A view of downtown Ribeirão Preto, showing the D. Pedro II Theatre

Ribeirão Preto is a municipality and city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It's nicknamed Brazilian California, because of a combination of an economy based on agrobusiness plus high technology, wealth and sunny weather all year long. With a little more than 500,000 inhabitants, Ribeirão Preto is the fourth largest municipality in the state, after the capital city, São Paulo, Campinas and Santos. With a total area of 652,2 km², its localization is 21º 10’ 42" South e 47º 48’ 24" West; and it is situated at 289 km from the capital city and at 516 km from Brasília, the federal capital. Mean altitude is 546,8 m. Ribeirão Preto is the center of an urban agglomeration with about 827 mil inhabitants, and comprised by the following municipalities: A municipality or general-purpose district (compare with: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government. ... São Paulo is a state in Brazil. ... In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in the food production chain, including farming, seed, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesaling, processing, distribution, and retail sales. ... High tech refers to high technology, technology that is at the cutting-edge and the most advanced currently available. ... Wealth usually refers to money and property. ... Composite satellite image showing the progress of a hurricane weather system approaching the east coast of America Weather comprises all the various phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of a planet. ... Landmark buildings Edifício Italia (at left) and Copan (curved façade at center), in São Paulo Downtown. ... Campinas is a city and county (município) located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. ... Santos is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil founded in 1543. ... Brasília from space, November 1990 Niemeyers Cathedral Brasília is the capital city of Brazil and is located in the center of the country in a federal district created out of the state of Goiás. ...

Official flag with crest

• Barrinha
• Brodósqui
• Cravinhos
• Dumont
• Guatapará
• Jardinópolis
• Luiz Antônio
• Pradópolis
• Ribeirão Preto
• Santa Rita do Passa Quatro
• Santa Rosa do Viterbo
• São Simão
• Serra Azul
• Serrana
• Sertãozinho

History

The city was founded June 19, 1856, by farmers coming from the southeast of São Paulo State in search of good climate and soil for coffee growing. The city was laid by a stream called “Black Stream”, and was named after it (ribeirão preto means black stream in Portuguese). Eventually the farmers’ choice revealed itself as very adequate and the fertile soil of the Ribeirão Preto region allowed the highest crop productivity in Brazil. June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 195 days remaining. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... For the heavy metal band see Soil (band) Soil is the layer of minerals and organic matter, in thickness from centimetres to a metre or more, on the land surface. ... Coffee beans and a cup of coffee Coffee as a drink, usually served hot, is prepared from the roasted seeds (beans) of the coffee plant. ...

The rapid development of the coffee cultivation brought wealth and progress to the city, which by the 1880s had become the largest coffee producer in the world. Coffee, the “green gold” as it was called, was responsible for a kind of “gold rush” in the region, which attracted workers and adventurous people from several parts of the world. This movement was helped by the new Mogiana Railway, which linked Ribeirão Preto to São Paulo and to the port city of Santos, and the abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The end of slavery created a strong demand for labor and the “coffee barons”, as the coffee farmers were called, stimulated European immigration - mostly from Italy but also from Portugal, Spain and Germany - to Ribeirão Preto. Later, after the stock market crash of 1929, several of these immigrants bought the farms from their indebted former employers. Sao Paulo and São Paulo (city) redirect here. ... Santos is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil founded in 1543. ... A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Wiktionary has a definition of: Slavery Slavery can mean one or more related conditions which involve control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... This article is about the continent. ... A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic loss of value of shares of stock in corporations. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ... Bales of hay on a farm near Ames, Iowa A farm is the basic unit in agriculture. ...

Culture

The Pinguim Beer House

At the beginning of the 20th Century and during its first three decades, Ribeirão Preto was a rich city, boasting several mansions, European-style cafés, cabarets and even two opera houses. One of the opera houses - the Carlos Gomes Theatre (in honour of Brazilian opera composer Carlos Gomes - was demolished in 1949 but the other - the "Pedro II Theatre" (named in honor of Emperor Dom Pedro II), dating from the 1920s - resisted time and was restored and modernized during the 1990s. Its ceiling, completely destroyed in a fire of 1980, was rebuilt and gained a new design projected by the Japanese-Brazilian artist Tomie Ohtake. The Pedro II Theatre is now the third largest opera house in Brazil and is the home of the Ribeirão Preto symphony orchestra, one of the oldest and more important of Brazil. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Mansion near Almelo, The Netherlands Introduction A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house. ... Coffeehouse - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... An opera house is a building where opera and other forms of performing arts are performed. ... Antônio Carlos Gomes (July 11, 1836 - September 16, 1896) is one of the most distinguished nineteenth century classical composers, being the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Dom Pedro IIs family Dom Pedro II and President Ulysses S. Grant, Philadelphia Exposition, 1876 Dom Pedro II in his old age Dom Pedro II of Brazil Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil was the second and final Brazilian Emperor. ... Orchestra at City Hall (Edmonton). ...

