Northeast Region, Brazil

Categories: Regions of Brazil

The Nordeste (Northeastern Brazil) is composed of the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. The biggest cities are Fortaleza, Recife, and Salvador, which are the regional metropolitan areas of the Nordeste, all with a population above a million inhabitants. The people who live there, are from there, or have family in the Brazilian Northeast, are called nordestinos.

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General Information

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States & Capitals

  • Alagoas - Maceió
  • Bahia - Salvador
  • Ceará - Fortaleza
  • Maranhão - São Luís
  • Paraíba - João Pessoa
  • Pernambuco - Recife
  • Piauí - Teresina
  • Rio Grande do Norte - Natal
  • Sergipe - Aracaju
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Urban Areas x Rural Areas

Nordeste's major cities are almost all on the Atlantic coast. Some exceptions can be seen, however, like Petrolina, Pernambuco, which lies immediately south of the São Francisco River (one of the few rivers that crosses the sertão and doesn't dry in the arid periods of time which can be quite long). Another example is the city of Teresina in the state of Piauí, a city notorious for its sweltering heat.

Good rural areas are scarce and generally they are all near the coast, or in the west of Maranhão, and are mainly used for exportation products. In the semi-arid areas of the Northeast Region, rural areas do exist, but rain is scarce in the region; rural areas in the interior are generally based on subsistence agriculture. Fazendas (large farms) are common in the interior, where cattle-rasing and the cultivation of tropical fruit is often practiced. Also, in the areas where water is scarce local politicians often use the promise of irrigation projects as a bargaining chip to win elections.

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Economy

The economy is based on tourism (in coastal or historical cities) or agriculture. The tourist industry is based largely on the numerous sandy beaches, numbering in the hundreds. Major industries (clothing, food, small machinery) are in the three metropolitan areas of Nordeste.

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Climate

Brazil's Northeast region can be characterized as arid for relatively long periods of time in the interior of the continent, with the coast and the southern areas having a more humid climate. Temperatures throughout the year are usually quite warm, with some cooling during the rainy seasons. The beginning and end of the different rainy seasons vary throughout the region but most last about four months.

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Culture

Nordeste has a rich culture, with its unique constructions in the old centers of Salvador, Recife and Olinda, dance (frevo and samba), music (axé, forró) and unique cuisine. Dishes particular to the region include carne de sol, acarajé, vatapá, paçoca, canjica, 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 the Northeast, particularly in Campina Grande, in the state of Paraíba. The Bumba-Meu-Bói festival is also popular, especially in the state of Maranhão. Most major cities in the Northeast also hold an off-season carnaval, such as the Carnatal in Natal or the Fortal in Fortaleza.

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Sertão Nordestino

People who live in these arid areas generally don't have enough water for their subsistence and need to walk long distances to obtain it. Many times these people, who are generally poor, give up and go to live in the city, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro being the main destinations. A well known case is that of the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who lived in Pernambuco, and moved early in childhood with the family to Santos, where he worked in the streets in his teens.

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Urban Migration

In São Paulo, as well as many other parts of the metropolitans areas of Brazil outside of the Northeast, nordestinos are many times not well liked by people of the middle and upper classes, who claim that the nordestinos are responsible for most of the social problems of the city.

Generally, nordestinos in hope of a better life come without much money, and are rejected by most employers due to their low or nonexistent education. Quickly realizing that the big city is as bad or worse than the sertão, they end up in favelas (slums). Many of them then return to their former hometowns in the Northeast once they've collected sufficient money to do so. Conversely, many Brazilians who live outside the Northeast often go there to vacation on the beaches.

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Social Problems

The Nordeste is the poorest region of Brazil, with the worst HDI rates of the country, mainly in the rural areas, which suffer from long periods without rain. This is somehwat ironic since the Northeast, during Brazil's colonial era when sugar production was higher, was the most prosperous region in all of South America. Education and health care are very bad when they exist, malnutrition is common in people living in these areas, illiteracy is about 75% and child labor is a concern, as is child prostitution in major cities. In contrast to the situation occurring in the other Brazilian regions where social problems are worse in bigger cities, social problems in the Northeast regions are worse in the rural and small communities of the interior, lessening in bigger cities near the coast. Some diseases are still common such as tuberculosis and yellow fever and there have been several recent outbreaks of widespread dengue fever especially along the eastern seaboard and otherwise near watery areas where the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds. Brazil's Ministry of Health, with limited resources, has tried to combat these outbreaks.

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See Also

Brazil Regional Division

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External links

fr:Région Nord-Est (Brésil) nl:Regio Noordoost (Brazilië) no:Nordeste pt:Região Nordeste do Brasil