Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is a state located in the southern region of Brazil. It is the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is bordered clockwise by Santa Catarina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Uruguayan departments of Rocha, Treinta y Tres, Cerro Largo and Artigas to the south and southwest, the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones to the west and northwest; the capital and largest city is Porto Alegre. The state has the highest life expectancy in Brazil, the crime rate is considered to be low. Despite the high standard of living, unemployment is still high and according to census data, it is one of the most difficult states in Brazil for foreigners to find jobs; the state has a gaucho culture like its foreign neighbors. It was inhabited by Guarani people; the first Europeans there were Jesuits, followed by settlers from the Azores. In the 19th century it was the scene of conflicts including the Farroupilha Revolution and the Paraguayan War.
Large waves of German and Italian migration have shaped the state. Rio Grande do Sul is bordered to the northeast by the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Uruguay, to the northwest by the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones; the northern part of the state lies on the southern slopes of the elevated plateau extending southward from São Paulo across the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina, is much broken by low mountain ranges whose general direction across the trend of the slope gives them the appearance of escarpments. A range of low mountains extends southward from the Serra do Mar of Santa Catarina and crosses the state into Uruguay. West of this range is a vast grassy plain devoted principally to stock-raising — the northern and most elevated part being suitable in pasturage and climate for sheep, the southern for cattle. East of it is a wide coastal zone only elevated above the sea; the coast is one great sand beach, broken only by the outlet of the two lakes, called the Rio Grande, which affords an entrance to navigable inland waters and several ports.
There are two distinct river systems in Rio Grande do Sul – that of the eastern slope draining to the lagoons, that of the Río de la Plata basin draining westward to the Uruguay River. The larger rivers of the eastern group are the Jacuí, Sinos, Caí, Gravataí and Camaquã, which flow into the Lagoa dos Patos, the Jaguarão which flows into the Lagoa Mirim. All of the first named, except the Camaquã, discharge into one of the two arms or estuaries opening into the northern end of Lagoa dos Patos, called the Guaíba River, though technically it is not a river but a lake; the Guaíba River is broad, comparatively deep and about 56 kilometres long, with the rivers discharging into it affords upwards of 320 kilometres of fluvial navigation. The Jacuí is one of the most important rivers of the state, rising in the ranges of the Coxilha Grande of the north and flowing south and southeast to the Guaíba estuary, with a course of nearly 480 kilometres It has two large tributaries, the Vacacaí from the south and the Taquari from the north, many small streams.
The Jaguarão, which forms part of the boundary line with Uruguay, is navigable 42 km up to and beyond the town of Jaguarão. In addition to the Lagoa dos Patos and Lagoa Mirim there are a number of small lakes on the sandy, swampy peninsulas that lie between the coast and these two, there are others of a similar character along the northern coast; the largest lake is the Lagoa dos Patos, which lies parallel with the coastline and southwest, is about 214 kilometres long exclusive of the two arms at its northern end, 40 58 km long and of its outlet, the Rio Grande, about 39 km long. Its width varies from 35 to 58 km; the lake is comparatively shallow and filled with sand banks, making its navigable channels tortuous and difficult. The Lagoa Mirim occupies a similar position farther south, on the Uruguayan border, is about 175 kilometres long by 10 to 35 km wide, it is more irregular in outline and discharges into Lagoa dos Patos through a navigable channel known as the São Gonçalo Channel. A part of the lake lies in Uruguayan territory, but its navigation, as determined by treaty, belongs to Brazil.
Both of these lakes are evidently the remains of an ancient depression in the coastline shut in by sand beaches built up by the combined action of wind and current. They are of the same level as the ocean, but their waters are affected by the tides and are brackish only a short distance above the Rio Grande outlet. One-third of the state belongs to the Río de la Plata drainage basin. Of the many streams flowing northward and westward to the Uruguay, the largest are the Ijuí of the plateau region, the Ibicuí, which has its source near Santa Maria in the central part of the state and flows westward to the Uruguay a short distance above Uruguaiana, the Quaraí River which forms part of the boundary line with Uruguay; the Uruguay River itself is formed by the confluence of the Pelotas rivers. The Pelotas, which has its source in the Serra do Mar on the Atlantic coast, the Uruguay River forms the northern and western boundary line of the state down to the mouth of the Quaraí, on the Uruguayan frontier.
