Arantina is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. Its population is estimated to be 2,787 people living in a total area of 89.382 km². The city belongs to the mesoregion of Sul and Sudoeste de Minas and to the microregion of

Andrelândia Andrelândia is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais that is located in the Mesoregion of South and Southwest of Minas and hosts the Microregion of Andrelândia. It is 300 km away from the state capital, Belo Horizonte and o ...

. The municipality has an average annual median temperature of 21.2°C and the vegetation is predominantly that of the South American

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

. With 98% of the population living within the urban area, the city had two health facilities in 2009. The

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

(HDI) of the municipality is 0.736, considered average in relation to the state. The settlement of the municipality first began in the second half of the 19th century, with the construction of a stretch of the Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas railway. Notable features of the municipality include the handcrafts it produces and annual events such as the

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

of Arantina.

History

The area of the current municipality first began to be settled during the 19th century, when the Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas (EFOM) railroad was being constructed. The railroad was intended to link the south of

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

state with the

Angra dos Reis Angra dos Reis (; Portuguese for ''cove'' or ''bay of the Kings'') is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city is located by the sea and includes in its territory many offshore islands, the l ...

municipality 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 ...

state, passing through Barra Mansa, RJ and operating both passenger and cargo trains. In Arantina there was a junction between the EFOM line and the Barra Line (the name is derived from

Barra do Piraí Barra do Piraí () is a municipality of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. It is located at latitude 22º28'12" South and longitude 43º49'32" East. Its population is 100,764 (2020) and its area is 578.471 km². It is 114 km from Ri ...

municipality), connecting

Bom Jardim de Minas Bom Jardim de Minas is a city of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The name means ''Good Garden of Minas (Gerais)''. It is situated in the southern part of Minas Gerais and in the middle of the Mantiqueira Mountains, at 1,200 meters high, whi ...

municipality to the Barra Mansa line, now defunct. A small town emerged around the Arantes railway station, then situated in the municipality of Mantiqueira (today

). For several years the town that is today Arantina belonged to Bom Jardim de Minas. The town was known as Várzea do Paiol. In the current seat of the municipality there was a storehouse to store the corn harvested by farmer Juca Pereira, owner of much of the municipality's land. The town consolidated itself with the manufacturing of ceramics. Given the economic growth, by state law no. 1058 of 31 December 1943, the district of Bom Jardim de Minas was created, which received its name from the railway station. Arantina was emancipated by state law no. 2764 of 30 December 1962, being officially incorporated on 1 March 1963.

Geography

The area of the municipality, according to the

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...

(IBGE) is 89.42 km², with 0.3682 km² constituting the urban area. It is situated at a latitude of 21°54'40"S and a longitude of 44°15'21"W and is 323 km south of

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, the state capital of

. Its neighboring municipalities are

to the east,

to the northwest, and Liberdade to the south. According to the regional division of 2017, instituted by the IBGE, the municipality belongs to the Immediate and Intermediate Geographic Region of Juiz de Fora. Before this time, the municipality was included in the Microregion of Andrelândia and the Mesoregion of South and Southwest Minas.

Terrain and Hydrography

The terrain of the municipality of Arantina is predominantly hilly. Approximately 60% of the territory is covered in hilly areas, while about 30% is more mountainous, and the remaining 10% is generally flat. The highest elevation is 1,379 m found at the Serra do Caxambu and the lowest elevation is 1,030 m at the

base level In geology and geomorphology a base level is the lower limit for an erosion process. The modern term was introduced by John Wesley Powell in 1875. The term was subsequently appropriated by William Morris Davis who used it in his cycle of erosion ...

of the Capixingui stream in the Turvo Pequeno river. The central part of the town is at 1,050 m. The territory is covered in various small rivers and streams, principally the Capixingui stream and the Turvo Pequeno river, making up part of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

river basin. The Turvo Pequeno divides the municipality, and there are drainage projects for its sub-basin. Much of the water extracted from it is supplied to the towns of Arantina and

Climate

The climate of Arantina is characterized, according to the IBGE, as

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

(type Cwb according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

). It has an average annual temperature of 21.2 °C with dry and cool winters and rainy summers with mild temperatures. The hottest month, January, has an average temperature of 24.1 °C, average high temperature of 29.4 °C and average low temperature of 18.9 °C. The coldest moth, July, has an average temperature of 17.3 °C, with 24.8 °C and 9.8 °C as the average high and low temperatures respectively. Autumn and spring are transitional seasons. The average annual precipitation is 1412.9 mm, with August being the driest month when there is only 13.9 mm of rainfall. In December, the rainiest month, the average rainfall is 259.8 mm. In recent years, however, hot and dry days during the summer have become more frequent and it is not rare for the temperature to exceed 28 °C, especially between July and September. In August of 2010, for example, the precipitation in Arantina was 0 mm. During the dry season and long Indian summers in the rainy season,

brush fires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

are commonly recorded in the hills, principally in the rural zone of the municipality, which contribute to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

and to the release of pollutants into the atmosphere, harming the quality of the air.

