Rio

Article written by: Wayne Fortin Everything Rio Imagine a vibrant lively city next to tropical lush green forests rich with tall peaks all tucked in next to beautiful coastal regions and what do you have? You have Rio de Janeiro! Rio de Janeiro also known as “Rio” is one of the world’s most popular vacation destinations in the world because of its geographical qualities, tropical climates and cultural festivities. The geographical diversity this city harbors is very unique as described above and is full or history. We will venture into the depths of Rio de Janeiro’s history as well as plunge into what it is like to visit Rio in the modern day. According to wikipedia.org Rio de Janeiro is located at “22 degrees, 54 minute’s south latitude, 43 degrees 14 minutes west longitude.” The overall population of the city Rio is around 6 million. The population of the larger Metropolitan area is estimated at 1112 million according to wikipedia.org and it occupies about 456 square miles. Rio de Janeiro is located in the southwest oceanic bay of Guanabara. Guanabara is the second largest bay in Brazil. An explorer by the name of Gaspar de Lemos sailed from Portugal to Brazil on January of 1501. “Mistaking the bay for a river, Lemos named it ‘Rio de Janeiro” (St. Louis117) Meaning the river of January. The people that originally inhabited the area surrounding the Guanabara Bay were called the Tamoio people but the French were the first to settle within the bay in 1555. In the 16th century the area of Rio de Janeiro constantly witnessed battles between the Portuguese, Tamoio, and the French but by the 17th century the Tamoio was completely wiped out. The actual city of Rio de Janeiro was founded on the first of March by a guy by the name of Estacio de Sa, who was a Knight from Portugal. “Estacio de Sa first named the area Sao Sebastiao do Rio de

Janeiro 20” (Fuasto 35) in honor of a Saint Sebastion whose ‘traditional day of death’ was on January 20th. For a while after people still kept calling the settlement by “Sao Sebastiao” instead of “Rio de Janeiro.” The city of Rio was originally founded as a base to get rid of the French which eventually succeeded in 1567 as told in wikipedia.org. By the 18th century Rio de Janeiro became inhabited by African slaves were the sugar plantations and Gold mines of Minas Gerais were thriving. In 1807 Napoleons army set sailed for Brazil carrying Dom Joao, as soon as they arrived he fell in love with the city and took over. Don Joao was king of Portugal at the time and also declared Rio the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve which made “Brazil the only new world colony to every have a European monarch ruling its soil” (Taylor 118). As we move on to the development stage of Rio de Janeiro we can see that the 1920’s through the 1950’s were known as its golden age. Hollywood Celebrities and vacationers were seeking out Rio for its fabulous exotic lifestyle due to the creation of nightclubs, grand hotels, casinos and street festivities. The booming of the city called for construction of landfills. During the 1960’s Rio de Janeiro lost most of its beautiful buildings due to the construction of tall skyscrapers because of the political capital Rio was known as shortly after the shantytowns grew larger and larger as well as violence and crime at an all time ever increasing high. Known as the Cidade Maravilhosa or Marvelous City, Rio began to lose its glamour because of the crime and violence. Rio was under military dictatorship until the year of 1985. Up to ten years prior to the military’s last reign they had cut off federal funding to the city and politicians because the politicians were even in opposition of the military dictatorship that was prevalent in the

city. It wasn’t until the United Nations chose Rio de Janeiro as their host city for what is known as eco 92 which is a convention known for nation’s conference for environment and development. During the process of eco 92 Rio was granted 1 Billion dollars by the federal government to improve Rios infrastructure such as communications. Today Rio still thrives on tourism and the economy is only improving. Small businesses are constantly popping up as well as the development of healthcare facilities and schools. In class we learned the importance of transportation, in Rio de Janeiro most interstate travel is done by road and the main source of transportation is by bus. There are over 440 bus lines running throughout the city catering to over four million passengers each day. Wikipedia.org states that “Rios transportation policy has been moving towards trains and subways in order to reduce traffic jams and increase capacity.” Currently there are only two subway lines that run through the city of Rio de Janeiro but there are many commuter rails available to travel on. There are three airports in the city of Rio de Janeiro and two of those are for military use. According to the last Census the demographic rates can be broken up as 52% whites, 35% pardo, 11% black and .4% Asian or Amerindian, of that 60% are Catholics 17% are protestants 13% have no religion 3% are kardecists .51% are umbandists and .41% are Jews. As we take a closer look into the physicality of the city of Rio de Janeiro itself we see that Rio is a city of very unique urban diversity unlike any other with mountains, skyscrapers, beaches, forests all in one. The city can be classified into two groups, the North and the South or otherwise known as Zona Norte and Zona Sul. Zona Norta

consists of industrial areas and working class people while Zona Sul mainly consists of Middle and upper-class neighborhoods along with the well known beaches Rio has. There are many things Rio is famous for such as landmarks, destinations and events. One of the major events in Rio de Janeiro is called “carnival” which is a big explosive festival that includes drag, bright outfits, floats, parades etc..The carnival takes place one week out of every February. The most famous beach in Rio de Janeiro is called Ipanema Beach, which is a very long beach and known for having one of the best places to ‘people watch.’ A landmark you may be familiar with when you think of Rio is the giant statue of Jesus on top of a hill with his arms wide open which is also known as Cristo Redentor. The mountain Cristo Redentor sits on is 710 meters high and the statue itself is 38 meters tall. The book “Brazil” by lonely planet states that there are dangers involved with vacationing in Rio de Janeiro just like any other metropolitan destination. One of the main concerns that you need to be aware of is that of theft due to bag snatching and pick pocketing. It is known that bag snatching and pickpocket are all too willing to use their weapons on unsuspecting tourists so a word of advice would be to not carry too many valuables or objects of worth when heading out to your desired destinations. It is also advised to keep clear of the buses and walking around dark streets at night. According to St. Louis one common theft scam is when “one thief approaches you from one side and asks you for a light or the time. While you’re distracted the thief’s partner grabs your gear from the other side.” Doing research on Rio de Janeiro has opened up my eyes to the vast diversity of landscape and its background in its entirety. I believe that Rio de Janeiro is full of history,

culture and life. I someday would love to go to the fabulous city of Rio de Janeiro myself and experience all the wonderful amenities that this city has to offer. Throughout this research paper I explained the major geographical topics such as landscape, population, location, transportation, and demographics. I also tried going over other subjects on Rio such as its History, Lifestyle and Situation.

WORKS CITED

Fuasto, Boris. A concise History of Brazil. Cambridge University Press, 1999. St. Louis, Regis. Brazil. 6th ed. Lonely Planet, 2005

Taylor, Edwin. Insight Guide Rio de Janeiro. APA, 2001

Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. 2007. November 25, 2007 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro>