Moema is a district in the south region of the city of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Toponym

The toponym "Moema" is a reference to the character, possibly fictional, of the poem

Caramuru Caramuru (-1557) was the Tupi name of the Portuguese colonist Diogo Álvares Correia, who is notable for being the first European to establish contact with the native Tupinambá population in modern-day Brazil and was instrumental in the early co ...

, by

Santa Rita Durão José de Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784), known simply as Santa Rita Durão, was a Colonial Brazilian Neoclassic poet, orator and Augustinian friar. He is considered a forerunner of " Indianism" in Brazilian literature, with his epic poem ''Caram ...

, classic of the Brazilian arcade literature written in 1781. The character's name, in turn, corresponds to the

Old Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi (also spelled as Tupí) is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. It belongs to the ...

''mo'ema'', which means "lie" (in the poem, Moema was the lover rejected by the main character, Diogo Álvares, thus representing false love, as opposed to true love, represented by Diogo's wife,

Catarina Paraguaçu Catarina Álvares Paraguaçu,According to Catarina's baptism certificate, her original name was Guaibimpará, and not Paraguaçu. also known as Catarina do Brasil (baptized June 1528 – 1586), was a Brazilian Tupinambá Indian. She was born in w ...

).NAVARRO, E. A. ''Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil''. São Paulo. Global. 2013. p. 540, 587.

Toponym

History

Bordering districts

Nearby Districts

Characteristics

References