Rio Grande do Sul lies within the south temperate zone and is predom
Latin America
Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere where Romance languages such as Spanish and French are predominantly spoken. The term "Latin America" was first used in an 1856 conference with the title "Initiative of the America. Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics", by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao; the term was used by Napoleon III's French government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to consider French-speaking territories in the Americas, along with the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed, including the Spanish-speaking portions of the United States Today, areas of Canada and the United States where Spanish and French are predominant are not included in definitions of Latin America. Latin America consists of 13 dependencies and 20 countries which cover an area that stretches from the northern border of Mexico to the southern tip of South America, including the Caribbean, it has an area of 19,197,000 km2 13% of the Earth's land surface area.
As of 2016, its population was estimated at more than 639 million and in 2014, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of US$5,573,397 million and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD. The idea that a part of the Americas has a linguistic affinity with the Romance cultures as a whole can be traced back to the 1830s, in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas was inhabited by people of a "Latin race", that it could, ally itself with "Latin Europe" overlapping the Latin Church, in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe", "Anglo-Saxon America" and "Slavic Europe". Further investigations of the concept of Latin America are by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review, the studies of Leslie Bethell, the monograph by Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, Latin America: The Allure and Power of an Idea. Historian John Leddy Phelan (located the origins of “Latin America” in the French occupation of Mexico, his argument is that French imperialists used the concept of "Latin" America as a way to counter British imperialism, as well as to challenge the German threat to France.
The idea of a "Latin race" was taken up by Latin American intellectuals and political leaders of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, who no longer looked to Spain or Portugal as cultural models, but rather to France. French ruler Napoleon III had a strong interest in extending French commercial and political power in the region he and his business promoter Felix Belly called “Latin America” to emphasize the shared Latin background of France with the former colonies of Spain and Portugal; this led to Napoleon's failed attempt to take military control of Mexico in the 1860s. However, though Phelan thesis is still mentioned in the U. S. academy, two Latin American historians, the Uruguayan Arturo Ardao and the Chilean Miguel Rojas Mix proved decades ago that the term "Latin America" was used earlier than Phelan claimed, the first use of the term was opposite to support imperialist projects in the Americas. Ardao wrote about this subject in his book Génesis de la idea y el nombre de América latina, Miguel Rojas Mix in his article "Bilbao y el hallazgo de América latina: Unión continental, socialista y libertaria".
As Michel Gobat reminds in his article "The Invention of Latin America: A Transnational History of Anti-Imperialism and Race", "Arturo Ardao, Miguel Rojas Mix, Aims McGuinness have revealed the term'Latin America' had been used in 1856 by Central and South Americans protesting U. S. expansion into the Southern Hemisphere". Edward Shawcross summarizes Ardao's and Rojas Mix's findings in the following way: "Ardao identified the term in a poem by a Colombian diplomat and intellectual resident in France, José María Torres Caicedo, published on 15 February 1857 in a French based Spanish-language newspaper, while Rojas Mix located it in a speech delivered in France by the radical liberal Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao in June 1856". So, regarding when the words "Latin" and "America" were combined for the first time in a printed work, the term "Latin America" was first used in 1856 in a conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao in Paris; the conference had the title "Initiative of the America.
