Northeast Region

The Northeast Region of Brazil is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. For the socio-geographic area see Nordeste (socio-geographic division). Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises nine: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, along with the Fernando de Noronha archipelago (formerly a separate territory, now part of Pernambuco).

Chiefly known as Nordeste ("Northeast") in Brazil, this region was the first to be discovered and colonized by the Portuguese and other European peoples, playing a crucial role in the country's history. Nordeste's dialects and rich culture, including its folklore, cuisines, music and literature, became the most easily distinguishable across the country. To this day, Nordeste is widely recognized for its history and culture, as well as for its beautiful natural sights and its hot weather.

Nordeste stretches from the Atlantic seaboard in the northeast and southeast, northwest and west to the Amazon Basin and south through the Espinhaço highlands in southern Bahia. It encloses the São Francisco River and drainage basin, which were instrumental in the exploration, settlement and economic development of the region. The region lies entirely within the earth's tropical zone and encompasses Caatinga, Atlantic Forest and part of the Cerrado ecoregions. The climate is hot and semi-arid, varying from xeric in Caatinga, to mesic in Cerrado and hydric in the Atlantic Forest.

The Northeast Region represents 18% of Brazilian territory, has a population of 53.6 million people, 28% of the total population of the country, and contributes 13.4% (2011) of Brazil's GDP. Nearly three quarters of the population live in urban areas clustered along the Atlantic coast and about 15 million people live in the hinterland. It is an impoverished region: 58% of the population lives in poverty, defined as less than $2/day.

Each of the states' capitals are also its largest cities, and they include Recife, Salvador, Fortaleza and São Luís, all lying on the Atlantic coast, each with a population above a million inhabitants.

Nordeste has nine international airports , and the region has the second largest number of passengers (roughly 20%) in Brazil.

Geography and climate

Zona da Mata ("Forest Zone")

Further information: Atlantic Forest

The Zona da Mata comprises the rainsforest zones of Nordeste (part of the Atlantic Forest or Mata Atlântica) in the humid eastern coast, where the region's largest capital cities are also located. The forest area was much larger before suffering from centuries of deforestation and exploration. For many years, sugar cane cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazil's economy, being superseded only when coffee production developed in the late 19th century. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had and maintain tremendous political influence.

Agreste

Since the escarpment does not generate any further rainfall on its slopes from the lifting of the trade winds, annual rainfall decreases steadily inland. After a relatively short distance, there is no longer enough rainfall to support tropical rainforest, especially since the rainfall is extremely erratic from year to year. This transitional zone is known as the agreste and because it is located on the steep escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. Today, with irrigation water available, however, the agreste, as its name suggest, is a major farming region despite containing no major city, contains well developed medium large cities such as Caruaru, Campina Grande and Arapiraca.

Sertão ("Backlands")

In Portuguese, the word sertão (Portuguese pronunciation: [sehˈtɐ̃w̃], meaning "backcountry" or "outback") first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia and South America that Lusitanian explorers encountered. In Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century.

Geographically, the Sertão consists mainly of low uplands that form part of the Brazilian Highlands. Most parts of the sertão are between 200 and 500 meters above sea level, with higher elevations found on the eastern edge in the Planalto da Borborema, where it merges into a sub-humid region known as agreste, in the Serra da Ibiapaba in western Ceará and in the Serro do Periquito of central Pernambuco. In the north, the Sertão extends to the northern coastal plains of Rio Grande do Norte state, whilst in the south it fades out in the northern fringe of Minas Gerais.

Because the Sertão lies close to the equator, temperatures remain nearly uniform throughout the year and are typically tropical, often extremely hot in the west. However, the sertão is distinctive in its low rainfall compared to other areas of Brazil. Because of the relatively cool temperatures in the South Atlantic Ocean, the intertropical convergence zone remains north of the region for most of the year, so that most of the year is very dry.

Although annual rainfall averages between 500 and 800 millimeters over most of the sertão and 1300 millimeters on the northern coast at Fortaleza, it is confined to a short rainy season. This season extends from January to April in the west, but in the eastern sertão it generally occurs from March to June. However, rainfall is extremely erratic and in some years the rains are minimal, leading to catastrophic drought.

Meio-Norte ("Midnorth")

Meio-Norte is a transition area between the high rainfalls region of Amazon Rainforest and the semi arid region of Sertão (hot and drought) covering the state of Maranhão and half of Piaui.

Hydrology

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2014)

The Northeast region comprises the drainage basins of the Rio Sao Francisco, Piaui-Caninde and Parnaiba Rivers.