An important fact for the city life happened in 1911 with the opening of its first factory, the Antarctica Brewery Company. It was Antarctica which built the Pedro II Theatre. The Antarctica factory led to the opening of several beer houses in the city and one of them, Pinguim (penguin in Portuguese), became particularly famous and made Ribeirão Preto nationally renowned for the quality of its draught beer (chope or chopp in Brazilian Portuguese). Many people say that Pinguim has the best draught beer in Brazil and it became so important that it is now a symbol of the city; people say that coming to Ribeirão Preto and not visiting Pinguim is like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope. There are four Pinguim beer houses in Ribeirão Preto: two of them, called Pinguim 1 and 2 respectively, are at the November XV square (the central square of Ribeirão Preto) right beside the Pedro II Theatre). The other two are at the shopping centers Santa Úrsula and Ribeirão Shopping respectively. A database query syntax error has occurred. ... A factory (previously manufactory) is a large industrial building where goods or products are manufactured. ... Draught beer (also called draft beer or tap beer) is beer that has been served from, or has been conditioned in, a cask. ... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ... The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ...

But Pinguim is not the only one good beer house in Ribeirão Preto. Ribeirão Preto is a hot climate city, which makes people like to go out of their houses in the evenings to chat and enjoy cold draught beers in bars. Therefore, the city is teemed with bars of different kinds for different tastes, from the simple "botequins" or "botecos" that one can find in almost every corner to more sophisticated bars which rival with their counterparts in São Paulo or Rio.

Education

Central building of the Medical School

A noteworthy fact is that it was during the economic stagnation period from the 1940s to the 1950s that the city discovered and established its vocation as an educational and university center. In 1942 the state government expropriated the Monte Alegre Farm, which was an important coffee farm from the Schmidt family of German immigrants, to transform it into an agricultural practical school. Several new buildings and houses for the professors were constructed over a land which held before tens of thousands of coffee plants. The new school was very well planned and urbanized and many trees were planted to provide shadow and give it a pleasant atmosphere. But the agricultural school never achieved a significant development and it was closed in 1951. A longstanding dream of the population of Ribeirão Preto was to have an university and in 1952 the old farm was donated to the University of São Paulo for the creation of a medical school, which was the first school of its campus at Ribeirão Preto. A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... The University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is one of the three public universities funded by the State of São Paulo. ... Medical school generally refers to a tertiary educational institution (or part of such an institution) which is involved in the education of future medical practitioners (medical doctors). ... Campus is Latin for field or open space. English gets the words camp and campus from this origin. ...

Fortunately, many original buildings of the agricultural school and even some of the Monte Alegre Farm were preserved and only adapted to hold the new university, which makes its campus one of the most beautiful university campuses in Brazil. After the creation of the medical school the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto (USP-RP) has been growing steadily and it is presently constituted by seven schools: School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP), School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP), School of Dentistry (FORP), School of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEARP), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP), School of Nursing (EERP) and School of Music (DMRP-ECA). Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto in Portuguese) is a medical school of the University of São Paulo located in the city of Ribeirão Preto, state of São Paulo, Brazil, founded 1952. ...

The creation of USP-RP stimulated the cultural and academic life in Ribeirão Preto and several schools, colleges and universities were opened in the city since then. Today, besides USP-RP there are six other universities and faculties in the city. The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ...

Economy

After the New York Stock Exchange crash of 1929 the economy of Ribeirão Preto, based on a single export crop, collapsed, and the city had to adapt to a new situation. Since the city is relatively far from other major Brazilian urban centers, it found a new economic vocation in the services and commercial sector, which was developed to attend the local and regional demands. New York Stock Exchange (June 2003) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the second largest stock exchange in the world. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Sugarcane plantation

