Polish Brazilian

Infobox Ethnic group
group=flagicon|Poland Polish Brazilian flagicon|Brazil
"Polaco Brasileiro · Polacy Brazylii"


caption = Notable Polish Brazilians:
Jaime Lerner • Mauricio Waldman • Xuxa
poptime="c." 1,800,000 Polish Brazilians 0.7% of Brazil's population [ [http://www.wspolnota-polska.org.pl/index.php?id=pwko Polish Society] ]
popplace=Brazil:Mainly Southern and Southeastern Brazil
langs=Predominantly Portuguese. Minorities speak Polish
rels=Predominantly Catholic or Judaism
related= White Brazilian, Polish people

A Polish Brazilian is a Brazilian-born person of Polish descent, or a Polish-born person with Brazilian citizenship. The number of Polish descendants in Brazil is estimated at 1.8 million. [ [http://www.wspolnota-polska.org.pl/index.php?id=pwko Świat Polonii ] ]

Polish immigrants began arriving in Brazil in the late 19th century, but their numbers really increased in the 1920s. Polish-Brazilians number an estimated 1.8 million people of the Brazilian population. The Brazilian State of Paraná is a dominantly Polish area in Brazil. The Polish immigrants brought native folk music and dance music to Brazil such as mazurka and polonaise. In addition to the musical elements of the Polish culture, immigrants also brought customs, manners, and styles of clothing. Polish culture has also had an impact on aspects of the cuisine and architecture of Brazil.

Poles live in Guarapuava, Curitiba, Campo Largo, Contenda, Araucária, Lapa Săo Mateus do Sul, Irati. With the immigrants there was the valorization of jobs on the planted lands and the use of new instruments, like the plow, the grille, the sickle to cut. There was the introducing of new forms of job and professions, like forgeman, carpenter, joiner and tailor. The immigrants work helped a lot on the economic growning up of Paraná and renovated Paraná's social structure.

Immigration

The first Polish immigrants arrived in the port of Itajaí, Santa Catarina, in August of 1869. They were 78 Polish of the area of Southern Silesia. Commandant Redlisch, of the ship Victoria, brought people from Eastern Europe to settle Brusque.

They were in total 16 families, among them: Francisco Pollak, Nicolau Wós, Boaventura Pollak, Thomasz Szymanski, Simon Purkot, Felipe Purkot, Miguel Prudlo, Simon Otto, Domin Stempke, Gaspar Gbur, Balcer Gbur, Walentin Weber, Antoni Kania, Franciszek Kania, André Pampuch and Stefan Kachel. The Polish were placed in the colonies Príncipe Dom Pedro and Itajaí, in the area of Brusque. [ [http://www.ui.jor.br/polish5.htm Brazil ] ]

The Polish immigration to Brazil has not been as large as the immigration of Portuguese or Italians. However, a significant number of Poles have settled in Brazil. The first immigrants arrived in 1869. From 1872 to 1959, 110,243 "Russian" citizens entered Brazil. In fact, the vast majority of them were Poles, since Poland was under Russian rule and ethnic Poles immigrated with Russian passports. [Uma história oculta: a imigração dos países daEuropa do Centro-Leste para o Brasil [http://www.abep.nepo.unicamp.br/docs/anais/pdf/2000/Todos/Uma%20Hist%C3%B3ria%20Oculta%20a%20Imigra%C3%A7ao%20dos%20Pa%C3%ADses....pdf] ]

The State of Paraná received the majority of Polish immigrants, who settled mainly in the region of Curitiba, in the towns of Mallet, Cruz Machado, São Matheus do Sul, Irati, and União da Vitória.

Most Polish immigrants to Southern Brazil were Catholics who arrived between 1870–1920 and worked as small farmers in the State of Paraná. Others went to the neighboring states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. After the 1920s, many Polish Jews immigrated seeking refuge from Europe, settling mainly in the State of São Paulo. Today most Brazilian Jews are of Polish descent.

Religion

In a 1991 poll with Polish immigrants residents in Southeast Brazil, 48.5% reported to be Jewish, 36.4% Catholic, 10.7% adherents of other religions and 4.5% non-religious. [Uma história oculta: a imigração dos países daEuropa do Centro-Leste para o Brasil [http://www.abep.nepo.unicamp.br/docs/anais/pdf/2000/Todos/Uma%20Hist%C3%B3ria%20Oculta%20a%20Imigra%C3%A7ao%20dos%20Pa%C3%ADses....pdf] ]

Polish culture in Brazil

The State of Paraná still remains a strong influence from the Polish culture. Many small towns have a majority of Polish-descendants and the Polish language is spoken by some of them, although nowadays most Polish Brazilians only speak Portuguese. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world (after Chicago) and Polish music, dishes and culture are quite common in the region.

Polish communities

After the proclamation of the Republic, the Brazilian government practically opened the doors of the country to the immigration. The first years of the Republic, it was the period in that more entered immigrants in Brazil. The Polish appeared in the statistics in significant number. This period was known in Poland as "Brazilian fever". Important Polish communities appeared in several Brazilian states:

*Paraná: Eufrosina, Rio Claro, São Mateus, Santa Bárbara, Prudentópolis, Ivaí, Apucarana (current Cândido de Abreu), Castro, Piraí do Sul, Palmeira, Cruz Machado, and others.
*Santa Catarina: Lucena (current Itaiópolis), Rio Vermelho, Massaranduba, Grã-Pará, Nova Galícia, and others.
*Rio Grande do Sul: Alfredo Chaves (current Veranópolis), Antônio Prado, Bento Gonçalves, Dom Feliciano, Mariana Pimentel, Ijuí, Guarani das Missões, Áurea, Gaurama, Jaguari, Erechim, and others.
*São Paulo: São Bernardo, Pariquera-açu, City of São Paulo, and others.
*Espírito Santo: Águia Branca, Santa Leopoldina, and others.

Notable Polish Brazilians

* Alexandre Herchcovitch
* Paulo Leminski
* Jaime Lerner
* Maurício Waldman
* Edson Zwaricz
* Henrique de Curitiba
* Alessandra Ambrosio
* Xuxa
* Angélica Ksyvickis

References