Brumado
Brumado is a Brazilian municipality in the interior of Bahia, in the Northeast region of the country, precisely in the Center-South mesoregion of the State, in the homonymous microregion to the do municipality name, to the do 555 kilometers from Salvador, state capital. Its territorial area is 2 207,612 square kilometers, the headquarters's area occupying 2 174 square kilometers, have altitude of 454 meters. According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, in 2023 its population was estimated at 70 268 inhabitants. The Human Development Index is 0.656.
A survey by the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro State found that Brumado is considered to be the sixth most developed municipality in Bahia, based on the FIRJAN Municipal Development Index published in 2015. A query made exclusively by Urban Systems, in January 2016, for Exame Magazine, concluded that the city is among the 100 best in Brazil to invest, ranking 84th in the ranking, totaling 2 306 points. A study carried out by IBGE, in 2012, concluded that of the 64 602 inhabitants from the time, 50 899 were literate, 31 747 were men and 32 855 were women. The per capita income was R$12,144.11, and in distribution between rural and urban areas, in the private households in the rural area, it was R$217.00, and in the urban area it was R$333.33. The fleet of motor vehicles such as road transport, including motorcycles, as well as tractors and trucks totaled 31 000.
The city is known as the "Capital of Ore", Because it has a large amount of minerals in its subsoil, which is the basis of its economy, and has large mining companies that carry out their extractive activities in Serra das éguas, which, by the way, also is one of the tourist points of the municipality, to form mountainous landscapes.
Brumado makes municipal boundaries with Livramento de Nossa Senhora, Dom Basílio, Aracatu, Rio de Contas, Malhada de Pedras, Tanhaçu, Ituaçu, Rio do Antônio, Lagoa Real and Caraíbas. For making border with the Rio de Contas city through the river that has the same name, consequently also makes border with the Chapada Diamantina. The city has a privileged location allied to other benefits, such as important road junctions such as BA-262, BA-148 and BR-030, also counting on the Centro-Atlântica Railroad.
History
Etymology
There are several theories about the origin of the name Brumado. According to Teodoro Fernandes Sampaio, the name "Brumado" comes from the expression Tupi language: Itimbopira, which means misty, covered in fog, but according to José Dias, former priest of the city, the name originates from the Serra das Éguas, when the morning fog descends from it covering the city. Another theory says that the origin of the name Brumado is attributed to the word bromine - a word that at the time of mining on the Rio Brumado was used by garimpeiros and bandeirantes to distinguish loss or deceit, mystification or disappearance of gold in the mining site that supposedly had an abundance of that ore.Settlement
In the 18th century, captain Francisco de Souza Meira and his team left the captaincy of Minas Gerais, crossing the Brumado river, advancing along the right bank until reaching the mouth of the Do Antônio river, arriving to the indigenous territory, Tupinambas fierce, and between them a great fight took place, close to the area where today is the headquarters of the Brumado Municipality. It was the first part taken and received the name "Conquista", later he founded a farm called Das Éguas Serra. Although these Indians strongly resisted the attacks of the captain and his group, they gradually dispersed, disturbed by the presence of white men.In the future, the Serra das Éguas farm was acquired by João Antunes Moreira, who in turn left it to his son, the Catholic priest André Antunes da Maia; who finally sold it on June 30, 1749, to José de Souza Meira, son of Francisco de Souza Meira, for $462,700, with 232 heads of cattle, 105 head of equine cattle and a slave called Manuel. In this way, the lands returned to the hands of the Meiras. In 1755, Campo Seco farm was bought by the Portuguese Miguel Lourenço de Almeida, clan of the Canguçu family in the municipality. The Serra das Éguas farm was close to the area that is now the city of Brumado. It was located on the southern slope, the lower part of a mountain, now known as Serra das Éguas, known for its deposits of magnesite and mineral talc. Over the years, a small village grew about ten kilometers from the city center on the same bank of the river, thanks to the success of the adventurers who worked in crops and livestock, giving life to the village that would later become the seat of the municipality.
