Леополдина: история и современность бразильского муниципалитета

Brazilian municipality
Leopoldina is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. It belongs to the Zona da Mata mesoregion and it located 322 kilometers southeast of Belo Horizonte, the state capital. In 2022, its estimated population was 51 145 inhabitants, according to IBGE. Its territory covers an area of 943 km2. The municipal headquarters has an average annual temperature of 21°C and the vegetation is predominantly Atlantic forest. Regarding the automobile fleet, 16,575 vehicles were registered in 2012. The municipality's Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.726, classified as high. Currently it is formed by the headquarters and the districts of Abaíba, Piacatuba, Providência, Ribeiro Junqueira and Tebas. The city, during the coffee cycle, was one of the most important in the former province of Minas Gerais. With the great economic crisis of 1929, the economy of the municipalities of Minas Gerais linked to coffee growing suffered a great impact. Nowadays, its economy is based on dairy farming, rice cultivation and the service sector.

The toponym is a tribute to the second daughter of Emperor D. Pedro II, Princess Leopoldina de Bragança e Bourbon. The name was chosen when the town became politically emancipated from the municipality of Mar de Espanha in 1854. Before that, the area was a district called São Sebastião do Feijão Cru, in reference to both the patron saint of the place and the stream that crosses the territory.

At the end of the 18th century, the gold production of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais went into decline. Some families left the villages in search of fertile land in other parts of the captaincy. They reached the forbidden areas of colonization, then known as Sertões do Leste, an extensive strip of Atlantic forest that extended from the Paraibuna River and the Royal Road to the Doce River; later, this region became known as the Zona da Mata. In 1813, the first sesmarias in the territory of the current municipality, which belonged to the term of Barbacena, comarca of Rio das Mortes, were donated. However, the oldest references of residents date back to 1824. The first explorers established themselves with their families on the banks of the Feijão Cru Stream, where a troopers' settlement began to develop near a small chapel made of wattle and daub, erected in 1831 by farmers Francisco Pinheiro de Lacerda and Joaquim Ferreira Brito and dedicated to Saint Sebastian. Until the arrival of the first landowners, the region was inhabited by the Puri indigenous people. These groups were entrusted with certain services, such as clearing the forest and harvesting the ipecacuanha, for which they were paid with cachaça. A considerable part of the Puri population was killed by the diseases brought by the invaders, such as measles, and the other part was expelled and had to leave for the province of Espírito Santo; by 1865, there were practically no indigenous people left in the area. In 1831, the district of São Sebastião do Feijão Cru was created, as part of the municipality of São Manuel do Pomba, now Rio Pomba. In 1851, the district was transferred to the territory of Mar de Espanha, from which it was emancipated by provincial law No. 666 of April 27, 1854, creating the municipality of Vila Leopoldina. The formation of the village began around the Rosário Square, from where the streets of Rosário (now Tiradentes Street), Direita (now Gabriel Magalhães Street) and Riachuelo (now Joaquim Ferreira Brito Street) left, constituting the oldest roads in the city.

Coffee growing developed in the province of Rio de Janeiro crossed the Paraíba do Sul river and spread into the Zona da Mata through the valleys of the Paraibuna, Pirapetinga and Pomba rivers, leading to a fast growth of the area in the second half of the 19th century. Vila Leopoldina was elevated to the category of city by provincial law No. 1116 of October 16, 1861. At that time, Latin and French were already taught in the locality. In 1872, by provincial law no. 1867, Leopoldina became the seat of a district. On September 2, 1906, in the district of Piacatuba, the cornerstone of Mauricio Hydroelectric Power Plant was laid, the first hydroelectric power plant built in the region, to exploit the hydraulic potential of the Cachoeira da Fumaça, on the Novo River. Two years later, on July 16, 1908, the electric power arrived in the city. Also in 1906, the Leopoldinense Gymnasium was founded, which from 1912 onwards offered technical education at the Agricultural School and higher education at the School of Pharmacy and Dentistry. Between 1911 and 1912, the Banco Ribeiro Junqueira and the Zonna da Matta construction company were founded in the town. The coffee crisis at the beginning of the 20th century, however, caused serious changes in the economy of the Zona da Mata and the municipality, which began to rely on dairy farming and rice cultivation. In the period between the First Republic and the military coup of 1964, some political leaders of Leopoldina achieved projection in Minas Gerais and Brazil, such as Senator Ribeiro Junqueira, Governor Clóvis Salgado and President Carlos Luz. The Rio Bahia Highway, inaugurated in 1963, benefited the industrialization of the municipality and strengthened it as a communications junction. About 80% of the municipality has topography ranging from undulating to hilly and only 20% classified as plain. The altitude of the municipal headquarters is 225 meters; Alto de Santa Úrsula, the highest point of the municipality, has an altitude of 712 meters.

The climate of Leopoldina is tropical (type Aw according to Köppen), with an average annual temperature of around 21 °C, dry and mild winters and rainy summers with moderately high temperatures. The warmest months are January, February and March, with an average maximum temperature of 29 °C; in February 2003, a peak temperature of 35 °C was recorded. July is the coldest month, with an average minimum temperature of 12 °C; in July 2003, a low of 9 °C was recorded. The average annual rainfall is 1,307 mm. The highest rainfall is recorded in the period from October to March, with the winter months characterized by drought. On average, July is the driest month, when only 14.2 mm are recorded, and December is the wettest month, with an average of 277.1 mm.

The native vegetation of the municipality is the seasonal semideciduous forest, a part of the Atlantic forest biome, which has been severely deforested. Currently, the seasonal forest occupies an area of 7144 hectares in the territory. Today, most of Leopoldina's area is covered by fields and pastures, which occupy 79,308 hectares. It has two environmental conservation units: the Antônio Andrade Ribeiro Municipal Park, with an area of 31.93 hectares, and the Lapinha Biological Reserve, with 368 hectares.

In 2010, the population of Leopoldina was estimated by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) at 51,136 inhabitants, with a population density of 54.27 inhabitants per km2. According to the 2010 census, 47.99% of the population were men (24 545 inhabitants), 52.01% women (26 591 inhabitants), 89.39% (45 712 inhabitants) lived in the urban area and 10.61% (5 424 inhabitants) in the rural area. Also according to the IBGE, Leopoldina had 37 685 voters in 2006. The current mayor of the city is Pedro Augusto Junqueira Ferraz (PL), elected with 31.30% of the valid votes (8,926 votes). The legislative branch is made up of the Chamber of Deputies, composed of 15 councillors elected for four year terms. Leopoldina is also the seat of a comarca, whose territory also includes the municipalities of Recreio and Argirita.

According to the territorial division of the Catholic Church, Leopoldina has been the seat of a diocese since 1942, whose episcopal see is the Cathedral of St. Sebastian. There are seven parishes in the municipality, four of which are located in the headquarters (Saint Sebastian, Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Joseph and Saint Benedict), one in Piacatuba (Our Lady of Mercy), one in Tebas (Saint Anthony) and one in Providência (Saint Anthony). The municipality also has temples of other religions, such as evangelical churches. According to information from the 2010 census, conducted by IBGE, most of the population of Leopoldina declares itself Catholic (71.46%), followed by evangelicals (16.62%), spiritists (3.71%), no religion (6.01%) and the rest belonging to other religions. Among the evangelicals, the largest share declared themselves linked to the Assembly of God (4.12%), followed by the Church of the Foursquare Gospel (1.30%) and the Methodist Church (1.14%).