The second economic boom in the history of Ribeirão Preto occurred after the oil crisis of the 1970s. The increase in the oil price obliged Brazil to look for alternative means of fueling and the solution found was the alcohol fuel program, or Pro-Álcool as it is called. Pró-Álcool led to the development of a technology which allows the use of ethanol (sugarcane alcohol) either as automotive fuel or as a gasoline additive. The latter improves performance and substitutes lead thus decreasing polluting emissions. Due to the Pró-Álcool program, farmers from the region of Ribeirão Preto were encouraged by government subsidies to grow sugarcane. The high productivity of the land around Ribeirão Preto rapidly placed the region as the largest alcohol and sugar producer of the world, being responsible for 30 percent of Brazil’s sugarcane alcohol fuel. An Energy Crisis is any great shortfall (or price rise) in the supply of energy to an economy. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... For information on the band, see Fuel (band). ... In general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-khwl الكحول, or al-ghawl الغول) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage). ... Species -wild -wild -cultivated -cultivated -cultivated -cultivated Ref: ITIS 42058 as of 2004-05-05 Sugarcane is one of six species of a tall tropical southeast Asian grass (Family Poaceae) having stout fibrous jointed stalks whose sap at one time was the primary source of sugar. ... Petrol (gasoline in the United States and Canada) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... For the lead in news writing, see news style. ... This power plant in New Mexico releases sulfur dioxide and particulate matter into the air. ... A subsidy is generally a monetary grant given by government in support of an activity regarded as being in the public interest. ... This article deals with sugar as food and as an important, widely traded commodity; the word also has other uses; see Sugar (disambiguation) A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alter the flavor and properties (mouthfeel, perservation...

Contrary to what happened during the city's first economic boom, this time Ribeirão Preto farmers and enterpreneurs did not concentrate themselves exclusively on a single crop and diversified their investments making the city one of the most important agribusiness centers of Brazil. Besides sugar and alcohol, Ribeirão Preto's major products are orange juice, cotton, rice, meat, dairy products, textiles, machinery, steel, furniture, building materials, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and, of course, beer. This article deals with sugar as food and as an important, widely traded commodity; the word also has other uses; see Sugar (disambiguation) A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alter the flavor and properties (mouthfeel, perservation... For the Scottish band, see Orange Juice. ... Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ... Species Oryza barthii Oryza glaberrima Oryza latifolia Oryza longistaminata Oryza punctata Oryza rufipogon Oryza sativa References ITIS 41975 2002-09-22 This article is about the food grain, not the university or Condoleezza Rice; see also rice (disambiguation). ... Meat is animal tissue (mainly muscle) used as food. ... Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. ... This article is about the type of fabric. ... A machine is any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of tasks. ... Steel framework Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... Furniture - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Building is either the act of creating an object assembled from more than one element, or the object itself; see also construction. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon is drug, and logos is science) is the study of how chemical substances interfere with living systems. ... This article is about the drink; for the village in Devon, England, see Beer, Devon. ...

The sugarcane boom brought a new age of prosperity for the city, which was called the "Brazilian California" during the 1980s and early 1990s. On the one hand, this has increased the city's wealth and turned it into a sophisticated center of services for Brazil and South America but, on the other hand, the image of a new "Eldorado" atracted many migrants from impoverished areas of Brazil leading to a rapid population growth and the appearance of slums (favelas as they are called in Brazil) with all the negative aspects associated to them like drug trafficking and high violence and crime rates, an unfortunate fact that Ribeirão Preto shares with all other major Brazilian cities. South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... Eldorado is the name of several places in the United States of America: Eldorado, Illinois Eldorado, Maryland Eldorado, Ohio Eldorado, Oklahoma Eldorado, Texas Eldorado, Wisconsin Eldorado Township, Minnesota There are also: Eldorado Springs, Colorado Eldorado at Santa Fe, New Mexico Eldorado, São Paulo, Brazil Other places are spelled El Dorado. ... Population growth is changing of the amount of population over time. ... A slum is an overcrowded and squalid district of a city or town usually inhabited by the very poor. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... Violence is a general term to describe actions, usually deliberate, that cause or intend to cause injury to people, animals, or non-living objects. ...

Government

The mayor, Mr. Welson Gasparini (from the PSDB party coalition), was elected in October 2004 and took office on January 1, 2005. His term of office is four years. Mr. Gasparini is serving as a mayor for the third time. History Creation The Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (Portuguese for Brazilian Social Democracy Party) is a political party in Brazil. ... October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official website (http://www.ribeiraopreto.sp.gov.br) (in Portuguese).
• Local time and date (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=601). TimeAndDate Worldclock.
• Local weather (http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/BRXX0198?lswa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&lswe=ribeir%C3%A3o%20preto&y=-15&x=9). Weather.com
• Hotels in Ribeirão Preto (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g303623-Ribeirao_Preto_State_of_Sao_Paulo-Hotels.html). TripAdvisor.