Idea for a Federal Congress of Republics." The following year the Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo used the term in his poem "The Two Americas". Two events related with the U. S. played a central role in both works. The first event happened less than a decade before the publication of Bilbao's and Torres Caicedo works: the Mexican–American War, after which Mexico lost a third of its territory; the second event, the Walker affair, happened the same year both works were written: the decision by U. S. president Franklin Pierce to recognize the regime established in Nicaragua by American William Walker and his band of filibusters who ruled Nicaragua for nearly a year and attempted to reinstate slavery there, where it had been abolished for three decades In both Bilbao's and Torres Caicedo's works, the Mexican-American War and Walker's expedition to Nicaragua are explicitly mentioned as examples of dangers for the region. For Bilbao, "Latin America" w
Seasoning
Seasoning is the process of adding salt, herbs, or spices to food to enhance the flavour. Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves referred to as "seasonings". However, Larousse Gastronomique states that "to season and to flavour are not the same thing", insisting that seasoning includes a large or small amount of salt being added to a preparation. Salt may be used to draw out water, or to magnify a natural flavour of a food making it richer or more delicate, depending on the dish; this type of procedure is akin to curing. For instance, sea salt is rubbed into chicken and beef to tenderize the meat and improve flavour. Other seasonings like black pepper and basil transfer some of their flavour to the food. A well designed dish may combine seasonings. In addition to the choice of herbs and seasoning, the timing of when flavours are added will affect the food, being cooked. In some cultures, meat may be seasoned by pouring seasoning sauce over the dish at the table. A variety of seasoning techniques exist in various cultures.
Infused oils are used for seasoning. There are two methods for doing an infusion -- cold. Olive oil makes a good infusion base for some herbs, but tends to go rancid more than other oils. Infused oils should be kept refrigerated. In Le Guide culinaire, Auguste Escoffier divides seasoning and condiments into the following groups: Saline seasonings—Salt, spiced salt, saltpeter. Acid seasonings—Plain vinegar, or same aromatized with tarragon. Hot seasonings—Peppercorns, ground or coarsely chopped pepper, or mignonette pepper. Saccharine seasonings—Sugar, honey. Spice seasonings -- made by using essential oils like paprika, cloves etc.. The pungents—onions, garlic and horseradish. Hot condiments—Mustard, capers, English sauces, such as Worcestershire sauce, Baron Green Seasoning, Harvey's Sauce, etc. and American sauces such as chili sauce, Tabasco, A1 Steak Sauce, etc.. Fatty substances—Most animal fats, vegetable greases. Condiment Flavor List of culinary herbs and spices List of spice mixes Popcorn seasoning
Maize
Maize known as corn, is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The leafy stalk of the plant produces pollen inflorescences and separate ovuliferous inflorescences called ears that yield kernels or seeds, which are fruits. Maize has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat or rice. However, little of this maize is consumed directly by humans: most is used for corn ethanol, animal feed and other maize products, such as corn starch and corn syrup; the six major types of maize are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, flour corn, sweet corn. Maize is the most grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol. Genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are grown for human consumption as kernels, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, various corn-based human food uses, as chemical feedstocks.
Maize is used in making ethanol and other biofuels. Most historians believe. Recent research in the early 21st century has modified this view somewhat. An influential 2002 study by Matsuoka et al. has demonstrated that, rather than the multiple independent domestications model, all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The study demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths; this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Archaeologist Dolores Piperno has said: A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since even earlier dates have been published. According to a genetic study by Embrapa, corn cultivation was introduced in South America from Mexico, in two great waves: the first, more than 6000 years ago, spread through the Andes.
Evidence of cultivation in Peru has been found dating to about 6700 years ago. The second wave, about 2000 years ago, through the lowlands of South America. Before domestication, maize plants grew only small, 25 millimetres long corn cobs, only one per plant. In Spielvogel's view, many centuries of artificial selection by the indigenous people of the Americas resulted in the development of maize plants capable of growing several cobs per plant, which were several centimetres/inches long each; the Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica. It was believed. Research of the 21st century has established earlier dates; the region developed a trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Mapuches of south-central Chile cultivated maize along with quinoa and potatoes in Pre-Hispanic times, however potato was the staple food of most Mapuches, "specially in the southern and coastal territories where maize did not reach maturity". Before the expansion of the Inca Empire maize was traded and transported as far south as 40°19' S in Melinquina, Lácar Department.
In that location maize remains were found inside pottery dated to 730 ±80 BP and 920 ±60 BP. This maize was brought across the Andes from Chile; the presence of maize in Guaitecas Archipelago, which constitute southernmost outspost of Pre-Hispanic agriculture, is reported by early Spanish explorers. However the Spanish may have misidentified the plant. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe and introduced it to other countries. Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into the body of Christ; some Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, they would weaken and risk turning into Indians. "In the view of Europeans, it was the food they ate more than the environment in which they lived, that gave Amerindians and Spaniards both their distinctive physical characteristics and their characteristic personalities."
Despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize. Archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates, it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for mahiz, it is known by other names around the world. The word "corn" outside North America and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, its meaning understood to vary geographically to refer to the local staple. In the United Stat
New Orleans
New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the U. S. state of Louisiana. With an estimated population of 393,292 in 2017, it is the most populous city in Louisiana. A major port, New Orleans is considered an economic and commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast region of the United States. New Orleans is world-renowned for its distinct music, Creole cuisine, unique dialect, its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras; the historic heart of the city is the French Quarter, known for its French and Spanish Creole architecture and vibrant nightlife along Bourbon Street. The city has been described as the "most unique" in the United States, owing in large part to its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. Founded in 1718 by French colonists, New Orleans was once the territorial capital of French Louisiana before being traded to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. New Orleans in 1840 was the third-most populous city in the United States, it was the largest city in the American South from the Antebellum era until after World War II.
The city's location and flat elevation have made it vulnerable to flooding. State and federal authorities have installed a complex system of levees and drainage pumps in an effort to protect the city. New Orleans was affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which resulted in flooding more than 80% of the city, thousands of deaths, so much displacement because of damaged communities and lost housing as to cause a population decline of over 50%. Since Katrina, major redevelopment efforts have led to a rebound in the city's population. Concerns about gentrification, new residents buying property in closely knit communities, displacement of longtime residents have been expressed; the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. As of 2017, Orleans Parish is the third most-populous parish in Louisiana, behind East Baton Rouge Parish and neighboring Jefferson Parish; the city and parish are bounded by St. Tammany Parish and Lake Pontchartrain to the north, St. Bernard Parish and Lake Borgne to the east, Plaquemines Parish to the south, Jefferson Parish to the south and west.
The city anchors the larger New Orleans metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 1,275,762 in 2017. It is the most populous metropolitan area in Louisiana and the 46th-most populated MSA in the United States; the city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723. It has many illustrative nicknames: Crescent City alludes to the course of the Lower Mississippi River around and through the city; the Big Easy was a reference by musicians in the early 20th century to the relative ease of finding work there. It may have originated in the Prohibition era, when the city was considered one big speakeasy due to the government's inability to control alcohol sales, in open violation of the 18th Amendment; the City that Care Forgot has been used since at least 1938, refers to the outwardly easy-going, carefree nature of the residents. La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded in the Spring of 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha.
It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans; the French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, following France's defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War. During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Beginning in the 1760s, Filipinos began to settle around New Orleans. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez launched a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. Nueva Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted to French rule. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, notably excepting the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew with influxes of Americans, French and Africans.
Immigrants were Irish, Germans and Italians. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on nearby large plantations. Thousands of refugees from the 1804 Haitian Revolution, both whites and free people of color, arrived in New Orleans. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free black people, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population; as more refugees were allowed into the Territory of Orleans, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba arrived. Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in retaliation for Bonapartist schemes. Nearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans; the 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color, 3,226 slaves of African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina's 53 percent. During the final campaign of the War of 1812, the British sent a force of 11,000 in a
Feijoada
Feijoada is a stew of beans with beef and pork of Brazilian origin. It is prepared in Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Timor, Goa and Brazil, where it is considered a national dish. However, the recipe differs from one country to another; the name comes from feijão, Portuguese for "beans". The basic ingredients of feijoada are beans with fresh beef. In Brazil, it is made with black beans; the stew is best prepared over low heat in a thick clay pot. It is served with rice and assorted sausages such as chouriço, morcela and others, which may or may not be cooked in the stew; the practice of cooking a meat stew with vegetables that gave origin to the feijoada from the Minho Province in Northern Portugal is a millenary Mediterranean tradition that can be traced back to the period when the Romans colonized Iberia. Roman soldiers would bring this habit to every Latin settlement, i.e. all of the provinces of Romania, the Vulgar Latin speaking area of Europe, this heritage is the source of many national and regional dishes of today's Europe, such as the French cassoulet, the Milanese cassoeula from Lombardy, the Romanian fasole cu cârnați, the fabada asturiana from Northwestern Spain, the Spanish cocido madrileño and olla podrida, not to mention non-Romanic regions with similar traditions that might be derived from this millennial Roman soldiers' dish like the Polish tsholem and golonka.
