Representatives), a Senator, and the 13th president (governor) of the state of Espirito Santo, from May 23, 1908 to May 23, 1912.

He is traditionally considered the author of the flag of the state of Espirito Santo, which is formed of three horizontal bands—a cyan band on the top, a white band in the middle and a pink band on the bottom--, and has the motto "Trabalha e Confia" (which means Work and trust it) written on the white band. Work and trust it is actually a shortened version for a quote from the Spanish Jesuit father José de Anchieta, "Work as if everything depended on you, and trust as if everything depended on God". This flag was officially adpoted for the Espirito Santo's flag by the times of his term as governor.

Flag of the State of Espirito Santo: The motto translates as "Work and trust it"

Jerônimo Monteiro helped on the improvement of the urbanization of the capital city, Vitória, adding it better services of potable water, sewage and electric power; he also reformed the port of Vitória and the public hospital of the Holly House of the Mercy. He also tried to install an industrial zone in the regions of the state south to Cachoeiro do Itapemirim but the industrialists preferred to install in Vitória though.

However, Jerônimo Monteiro was the leader of a strong political group in South Espirito Santo, which was a group basically composed by landowners, and opposed to the more heterogeneous socially political group from the central region of Espirito Santo. By the time his brother Bernardino de Sousa Monteiro was in his late term, Jerônimo Monteiro tried to impede Nestor Gomez, legally elected governor of Espirito Santo in 1924, to be inaugurated officially, though he could not succeed on that.

Persondata
Name	Monteiro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 4, 1870
Place of birth
Date of death	October 23, 1933
Place of death