Geology and topography

Geographically, Nordeste consists chiefly of an eroded continental craton with many low hills and small ranges. The highest peaks are around 1,850 metres (6,070 ft) in Bahia, while further north there are no peaks above 1,123 metres (3,684 ft). On its northern and western side, the plateaus fall steadily to the coast and into the basin of the Tocantins River in Maranhão, but on the eastern side it falls off quite sharply to the coast except in the valley of the São Francisco river. The steep slopes and long cliffs of the eastern coastline are known as "The Great Escarpment".

The escarpment serves an extremely important climatic function. Because for most of the year Nordeste is out of reach of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the easterly trade winds blow across the region, giving abundant rainfall to the coast but producing clear, dry conditions inland where the escarpment blocks moisture flow. This gives rise to four distinct regions, the zona da mata on the coast, the agreste on the escarpment, sertão beyond and the Mid north.

Converse

Summary of threats

• Deforestation
• Degradation of Mangroves and Restingas
• Poaching and Animal Trading
• Infrastructure
• Dams
• Mining
• Tourism Development
• Introduction of Alien Species

History

Nordeste was primarily inhabited by indigenous peoples, mostly speaking languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, who, before the colonial era, helped Europeans with the extraction of brazilwood from the coastal rainforest (or mata atlântica) in exchange for spices. But as colonization and commercial interest intensified in the region the number of Indians became drastically reduced due to the constant battles with the owners of the large sugar mills. Conflicts arose because the settlers had displaced the native inhabitants and then tried to enslave them as labor in the fields. The Portuguese colonials then considered the idea of importing black African slaves to use as manual labor. To this day culture in Northeast Brazil remains fully permeated by this African influence.

Nordeste was the first area of discovery in Brazil, when roughly 1,500 Portuguese arrived on April 22, 1500, under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral at Porto Seguro, in the state of Bahia.

The coast of Nordeste was the stage for the first economic activity of the country, namely the extraction and export of pau Brasil, or brazilwood. Brazilwood was highly valued in Europe where it was used to make violin bows (especially the Pau de Pernambuco variety) and for the red dye it produced. Countries like France, which disagreed with the Treaty of Tordesillas (a papal bull decreed by the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI in 1493 which sought to divide South America between the Spanish and the Portuguese), launched many attacks on the coast to steal the wood.

French colonists not only tried to settle in present-day Rio de Janeiro, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique episode), but also in present-day São Luís, from 1612 to 1614 (the so-called France Equinoxiale). The Dutch, also opposed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, plundered Nordeste's coast, sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured Salvador. From 1630 to 1654 the Dutch set up more permanently in Nordeste and controlled a long stretch of coast that was most accessible to Europe without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil were in a constant siege despite the presence in Recife of the great[peacock term] John Maurice of Nassau as governor.

Slave resistance began during the colonial era, in the 17th century, and eventually led to the formation of quilombos, or settlements of runaway and free-born African slaves. The Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest and most well-known of these settlements, was founded around 1600 in the Serra da Barriga hills, in the present state of Alagoas. Palmares, at the height of its power, was an independent, self-sustaining republic, hosting a population of over 30,000 free African men, women and children. There were over 200 buildings in the community, a church, four smithies, and a council house. Although Palmares managed to defend itself from the Dutch military and the Portuguese colonials for several decades, it was finally taken and destroyed and its leader Zumbi dos Palmares was captured and beheaded. His head was then displayed in a public plaza in Recife.

Besides being Brazil’s main sea port, Brazil's center of the African slave trade, a center of the sugar industry, and the seat of the first Catholic bishop of Brazil (in 1552) the city of Salvador was also the first general seat of government in Brazil as it is strategically located in the center of the eastern coast of the country. The government in Salvador sought to centralize power in an effort to support the various captaincies, geographical subdivisions that preceded the present states of Brazil, which at this time were in a state of crisis. Salvador remained the colonial capital until 1763 when it was succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era.

This section is missing information about one and a half centuries history from 1763-1922. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (January 2014)

Cangaceiros

Independent armed groups emerged in the Brazilian Northeast, which used guerrilla tactics to fight and were wanting to avenge crimes against family members or friends as well as fight for food and ammunition to their members, and often working for landlords who evicted the workers of the estates that reacted against exploitation in the county.

They were formed by people of humble origin, usually from the field, under the leadership of a chief who imposed their own concept of morality, honor, justice and piety.[unreliable source?]

