Nova Odessa (lit., New Odessa) is a Brazilian municipality in the state 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 Ga ...

. It is part of the

Metropolitan Region of Campinas The Metropolitan Region of Campinas ( pt, Região Metropolitana de Campinas) is an administrative division of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It was created in 2000, and consists of the following municipalities: *Americana * Artur Nogueira *Cam ...

. The population is 60,956 (2020 est.) in an area of 73.79 km². Nova Odessa was founded on May 24, 1905, by Carlos José de Arruda Botelho, Secretary of Agriculture of the state of São Paulo, and then settled by

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

and

Latvians Latvians ( lv, latvieši) are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common La ...

. Its name is due to a visit Carlos Botelho made to the city of Odessa, Ukraine, from where he brought the style of its streets, and not because the first settlers were from there (as they were not).

History

In the early 20th century, the area of present-day Nova Odessa was classified as an uninhabited land suitable for farming. On May 24, 1905, the Brazilian government founded Nova Odessa as a "Núcleo Colonial" (the "Colonial Nuclei" were agricultural areas to where the Brazilian government wished to attract

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an immigrants in large-scale). The first settlers to arrive in the area were immigrants from

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, but, not adapting to agriculture (one of the pointed reasons for this is that they were not farmers originally), most of them soon abandoned the colony and moved to larger Brazilian cities. In late 1905, only a few Ukrainian families had remained in the nucleus. Determined to consolidate the colony, the Brazilian government sent João Gutmann to Riga, capital of Latvia, with the goal of attracting farmers to the colony. In 1906, the place received the first settlers from Latvia, that were the responsible for the consolidation of the colony. Later, other Brazilian immigration agents were sent to Latvia and succeeded in attracting more families.

Culture

The city maintains or supports directly in several ways a wide range of departments, programs, groups and cultural institutions. Those include the Municipal Public Library (''Biblioteca Pública Municipal Professor Antônio Fernandes Gonçalves'') —that has a section of books in the

Latvian language Latvian ( ), also known as Lettish, is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken in the Baltic region. It is the language of Latvians and the official language of Latvia as well ...

.novaodessa.sp.gov.br
Biblioteca de Nova Odessa recebe doação de mais de 150 títulos letos.
(in Portuguese) Although the city later received many people from other ethnicities, the Latvian Culture is still very noticeable and there are plans for the creation of a Center of Latvian Culture (Centro de Cultura Leta) there.

Economy

The economy is based on industry, mainly

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

s. The city's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

went from R$373 million in 1999 to R$1.6 billion in 2009. With its per capita value reaching R$32,862 (2009 data) —double the national average.http://www.artguth.com
Nova Odessa. Economia quadruplicou em uma década.
(in Portuguese)

Climate

The city has a highland tropical climate, semi-humid with dry winters.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nova Odessa, Sao Paulo Populated places established in 1905 1905 establishments in Brazil Municipalities in São Paulo (state)