Sao Paulo Rain

The sudden downpour is a usual afternoon accompaniment, adding a touch more of the uncontrollable element to this tumultuous and eternally tropical city. The voices of industry hard at work wind their way through the alleyways of sound that slither along the wet cement and brick walls as if the sun had hurried behind the clouds just to hide form their deadly bite. Sao Paulo, popularly known as Sampa, is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and Americas, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The first coastal settlement in Brazil, Sao Vicente was founded in 1532. It was the first permanent Portuguese colony in the New World. Twenty two years later Jesuit missionaries founded the village of Sao Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, aimed at converting the Tupi–Guarani indigenous Brazilians to the Catholic faith, as well as make it easier for the Portuguese crown to rule them. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, waves of immigrants from Portugal, Italy, Spain and other European countries emigrated to São Paulo in order to "bleach the race," as Luso-Brazilian authorities feared Brazil's black population would grow far more than other groups. These Europeans were granted lands as incentives to immigrate and some worked in an indentured fashion at coffee plantations.