Fasolada, labeled the Greek national dish is related to the ancient Greek dish of broad beans and grains, with no meat, unlike the Italian fagiolata and the Portuguese feijoada, used as food and sacrifice to Greek God Apollo during the Pyanopsia festival. Many modern variants of the dish are based on feijoada recipes popularized in the Brazilian regions of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salvador. In Brazil, feijoada is considered a national dish. Registered for the first time in Recife, state of Pernambuco, feijoada has been described as a national dish of Brazil of Rio de Janeiro, as other parts of Brazil have other regional dishes; the Brazilian version of feijoada is prepared with black beans, a variety of salted pork or beef products, such as pork trimmings, smoked pork ribs, at least two types of smoked sausage and jerked beef. In some regions of the northeast, like Bahia and Sergipe, vegetables like cabbage, potatoes, okra, pumpkin and sometimes banana are added, at the end of the cooking, on top of the meat, so they are cooked by the vapors of the beans and meat stew.
The final dish has the beans and meat pieces covered by a dark purplish-brown broth. The taste is strong, moderately salty but not spicy, dominated by the flavors of black bean and meat stew, it is customary to serve it with white rice and oranges, the latter to help with digestion, as well as stir-fried, chopped collard greens and manioc flour. Feijão com arroz is black beans without the addition of the meat. Depending on the region of Brazil, the type of bean used in feijoada varies. While in some regions like Rio de Janeiro or Minas Gerais, feijoada is prepared with black beans, others in Goias and Bahia brown or red is preferred; as a celebratory dish, feijoada is traditionally served on Saturday afternoons or Sunday lunch and intended to be a leisurely midday meal. It is meant to be enjoyed throughout the day and not eaten under rushed circumstances; the meal is eaten among extended family and paired with an event like watching a soccer game or other social event. Because of the dish's heavy ingredients and rich flavors, feijoada is viewed as Brazilian soul food.
In the city of São Paulo, feijoada is a common dish on restaurants on Wednesdays in the commercial area. In Rio de Janeiro, restaurants traditionally serve it on Fridays; the dish is served with a choice among a selection of meats, e.g. pork, pig ears, pig feet, to fulfill the customer`s needs. Other variations of feijoada, such as the low fat version or the vegetarian; the dish is compared to American Southern Soul Food which share many similarities in terms of ingredients and taste. According to legend, the origins of Brazil’s national dish, stem from the country’s history with slavery. Slaves would craft this hearty dish out of black beans and pork leftovers given to them from their households; these leftovers included pig feet, ears and other portions seen as unfit for the master and his family. However, this theory has been contested and considered more of a modern advertising technique for the dish rather than a basis for its origins. Instead, scholars argue that the history of feijoada traces back to Brazil’s cultivation of black beans.
Because of the crop’s low cost of production and the simplicity of its maintenance, the beans became a staple food among European settlers in Brazil. Although black beans were eaten by both the upper-classes and the poor, the upper-classes enjoyed them with an assortment of meat and vegetables, similar to feijoada, while the poor and enslaved ate a mixture of black beans and manioc flour. Cassoeula Cassoulet Rice and beans Fabada Asturiana Fasole cu cârnați List of Portuguese dishes List of Brazilian dishes List of stews
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in the southern region of Brazil. According to the Index of Economic Well-Being calculated between 2002 and 2008, Santa Catarina was the Brazilian state that showed the highest economic well-being in relation to any other state in Brazil. Florianópolis, the state capital lies on Santa Catarina Island, while Joinville is Santa Catarina's largest city and a major industrial and business center in Brazil. Neighboring states are Rio Grande do Sul to Paraná to the north, it is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west it borders the province of Misiones, Argentina. The beaches along the coast of Santa Catarina are a great summer attraction. Florianópolis, the capital, has one of the highest HDI among Brazilian cities. Florianopolis beaches attract a large flow of foreign tourists during the summer month. There are several daily direct flights between Florianopolis, Buenos Aires and Santiago throughout the summer months. Tourists from Northern Argentina and Paraguay drive into the state - about a 10-hour drive.