Flora and Fauna

The vegetation of the town is divided into two classes of native ecological formations: the forest (

) and the open clearings. Exotic vegetation and monocultures also occur. These classes, associated with the rugged topography, result in a diverse vegetation cover. In the Atlantic Forest, trees such as the Tabebuia, Brazilian rosewood, angico, manacá-da-serra,

Brazilian pine ''Araucaria angustifolia'', the Paraná pine, Brazilian pine or candelabra tree (, or ), is a critically endangered species in the conifer genus ''Araucaria''. Although the common names in various languages refer to the species as a "pine", it do ...

, and cedar stand out.

Demographics

In 2010, the population of the municipality was calculated by the

Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...

(IBGE) (''Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics'') to be 2,823 inhabitants. According to the census of that year, 1,415 inhabitants were men and 1,408 were women. Also according to the same census, 2,633 inhabitants lived in the urban zone and 190 in the rural zone. According to statistics divulged in 2018, the municipal population was 2,804 inhabitants. In 2010, according to data from the IBGE census of that year, the racial composition of Arantina was 2,196 white (77.79%), 216 black (7.65%), 1 yellow (Asian) (0.04%), and 410 brown (multiracial) (14.52%). As for the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of birth, 18 were born in the Northeast Region (0.63%), 2,792 in the Southeast Region (98.91%), and 5 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 ...

(0.18%). 2,404 inhabitants were native to the State of

(90.3%) and, of this total, 1,382 were born in Arantina (48.96%). Among the 367 natives of other units of the

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

was the state with the greatest presence at 270 people (9.58%). Following was

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 ...

, with 60 residents (2.13%), and Espírito Santo with 6 residents (0.20%). The Human Development Index (HDI) of Arantina is considered medium by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), being a value of 0.697 (the 240th highest in the state of

). Most of the town's indices are close to or above the national average according to the UNDP. The education index was 0.641, life expectancy was 0.834, and the median income was 0.633. According to the IBGE, in the year 2003, the Gini coefficient, which measures economic inequality, was 0.39, with 1.00 being the worst number and 0.00 being the best. In that year, the incidence of poverty as measured by the IBGE was 42.15% with the lower limit of the incidence of poverty being 29.79%, the higher limit of incidence being 27.35%, and the subjective incidence being 36.50%. According to the data of the 2010 census released by the IBGE, the population of Arantina is composed of: 2,553

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(90.42%), 214

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

(7.58%), 35 non-religious (1.24%), 7 spiritualists (0.26%), and 0.5% divided among other religions.

Politics and Administration

The administration of the municipality is carried out by executive and legislative powers. The executive power is exercised by the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, aided by his cabinet of secretaries. The current Mayor of Arantina is Francisco Carlos Ferreira Alves, of the Democrats (DEM), elected in the municipal elections of 2016 with 52.14% of the vote and sworn in on 1 January 2017 with Deputy Mayor Adriano by his side. The legislative power, on the other hand, is constituted by the Municipal Chamber composed of nine Aldermen. It is up to this body to draft and vote on laws fundamental to administration and to the executive, especially the participatory budget. In addition to the legislative process and secretary work, there are also active municipal councils, among which are the rights of children and adolescents (created in 1995) and guardianship (2005). Arantina is governed by its

organic law An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state. By country France Under Article ...

, which was enacted on 18 March 1990, and is a term of the district of

of the state judiciary first jurisdiction. The municipality possessed, in February of 2019, 2,560 voters according to the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) (''Superior Electoral Court''), which represents 0.016% of the

electorate.{{Cite web, url=http://www.tse.jus.br/eleitor/estatisticas-de-eleitorado/consulta-quantitativo, title=Consulta Quantitativo, date=12 April 2013, website=Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), language=pt, access-date=21 March 2019, archive-date=25 March 2015, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325082908/http://www.tse.jus.br/eleitor/estatisticas-de-eleitorado/consulta-quantitativo, url-status=dead