Czech Brazilians refer to

Brazilians Brazilians ( pt, Brasileiros, ) are the citizens of Brazil. A Brazilian can also be a person born abroad to a Brazilian parent or legal guardian as well as a person who acquired Brazilian citizenship. Brazil is a multiethnic society, which ...

of Czech descent who were born in or who trace their ancestry to the territory of the historic

Czech lands The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands ( cs, České země ) are the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, the Czech Socialist Republic sin ...

or succession states, now known as the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, and are residents and/or citizens of

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 ...

Czech people in Brazil

Although Czech

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

such as

Valentin Stansel Valentin Stansel or Stanzel (1621 – 18 December 1705) was a Czech Jesuit astronomer who worked in Brazil. Biography Valentin Stanzel was born in Olomouc, Moravia. His family were of German minority ethnicity in Moravia. He entered the Societ ...

had been working in Brazil since the 18th century, the first Czech immigrants arrived in 1823. Among these early immigrants was Jan Nepomuk Kubíček, a

Catholic 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 ...

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...

from

Třeboň Třeboň (; german: Wittingau) is a spa town in Jindřichův Hradec District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,100 inhabitants. The town centre with the castle complex is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...

and one of the great-grandfathers of

Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...

, the 24th President of Brazil (from 1956 to 1961). In the 20th century there were three large waves of Czechs who moved to Brazil: in the 1930s, after the Communist takeover (1948) and after the occupation of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

by the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

troops (1968). Most of those immigrants settled down in

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 of ...

Southern Brazil

More or less influence of the Czech immigration can be noticed in the three states of Southern Brazil ( Santa Catarina, Paraná, and

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...

). In such states, the Czechs arrived since the 19th century and were often a minority in areas predominantly settled by

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 ...

.Modernell, Renato
O Vale dos Imigrantes
Revista Terra, São Paulo, v. 63, p. 26 - 33, 01 jul. 1997 In Santa Catarina, the Czech immigrants occupied the regions of

Vale do Itajaí Vale do Itajaí also known as ''Vale Europeu'' (or "European Valley") is a mesoregion located in the Northeastern part of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. It has about 1.3 million inhabitants and comprises four smaller regions: Blumenau, ...

and Northern parts of the state, e.g.

Joinville Joinville () is the largest city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. It is the third largest municipality in the southern region of Brazil, after the much larger state capitals of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Joinville is also a ...

São Bento do Sul São Bento do Sul is a municipality, pop. 85,421 (2020) located in southern Brazil, in the northeast part of the state of Santa Catarina, just south of the state of Paraná. Industry São Bento do Sul is considered to be an industrialized ...

and

Mafra Mafra is a Czech media group that publishes printed and internet media, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a subsidiary of Agrofert holding conglomerate owned by trust of Andrej Babiš, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republi ...

. In Rio Grande do Sul, most Czechs settled down in the

Serra Gaúcha The Serra Gaúcha (''Gaucho Highlands'') is a cultural region comprising the mountainous areas in the northeastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil. Most of its inhabitants are of German-Brazilian, German and Italian Brazilian ...

(notably in the town of

Nova Petrópolis Nova Petrópolis is a municipality in the Southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The main seat of the municipality is also called Nova Petrópolis. It is located in the Serra Gaúcha region, at 29º22'35" South, 51º06'52" West, about ...

), the North Coast, the area of

Missões Missões, Brazil is a region of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil roughly occupying the same area previously dominated by the colonial missions founded by Saint Roque González. The ''Missões'' region is located in the northwestern part of the state ...

and the Central Lowlands. In Paraná, the Czech immigration is noticeable in the Northern areas, e.g.

Rolândia Rolândia is a municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil. Rolândia was settled by German immigrants who named it after (and erected a statue to) the medieval hero Roland, a symbol of freedom in Germany. See also *Li ...

and

Londrina Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and fourth largest in the southern regi ...

, where in 1932-1940s Czechs and Poles used to dispute the available lands for coffee cultivation, particularly in the rural district of ''Warta'' (Northern Londrina).

Central-Western Brazil

In Central-Western Brazil the Czech immigrants arrived mostly in the 1940-1950s led by the entrepreneur

Jan Antonín Baťa Jan Antonín Baťa (March 7, 1898 – August 23, 1965) (also known as ''Jan Antonin Bata'' or ''Jan Bata'', called The King of Shoes) was a Czech- Brazilian shoe manufacturer from Uherské Hradiště (southeastern Moravia), half-brother of Tomáš ...

, a Czech shoe manufacturer who left

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

after the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation of the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

. The colonization of part of the Southeastern region of the state of

Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and ...

was made possible thanks to the ''Companhia Viação São Paulo-Mato Grosso'' (São Paulo-Mato Grosso Transport Company) owned by Baťa and managed by another Czech immigrant, Vladimir Kubik.

Institutions and Cultural Organizations

União Cultural Tcheco-Brasileira - Česko-brazilský kulturní svaz - São Paulo, SP

* [http://www.mzv.cz/saopaulo/pt/cultura_compatriotas_e_educacao/compatriotas/contatos_das_associac_es_de_compatriotas/index.html/ Centro de Memória Jindřich Tracha - Centrum památky Jindřicha Trachty - Batayporã, MS]
Associação Cultural Theca-Brasileira - Česko-brazilské kulturní sdružení - Porto Alegre, RS

Notable Czech Brazilians

Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New Yor ...

František Lorenz František Vladimír Lorenc (24 December 1872 – 24 May 1957), known in Portuguese as Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz, was a Czech-born polyglot and philosopher born in Zbyslav (nowadays part of the Czech Republic). He was one of the first Espera ...

* Fred Figner *

* Jan Nepomuk Kubíček *

* Lavínia Vlasak * Otto Richard Gottlieb * Tomas Valdemar Hintnaus *

Vilém Flusser Vilém Flusser (May 12, 1920 – November 27, 1991) was a Brazilian Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo (where he became a Brazilian citizen) and later in France, and his works are written ...

* Vladimir Kubik *

Walter Smetak Anton Walter Smetak (Zurich, Switzerland, 13 February 1913 – Salvador, Brazil, 30 May 1984) was a Swiss-born musician, composer, writer, sculptor and producer of musical instruments. Life and works Walter Smetak was born in Zurich of Czec ...

References

{{Czech diaspora European Brazilian