The mountain ridge region of the state, centered around São Joaquim and Urupema, becomes an attraction during winter due to its low temperatures and snow over its green canyons. Blumenau, in the Itajai Valley in Northeast Santa Catarina, is the stage to the largest beer festival in Brazil Southern Region, which possess a strong direct influence from Bavarian culture: the Oktoberfest of Blumenau, a traditional beer party/festival that originated in the 19th century, is the second largest such festival in the world, behind only the one held in Munich. Joinville is a major industrial and tech industry center in Brazil. Joinville's metro area is one of the fastest growing regions in Brazil. Joinville is home to the Joinville Dance Festival, the largest dance event in Brazil, held in the month of July Joinville is home to the only branch of the worldly famous Bolshoi Dance Company With a strong reputation for the strength of its industrial output, Joinville has been changing its focus to the service and educational services - Joinville has become a major college center in the past decade.
Balneario Camboriu is a major beach resort city between Joinville. It has been nicknamed the Brazilian Dubai, as it keeps on building the tallest residential buildings in Brazil; some of the most expensive apartment buildings in Brazil are becoming the norm in this popular summer beach resort. Santa Catarina was one of the few states in Brazil, populated by a settlement program of immigrants coming from every European nation in the 1800s when Brazil had a strong policy of allowing immigrants from Northern Europe to settle in areas of the country that the government at the time deemed in need of settlers. People of German and Austrian descent make up the largest ethnic group among the population of Santa Catarina, at around 50% - with a considerable portion still speaking the German language. Speakers of Venetian Italian make up the third most spoken mother tongue, after Portuguese and assorted German dialects; the state's social indicators are among the best in Latin America, being the Brazilian state with the third highest level of median income, besides exhibiting high levels of education and public health, one of the lowest rates of illiteracy.
Santa Catarina boasts Brazil's highest average life expectancy and lowest homicide rate in addition to lower levels of corruption. The cities of the state are considered some of the most livable in the country, enjoying a reputation of being "clean and organized". Despite the high standard of living, unemployment is still high and according to data census it's one of the most difficult states in Brazil for foreigners finding jobs. Santa Catarina is in a strategic position in Mercosul, the South American Common Market, its position in the map is situated between the parallel 25º57'41" and 29º23'55" of the Southern latitude and between the meridians 48º19'37" and 53º50'00" of Western longitude. Florianópolis, its capital, is 1,673 km from Brasilia, 705 km from São Paulo, 1,144 km from Rio de Janeiro and 1,850 km from Buenos Aires; the Serra Geral, a southern extension of the Serra do Mar, runs north and south through the state parallel to the Atlantic coast, dividing the state between a narrow coastal plain and a larger plateau region to the west.
The Atlantic coast of Santa Catarina has many beaches, bays and lagoons. The humid tropical Serra do Mar coastal forests cover the narrow coastal zone, crossed by numerous short streams from the wooded slopes of the serras; the central part of the state is home to the Araucaria moist forests, dominated by emergent Brazilian pines. The drainage of the plateau is westward to the Paraná River, the rivers being tributaries of the Iguaçu, which forms its northern boundary, of the Uruguay River, which forms its southern boundary; the semi-deciduous Paraná-Paraíba interior forests occupy the westernmost valleys of the Iguaçu and Uruguay rivers. The highest point of the state is the Morro da Boa Vista, with an altitude of 1,827 m, the second highest point is the Morro da Igreja, in the town of Urubici, with an altitude of 1,822 m. See also: History of Santa Catarina European settlement began with the Spanish settlement of Santa Catarina island in 1542; the Portuguese took control in 1675 and established the captaincy of Santa Catarina in 1738, bringing families from the Azores to populate the shore.
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