Siderópolis is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the state of Santa Catarina in the

South region Southern Region or South Region may refer to: * Southern Nigeria * Southern Region (Boy Scouts of America) * Southern Region, Bauchi, Nigeria * South Region, Brazil, an official grouping of states for economic and statistical purposes * Southern R ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

History

Siderópolis ( Nova Belluno) is one of the first Italian settlements in Brazil. The arrival of Italian immigrants in the region is related to the great migration of Europeans to various parts of the world that took place by the end of the 19th century. They migrated especially to the Americas, searching for better living options fleeing the squalid living conditions that came to be because of the European

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. In Brazil, after 1890, the federal government developed a policy aiming to encourage immigration from Europe, thus it reduced the price of ship tickets and gave them benefits, which favored the migration of

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

and

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

mainly to the region

Southern Brazil The South Region of Brazil (; ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory ...

. In 1891, the first

Italian immigrants The Italian diaspora is the large-scale emigration of Italians from Italy. There were two major Italian diasporas in Italian history. The first diaspora began around 1880, two decades after the Risorgimento, Unification of Italy, and ended in the ...

who had embarked at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

arrived in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, passed by Desterro (

Florianópolis Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina, in the South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as well as part of the mainland. It has a populat ...

's old name),

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

with a train and the railway

Dona Teresa Cristina Estrada de Ferro Dona Teresa Cristina is an old railway in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazilian state. See also * RFFSA The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA, pronounced as ''Refesa'') () was the State-owned national railway co ...

they reached

Pedras Grandes Pedras Grandes is a municipality in Brazilian State of Santa Catarina. History Pedras Grandes is a town of Italian immigration. In 1877, the first Italian immigrants arrived from Veneto. The town thrived on coal minin The town was elevated to a ...

, from there on an ox cart to Urussanga, and finally to the long-awaited land yet unnamed. A beautiful land surrounded by a vast mountain range, plenty of natural resources and inhabited by Brazilian natives, the Bugres. The immigrant group consisted of about 100 families from the Italian provinces of

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

and

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

. At first the settlement was known as Nova Belluno (New Belluno), which name was suggested by

Marta Savaris Marta may refer to: People * Marta (given name), a feminine given name * Märta, a feminine given name * Marta (surname) :István Márta composer * Marta (footballer) (born 1986), Brazilian professional footballer Places * Marta (river), a ...

, one of the immigrants, because of the similarity of the local relief of Belluno, Italy. In the mid 20th century were discovered large reserves of coal in the soil of the region. The first miners began to settle it, among them Brazil's National Siderurgic Company (CSN), which explored the region between 1940 and 1980. The district was renamed itself ''Siderópolis'' to highlight the presence on the coal market, also to please the CSN's big investors, company which promised a bright future. In the 1940s, being a district Urussanga, from then began a movement for the emancipation of Siderópolis, which culminated on December 19, 1958, when then-governor of Santa Catarina, Heriberto Hülse, signed the law No. 380, breaking up the municipality of Siderópolis from Urussanga, thereby making the city politically emancipated and court of the county Urussanga.

Language

The Italian presence was so strong that currently much of the population is

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

, maintainers of Italian dialects, the most common being

Bergamasco Bergamasco may refer to: People * Bergamasco (surname), list of people with the surname Places * the region around the city of Bergamo, in the Italian region of Lombardy * Bergamasco, Piedmont, a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Aless ...

and a new fusion of the Veneto's dialect, named

Talian Talian may refer to: *Talian dialect, a dialect spoken in Brazil *Talian, Iran Talian ( fa, طاليان, also Romanized as Tālīān and Ţālīān) is a village in Baraghan Rural District, Chendar District, Savojbolagh County, Alborz Province, ...

. Even after nearly 150 years, a relevant percentage of the population speak Portuguese with strong Italian accent.

Italian cuisine

An interesting fusion of Northern Italian with German, Portuguese, Arabic and Polish cuisines was developed in that area. The classic

Polenta Polenta (, ) is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. The dish comes from Italy. It may be served as a hot porridge, or it may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled. ...

with chicken on tomato sauce, the Italian soup became Minestra di Fagioli (bean soup) as the production of all the kinds of beans is very common. Is quite easy to find a restaurant that serves lasagne with

Churrasco ''Churrasco'' (, ) is the Portuguese and Spanish name for beef or grilled meat more generally. It is a prominent feature in the cuisine of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. The related term ''churrascaria'' (or ''churrasquería'') is mostly under ...

(due to strong presence of gaucho tradition).

Return to origins

As almost 80% of the people are of Italian ancestry, they have the right to dual nationality, eligible to living in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Every year hundreds of young couples migrate to Germany to work at Gelateria in the summer season, Bringing great growth in civil construction. Some of them decided to rebuild their lives in Italy, Germany and United kingdom. Some of the few descendants of Japanese who also settled in the region (see

Japanese Brazilian , , lead=yes are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. The first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908. Brazil is ...

) made their way to in Japan, as they found difficult to fit into cultural patterns of Brazilian society.

Redemption of the traditions

Groups of culture and tradition are fighting today to change back the city's name for the original, New Belluno. The mining just brought destruction for the nature, polluting rivers and enriching a minority.

Notable people

Enemésio Ângelo Lazzaris Enemésio Ângelo Lazzaris (12 December 1948 – 2 February 2020) was a Brazilian Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * R ...

, BISHOP of The

Roman Catholic Diocese As of October 5, 2021, the Catholic Church in its entirety comprises 3,171 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,248 dioceses, as well as apostolic vicariates, apostolic exarchates, apostolic administrations, ap ...

of Balsas (Latin: Dioecesis Balsensis) located in the city of Balsas in the

Ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

São Luís do Maranhão SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...

. Writer of the book ''Familia Lazzaris-Pascai: Tributo a um imigrante''(Lazzaris Family: Tribute to an Immigrant) * Jorge Nando - Singer/composer of MPB, Música popular brasileira

References

* Familia Lazzaris-Pascai: Tributo a um imigrante- Don Enemésio Ângelo Lazzaris - 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sideropolis Municipalities in Santa Catarina (state)