Aracruz is the name of a municipality and its capital on the central eastern coast of Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Its population was 72,283 (2005) and its area is 1,436 km².

History

The municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

's history begins in 1556, when two Jesuit 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

Jacaranda

Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It is also found in Asia, especially in Nepal...

wood, and Sauaçu held most of the wood processing 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

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 and cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

 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

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

. Those went on to found Nova Trento Colony.

Population

Today Aracruz is home to roughly 1500 Amerindians 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 local paper industry greatly prolonged their land struggles. Those Indians are of two tribes: the Tupiniquim

Tupiniquim

Tupiniquim is the name of an Amerindian tribe who now only live in three reservations . All three are located in the municipality of Aracruz in northern Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil. As of 1997 their population was 1,386...

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