South¹ Region (Brasil²)

How is the land laid out?

Most of this area is in Brazil's Central Highlands. A band of lowlands in Paraná, Santa Catarina³ and northern Southern Grande River⁴ widens out to embrace most of southern Rio Grande do Sul where it merges--notwithstanding a watershed boundary--with Uruguay's pampas.

The Mountains of the Sea⁵ start in the middle of Santa Catarina and parallel the coast. The Geral Mountains⁶ start at Southern Grande River's northern border and parallel the coast until the middle of Santa Catarina. From there they bend northwest into the center of Paraná.

The two rivers of the Plata River⁷ system--the Paraná⁸ and the Uruguai⁹ drain the highlands. The Paraná follows the western boundary of Paraná State, receiving the Paranapanema along its north bound and the Iguaçu at the south bound. Just before the Iguaçu reaches the Paraná it plumets in a set of famous falls. The Uruguay divides southern Santa Catarina from northern Rio Grande do Sul, then flows southwest to form the southernmost state's western border.

A lagoon, Lagoa dos Patos,¹⁰ in the center of Rio Grande do Sul's coast, is one of South America's largest lakes--if considered one at all. It discharges at the south end and has an inlet at the north called the Rio¹¹ Guaíba. Five rivers empty into the Guaíba, together constituting the region's most important coast-directed system.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites that honor nature are: the 'Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, which crosses the regional boundary into Sâo Paulo State; and Iguaçu National Park, which is next to the city, 'Foz de Iguaçu, and is also a tourist attraction.¹²

Map

Who lives there?

Unlike the rest of Brazil, less than 95% speak Portuguese. Over one in twenty speak German. And while Christianity remains an overwhelming characteristic, many of the German-speakers, and even some Portuguese-speaking people of German descent, practice Protestantism rather than Roman Catholicism.

There are two cities with over a million residents. Porto Alegre is the largest city with 4.006 million metropolitan residents.¹³ The next largest is Curitiba with 3.636 million metropolitan residents.¹³

Other cities of note include: Florianópolis, Navegantes, Londrina, Paranaguá, Foz do Iguaçu and Rio Grande.

UNESCO honors as a World Heritage Site 'Jesuit Missions of the Guaronis: San Ignacio Miní Santa Ana,, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of São Miguel das Missiõnes (Brazil),' part of which is in the neighboring country.

Who was there before?

So little was recorded at early Luzo-Brazilian contact, and so much change has been wrought since, that the best way to reconstruct the pre-Columbian past is to generalize from the present day distribution of indiginous languages, but this is admittedly error prone.

The three language groups represented by extant or known extinct languages are Tupi--specifically Tupi-Guarani; Macro-Ge--specifically Kaingang; and Awawakan.¹⁴ A form of Tupi derived from further north became a colonial lingua franca along the coast.

Portuguese speakers began arriving in the 16th century and indiginous populations dwindled from disease and slavery. Large numbers of slaves were brought from Africa. Most indiginous and Afro-Brazilian people adopted Roman Catholic Christianity, and many indiginous and all Afro-Brazilian people switched their family language to Portuguese. The Afro-Brazilian version of Catholicism includes elements of the Vodun Religion of west Africa but its adherants regard themselves as pure Catholics.

Germans arrived in the decades surrounding the beginning of the 20th century along with other Europeans and Asians. While outnumbered by other immigrant groups, more of them went south instead of to São Paulo,¹⁵ and their assimulation has preceded more slowly and less completely.

Around the area

northeast
east
southwest
northwest of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina
west of southern Paraná
northwest of Paraná

Footnotes

1. Sul in Portuguese. Consists of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.
2. Officially Brasil since the late 19th century. In English, Brazil
3. Translates from Portuguese as Saint Katherine or Catherine or Kathryn or Kathleen.
4. Rio Grande do Sul translates from Portuguese as Big Southern River.
5. Sierra do Mar in Portuguese.
6. Sierra Geral ranslates as Common Mountains.
7. Rio de la Plata translates from Spanish as Silver River.
8. South America's second largest river, the ninth in the world.
9. Uruguay in Spanish and English.
10. Translates as 'Lagoon of the Ducks' from Portuguese, although lagoon is an inexact match.
11. Rio translates as river from Portuguese.
12. http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-brazil/, accessed August 31, 2015.
13. 2012 figure from world-gazetteer.com, accessed February 6, 2016.
14. Joseph Greenberg classifies all three groups together with many others as Amerindian.
15. Translates from Portuguese as Saint Paul.