Sertãozinho

Sister cities

• Mendoza

History

In 1877, a settlement at Sertãozinho was founded on of land belonging to local farming estates. The land holders involved included Antonio Pedroso Malachi, Antonio Jose Rodrigues, Manoel Jacinto Bridge and Father Chico of Africa. Malachi, whose estate was called "Vila Nossa Senhora Aparecida", donated about of land which was divided amongst tenant farmers. He built a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (located at 21 de Abril Plaza). On 10 March 1885, under law 31, the village was made a district of peace. On 5 December 1896, the village was made a town and named Ali Sertãozinho by law 463. This was ratified on 21 April 1897. On 26 October 1906, under law 1018, the district was founded and ratified on 12 December 1906. The name of the municipality has changed over time, including, Capela de Sertãozinho, Engenho de Nossa Senhora Aparecida do Sertaozinho, Aparecida de Sertãozinho, and its current name, Sertãozinho. The first municipal magistrate was Renato Silveira da Motta. For many years, the main industry of the municipality was coffee production. However, the coffee fields became exhausted and the land was sold to colonos (former colonists) and investors who planted cotton. By 1920, Sertãozinho was one of the top ten cotton producing areas in Brazil. In 1928, although union membership was illegal in Brazil, communist entities organised dissident workers on the larger coffee plantations in Sertãozinho. In the 1930s, traditional labour was replaced by gangs of labourers for hire, organised by labour contractors and communists. After World War II, cotton crops became less profitable and sugar cane was planted in Sertaozinho. In the 1960s, Sertaozinho was again a center of conflicted labour relations in Brazil when sugar cane cutters and mill workers…

Geography

Sertãozinho is located about 20 km to the west of the town of Ribeirão Preto in the northern part of the state of São Paulo. The area of Sertãozinho is 418,803 km2 in total, metropolitan 265 km2 and rural 253,118 km2. Sertãozinho is approximately from the state capital, São Paulo.