Gangs were pursuing isolated goals, sometimes even fighting among themselves, and had its heyday between 1922 and 1930, when terror spread throughout the semi-arid Northeast and were chased by troops from seven states; Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará, the officials even using airplanes in repeated, unsuccessful, search attempts.

In the struggle to capture the leader of the most feared of these bands, Virgolino Ferreira da Silva, Lampião, the Brazilian government went on to publish wanted posters promising 50,000,000 réis to whoever brought in Lampião "dead or alive."

Deeply knowledgeable of the caatinga, the gangs had support from local farmers, politicians, peasants and priests, not only for fear of the bandits, but for need of their services. The rank of Captain Virgolino Ferreira, for example, was given by Father Cícero do Juazeiro.

Besides Lampião, other bandits and outlaws have also become myths in the Northeast, outlaws like Antônio Silvino Corisco, o Diabo Louro, (the Blond Devil). The entry of women into banditry happened in 1930 when Maria Bonita became fellow Cangaceiro and followed Lampião's gang. Although the highwaymen took momentum in the early 1920s, the existence of armed groups in the Northeast comes from colonial times.

And one of the first of outlaws ever heard was The Cabeleira, in the second half of the 18th century, was active in rural areas close to Recife. According to scholars, one of the factors that contributed to the proliferation of gangs was the great drought that decimated the Northeast in 1877: extreme poverty and hunger caused thousands in the Sertão, (hinterland), with no prospect of survival, to depart for plunder, paving the way for the world of cangaceiros.

Banditry is at the origin in the very form of colonization in the Brazilian Northeast, where, financed by the Crown, the pioneers invaded the Sertão, fell forests, landmarks and paid the gunmen and bandits to eliminate the native populations to react to the occupation of their land.

The private armies maintained by the Northeastern colonels who owned the land since the Captaincies also differed on almost nothing, its methods, the bands of outlaws. The highwaymen was one of the most turbulent and contradictory times in Brazilian history and still comes up in a heated controversy: that the outlaws would have been righteous if they didn't become bloodthirsty bandits.

The end of the cangaceiros took place in 1938, when Lampião's gang was slaughtered, on the banks of the São Francisco River in Angicos, Alagoas. Corisco, o Diabo Louro, survived until 1940, but almost without doing anything to keep the promise to "avenge the death of Lampião."

Religion

Further information: Religion in Brazil

Nordeste has the largest percentage of Roman Catholics of any region of the country.

Culture

Further information: Culture of Brazil

Nordeste has a rich culture, with its unique constructions in the old centers of Salvador, Recife and Olinda, dance (frevo and maracatu), music (axé and forró) and unique cuisine. Dishes particular to the region include carne de sol, farofa, acarajé, vatapá, paçoca, canjica, pamonha, quibebe, bolo de fubá cozido, sururu de capote and many others. Salvador was the first Brazilian capital.

The festival of São João (Saint John), one of the festas juninas, is especially popular in Nordeste, particularly in Caruaru in the state of Pernambuco and Campina Grande in the state of Paraíba. The festival takes place once a year in June. As Nordeste is mostly arid or semi-arid the Nordestinos give thanks to Saint John for the rainfall that typical falls this time of year, which greatly helps the farmers with their crops. And because this time of year also coincides with the corn harvest many regional dishes containing corn, such as canjica, pamonha, and milho verde, have become part of the cultural tradition.

The Bumba-Meu-Boi festival is also popular, especially in the state of Maranhão. During the Bumba-Meu-Bói festival in the city of São Luis do Maranhão and its environs there are many different groups, with elaborate costumes and different styles of music, which are called sotaques: sotaque de orquestra, as the names implies, uses an orchestra of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, banjos, drums, etc.; sotaque de zabumba employs primarily very large drums; and sotaque de matraca, a percussion instrument made of two pieces of wood that you carry in your hands and hit against each other. Some matracas are very large and are carried around the neck.

Many major cities in Nordeste also hold an off-season carnaval (or "micareta"), such as the Carnatal in Natal or the Fortal in Fortaleza. Since its inception in 1991, Carnatal has become the largest off-season carnaval in Brazil. The event takes place once a year, in December, and draws roughly one million participants. The Fortal takes place once every year as well but in the month of July. Held in a stadium called Cidade Fortal, the Fortal is considered the largest indoor off-season carnaval in Brazil.

