Aracruz is a

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

at the central coast of

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attracti ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Geography

Aracruz covers , and has a population of 103,101 with a population density of 66 inhabitants per square kilometer. The municipality contains part of the Comboios Biological Reserve, a fully protected area. The Santa Cruz Wildlife Refuge created in 2010 extends offshore from the municipality. The coastline of the municipality is also protected in part by the Costa das Algas Environmental Protection Area, created in 2010.

History

The

's history begins in 1556, when two

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priests (Braz Lourenço and Diogo Jácomo) founded Santa Cruz, a town then called Aldeia Nova (''New Village''). Aldeia Nova later became known as Aldeia Velha (Old Village), since it didn't prosper as much as its neighbour, which then became known as Aldeia Nova, and is today called Nova Almeida. Aldeia Velha became emancipated as a municipality in 1848, and changed its name to Santa Cruz. In 1943, the municipality and its capital were both renamed Aracruz. However, the biggest economic driver at the time was '' jacarandá'' wood, and Sauaçu held most of the

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wo ...

plants (''serrarias''), so in 1948 the capital was moved to Sauaçu (also called Sauassu), and the capital's name went with it. Sauaçu then became known as Aracruz, and Aracruz reverted to its formal and present name, Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was founded at the mouth of the Piraquê-mirim and Piraquê-açu Rivers, as were a number of Amerindian tribes. After a visit from the Emperor Peter II who slept in Santa Cruz in 1860, he signed permission for 386 Italian families to settle in Santa Cruz, and those families founded Fazenda Nova Trento (New Trento Farm) around 1874. Other groups moved up the Piraquê-açu river to found Palmas Farm (''Fazenda das Palmas'') and Santa Teresa. At this time

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

plantations were common. Another large wave of Italian immigrants began coming around 1872, when a ship called ''Sofia'' arrived bringing 386 Italians from the region of

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

. Those went on to found Nova Trento Colony. On November 25, 2022, a shooting spree occurred at two schools in Aracruz: the Primo Bitti State Elementary and Middle School, a public school; and the Praia de Coqueiral Educational Center, a private school. Four people were killed, and 12 others were injured. The suspect, a 16-year-old former student at the public school, was arrested approximately four hours later.

Demographics

According to the IBGE population estimate for 2016, Aracruz is the tenth most populated municipality in

, with 96.746 residents.

Population

Aracruz is home to roughly 1,500 Native Americans divided into six reservations: Caieiras Velha, Comboios, Irajá, Pau Brasil, Tekoá and Três Palmeiras. Only in the last couple of decades have they been able to secure their land here, as many problems with the local paper industry greatly prolonged their land struggles. Those Amerindians belong to two tribes: the

Tupiniquim Tupiniquim (also Tupinã-ki, Topinaquis, Tupinaquis, Tupinanquins; plural: Tupiniquins) are an indigenous people of Brazil of the Tupi family, who now live in three indigenous territories (''Terras Indígenas'' in Portuguese). The indigenous ...

and the Guarani. The Native Americans in Aracruz Municipality no longer speak their native languages, but they hold on to their traditional subsistence farming and handcraft trade.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aracruz, Espirito Santo Populated coastal places in Espírito Santo 1556 establishments in the Portuguese Empire Municipalities in Espírito Santo Populated places established in 1556