annika hagen

after a productive week of portuguese lessons, list making, planning and pink floyd on shuffle, we enjoyed a calm weekend in town. we walked all over the city on saturday, as most of my time here has been about taking little trips elsewhere, this felt like the first real weekend as a local, getting to know my new home. here are some facts and snippets about Ribeirão Preto....

 (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁibejˈɾɐ̃w ˈpɾetu], Black Stream).

• It's nickname is Brazilian California for its economy based on agrobusiness & technology and its sunny weather all year long. 
• Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese immigrants came to the region for the coffee agriculture. Right after the Abolition of Slavery in 1888, Italians arrived in huge numbers, followed by Germans, Spaniards, Eastern Europeans, and Portuguese.
• During the 1990s, Northeastern migrants came to the region attracted by the economic development of São Paulo state cities, which was widely broadcast in TV documentaries. 
• Ribeirão Preto has a population of 605.114 inhabitants. 
• The climate of Ribeirão Preto is a tropical wet and dry climate, with rainy summers and dry winters.
• The city was founded June 19, 1856, by farmers coming from the southeast of São Paulo State in search of good climate and soil for coffee growing. The fertile soil allowed the highest crop productivity in Brazil.
• By the 1880s the city had become the largest coffee producer in the world.
• The Pedro II Theatre is the third largest opera house in Brazil and the home of the Ribeirão Preto symphony orchestra.
• In 1911 the city opened its first factory, the Antarctica Brewery Company, now part of the AmBev group. The Antarctica factory led to the opening of several beer houses in the city. One of them named Pinguim (penguin in Portuguese), became particularly famous and made Ribeirão Preto nationally renowned for the quality of its draft beer (chope or chopp in Brazilian Portuguese). Many people say that coming to Ribeirão Preto and not visiting Pinguim is like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope. 
• Ribeirão Preto also has one of the first micro-breweries in Brazil, Cervejaria Colorado, founded in 1997. 
• Ribeirão Preto has many parks, gardens and a zoo.
• The city has two soccer stadiums for the teams Comercial and Botafogo. Neither are currently in Brazil's top three soccer divisions. 
• Ribeirão Preto is a big university town hosting 8 campuses: School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP), School of Law of Ribeirão Preto (FDRP), School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP), School of Dentistry (FORP), School of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEARP), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP), School of Nursing (EERP) and School of Music (DMRP-ECA).
• The increase in oil prices after the crisis of the 1970s lead to the search for an alternative means of fueling. The solution was found in ethanol (sugarcane alcohol). The region around Ribeirão Preto is responsible for 30 percent of Brazil’s sugarcane alcohol fuel and is considered the largest producer of alcohol and sugar in the world, 
• Besides this, Ribeirão Preto's major products are orange juice, cotton, rice, meat, dairy products, textiles, machinery, steel, furniture, building materials, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and, of course, beer. 
• The sugarcane boom brought a new age of prosperity for the city, which was called the "Brazilian California" during the 1980s and early 1990s. This image of a new "Eldorado" attracted many migrants from impoverished areas of Brazil leading to a rapid population growth and the appearance of slums (favelas) bringing with it the problems of drug trafficking, high violence and crime rates, an unfortunate fact that Ribeirão Preto shares with all other major Brazilian cities.
• The mayor is a woman, Dárcy Vera (from the Democrats party coalition (formerly the Party of the Liberal Front), It is the first time that the city takes a woman as mayor. She was elected with 52,04% of the votes. Her term of office is four years (until December 31, 2012).

click on the photos for a slideshow walkabout town...

 *facts sourced from wikipedia