Celebrities

‹ The template below (Famous) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.› This list of "famous" or "notable" persons has no clear inclusion or exclusion criteria. Please help to define clear inclusion criteria and edit the list to contain only subjects that fit those criteria. (March 2014)

The Northeast of Brazil is home to many notable Brazilians, including 6 former presidents:

Arts & Letters

• Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, author of the most widely Portuguese Dictionary adopted and cited in Brazil;
• Nelson Rodrigues, playwright, author of play Vestido de Noiva (The Wedding Dress)
• Luís da Câmara Cascudo, folklorist
• Jorge Amado, wrote stories of life in state of Bahia
• Gregório de Matos, colonial baroque poet
• José de Alencar, writer from the 19th century,
• Rachel de Queiroz, writer; the first woman to become part of the Academia Brasileira de Letras;
• Ferreira Gullar, poet, one of the founders of Neoconcretismo;
• João Cabral de Melo Neto, writer and poet, whose body of work is a solid reference to the hardships of the local people endures;
• Gonçalves Dias, poet;
• Ariano Suassuna, playwright, which work has been focus of a recent revival, via TV and Cinema adaptations;
• Luiz Gonzaga, musician, author of many successes, including "Asa Branca", with Humberto Teixeira;
• Gilberto Gil, musician
• Alceu Valença, musician
• Djavan, musician
• Raul Seixas, musician
• Caetano Veloso, musician
• Dorival Caymmi, musician
• Sílvio Romero, folklorist
• Graciliano Ramos, writer
• Castro Alves, poet
• Geraldo Vandré, musician during the mid-60's, author of many songs against the then dictatorship imposed in the country.
• Hermeto Pascoal, musician, creator of a revolutionary style and approach to Music, born in Arapiraca, Alagoas;
• Graça Aranha, writer
• Clarice Lispector, writer
• Aluísio de Azevedo, writer, precursor of the modern, urban literature;

Science & Math

• Mário Schenberg, physicist, electrical engineer, art critic and writer;
• José Leite Lopes, theoretical physicist in the field of quantum field theory and particle physics;
• Leopoldo Nachbin, mathematician who is best known for Nachbin's theorem;
• Paulo Ribenboim, mathematician;
• Fernando de Mendonça, electronic engineer, founder of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research;
• Casimiro Montenegro Filho, founder of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA);
• Carlos Paz de Araújo, scientist and inventor, he holds nearly 600 patents in the area of nanotechnology;
• Maurício Peixoto, mathematician, he pioneered the studies on structural stability, and he is the author of the Peixoto's theorem;

Medicine

• Pirajá da Silva, physician responsible for the identification of the cycle of the Schistosomiasis;
• Nise da Silveira, Psychiatry that founded the Museum of Images of the Unconscious and introduced Jungian psychology in Brazil;

Business & Economics

• José Ermírio de Moraes, entrepreneur, founder of the Votorantim Group, the Votorantim Group is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Latin America,
• Norberto Odebrecht, entrepreneur from the Building Industry;
• Assis Chateaubriand, media conglomerate owner, founded the first television network of Latin America
• Celso Furtado, economist, who while in exile was guest teacher in the University of Sorbonne, in Paris, France;

Politics & Law

• Clóvis Beviláqua, jurist, author of the Brazilian Civil Code of 1916;
• Luíza Erundina, first female mayor of São Paulo;
• Pontes de Miranda, jurist;
• Teixeira de Freitas, jurist, author of a Brazilian Civil Code .
• Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, former Brazilian president
• Epitácio Pessoa, former Brazilian president
• Floriano Peixoto, former Brazilian president
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former Brazilian president
• José Sarney, former Brazilian president
• Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, first president of the Brazilian Republic;

Entertainment

• Glauber Rocha, motion picture director, born in Bahia;
• Martha Vasconcellos, Miss Universe in 1968
• Martha Rocha, Miss Brazil
• Adriana Lima, international model

Sports

• Marta, female football player, five-time FIFA Women's World Player of the Year
• Oscar Schmidt, basketball player; member of the Naismith and FIBA Halls of Fame

Scholars & Educators

• Paulo Freire, educator and a theorist of Critical Pedagogy;
• Ruy Barbosa, intellectuals;
• Anísio Teixeira, educator
• Gilberto Freyre, sociologist, author of work about the structure of Brazil's Social Relations, the "Casa Grande & Senzala", a source of the origins of the intrincate Social & Ethnics in the Country;

Spiritual, Religious & Cultural Figures

• Nísia Floresta, pioneer of feminism in Brasil;
• Padre Cícero, spiritual leader of the whole Region, widely worshipped in Nordeste
• Zumbi, a freedom fighter, leader of Brazil's most important Quilombo, the "Quilombo of Palmares";
• Virgulino Ferreira da Silva(Lampião), bandit leader of a Cangaço band of marauders and outlaws, who defied the authorities of Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s.