VINICIUS MARTUSCELLI
THE SOUTHERN REGION OF SÃO PAULO
( 06 )
City with its Protected Landscapes used to belong to the Santo Amaro municiHISTORICAL pality until 1935. Strategically situated between São Paulo city and the sea, AND CULTURAL Santo Amaro harbored paths that were HERITAGE used, during the colonial period, to travel from the city to the coast through tracks belonging to the indigenous people who used to live in the area and still do. The main link to the native’s settlements s was made alongside the rivers Anhembi (now called Tietê) and Geribatiba or Jurubatuja (now Pinheiros). Since the Portuguese colonization, the native’s settlements s in Santo Amaro where administrated by the Jesuits, divided in allotments managed by lay persons. In 1828 the Colônia neighborhood was created, by decree in Santo Amaro vacant public lands. 94 German families where displaced to the new neighborhood. German’s family names are very common in this region. Descendents say that they stopped talking their native language gradually because of discrimination by Brazilians as a reflex of the Nazi expansion in Europe. During the Second World War, the neighborhood changed its name from German Colony (Colônia Alemã) to São Paulo Colony (Colônia Paulista). The main activities of the Colônia inhabitants were agriculture and wood extraction. In the end of the XIX century, they used to sell their products mainly in the Santo Amaro market, built in 1895. Besides food products, they also used to sell wood, coal and stones. Before the Cia. Carris Santo Amaro’s railways were available, the products were transported by donkeys. The railways construction did not change too much the region landscape and was soon incorporated by Sao Paulo inhabitants who used to visit the region on religious feasts. Since the beginning of the XX century, the coal produced with wood from the southern forest became essential to the industry. Thus, the exploitation limits expanded, bringing to the region development and urbanization and as a result, the start of the forest devastation. We can still find nowadays some well preserved coal ovens in the area. The construction of the reservoirs of Guarapiranga (1906- 1909) and Billings (1925- 1927) also incentive the further occupation of the region. The Billings water flow required the construction of a spillway named ( 41 )