Emancipation
Bom Jesus dos Meiras belonged to Livramento do Brumado village. On June 19, 1869, still under the name of Bom Jesus dos Meiras, the then vice president of the Bahia province, Antônio Ledeslau de Figueiredo Rocha, signed Provincial Decree-Law No. 1091, thus transforming Bom Jesus dos Meiras in a district of the same name, annexing it to Caetité, who was already emancipated. Soon after, Antônio Pinheiro Pinto Canguçu, the second lord of Sobrado do Brejo, contributed financially and with labor to build the Chapel of Bom Jesus, attending the requests of the inhabitants; Today, the old chapel is the mother church of Brumado, that at that time was called Church Senhor do Bonfim, in honor of the patron of the city, Bom Jesus, and had like first vicar the priest Jose Mariano Meira Rocha. Bom Jesus dos Meiras separated from Caetité in 1877, receiving the title of village. The author of the project was a deputy from the province of Bahia, Marcolino Moura. The political leader at that time was Colonel Exupério Pinheiro Canguçu, the fourth and last lord of Sobrado do Brejo. Political emancipation occurred on June 11, 1877, with the creation of Provincial Law n ° 1756. The first City Council of Bom Jesus dos Meiras was created on February 13, 1878, composed of the following persons listed below and their Respective positions: President: Colonel Exupério Pinheiro Canguçu; Secretary: Belarmino Jacundes Lobo; Prosecutor: Rufiniano de Moura Amorim; Supervisor: Plácido Guedes d'Oliveira; Porter: Francisco Alves Piranha.In 1948, Armindo dos Santos Azevedo took office as the first mayor elected by direct vote. The merchant and cattle rancher was elected in three terms: 1948 - 1950, 1955 - 1958 and 1963 - 1966. In its management, the municipality achieved great advances, such as water supply, electricity and paving of many streets and squares in the center of city. The energy in Brumado in the 1940s to 1970s only worked until 9:30 p.m. It was from then on that the energy began to function in an integral way. In 1962, the districts of Santa Bárbara dos Casados, Olhos d'Água and São Pedro would have their toponyms changed to Ubiraçaba, Itaquaraí and Aracatu, respectively. From 1967 to 1970, the mayor was elected doctor Juracy Pires Gomes, with the support of partner Armindo dos Santos Azevedo. In his mandate important works were carried out, such as the new city hall, the new municipal market, the city's first public library; The main one was the dam of the Do Antônio River that would supply the city until the year 2010.
Economic expansion
At the beginning of the 20th century, the economy was based on agriculture: large-scale cotton farming, coffee and cereals, and cattle raising, goats, sheep and cattle, favoring the export of sheep skins raw or tanned, dry leather and salty, as well as lump cotton and live cattle. Cotton was the culture that most contributed to the economic development of the municipality. Between 1930 and 1955, the production was so great that the producers started to benefit it in the field even using handmade machines. Faced with the success of cotton growing, modern cotton factories were installed in the city. The municipality had six plants in operation. Since 1980, the crop has declined, due to several factors, as an interruption of financial aid by the government,, cotton boll weevil, high interest rates for production financing, and of the processing. Currently, the production of passion fruit has been outstanding, in the district of Itaquaraí, one of the largest production locations in Brazil.In 1930, two important events marked the economic history of the municipality: the arrival of the mining company Magnesita S.A., today, RHI Magnesita founded by two French friends naturalized Brazilian and resident in Brazil, Miguel Pierre Cahen and Georges Louis Minviele - in partnership with Antônio Mourão Guimarães -, a politician of the time, and the construction of the Federal Railroad Network, which would facilitate the transportation of the newly discovered ore to the port of Aratu in Salvador. Both events occurred in 1939. The Magnesita company was authorized to operate in 1940 through Decree nº 6220 and since then, it has exploited most of the magnesite and mineral talc reserves contained in Das Éguas Saw. In the 1970s, Brumado arrived at the Brazilian Refractory Products Industries. The company interested in extracting magnesite has established its facilities in the northern part of the saw. In the following years, the municipality witnessed great changes, such as large-scale population growth, construction of houses and commercial establishments. Faced with this great attraction, people from other cities were arriving, commerce strengthened, and the Brumado city became known by recent events. To the south of the former Das Éguas farm was formed a kind of closed condominium: the Catiboaba village; The Presidente Getúlio Vargas village was also formed around the company, fruit of the flow of workers who came from the most varied places to work in the mines of magnesite and mineral talc. In 1969, it was the turn of Xilolite S.A., which also settled on the north side of the mountain range and has since exploited magnesite and mineral talc, with the acquisition of one of the mines in 1973. In 1993, Matsulfur, a cement factory, later acquired by Lafarge, under the name Cement Brumado, today Cimpor, Cimento de Portugal, belonging to InterCement.