Goiânia, my hometown by Walter (U3)

My favourite place is my hometown, Goiânia. It's the capital and the largest city in the Brazilian state of Goiás, with a population of 1,250 million people in the city and 2,063 in its metropolitan area.



I like Goiânia, among other reasons, for it was planned to be a garden-city, privileging vegetation. It's considered the woodiest city (approximately 30%) of Brazil and the second of the world (the first is Edmonton, Canada). It is placed in the "Cerrado" landscape, vegetal space characterized by extensive savanna formations crossed by gallery forests and stream valleys. The Cerrado includes various types of vegetation: purple, yellow and pink "ipês" and flowered "flamboyants" are the most beautiful trees in my hometown. There are many urban parks within urban space, besides buildings and shopping malls, like Vaca Brava, Zoológico, Areião e Buritis, where people can enjoy the green landscape, walking and running around and going there with family and friends. The climate is semi humid tropical with an average temperature of 22°C. There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. This brings an enviable quality of life and a beautiful urban space to the its inhabitants and tourists.



Another impressing thing in my hometown is its architectonic and spacial design. Many of the first buildings were constructed in the "art deco" style, like Theatre Goiânia, and they give to the city a special "charm" to the city. It impresses also by the geometrical forms of streets and squares: for example, streets in the form of a spoke, with the Praça Cívica as the center, with the seats of the state and municipal government – the Palace of Esmeraldas and the Palace of Campinas. Praça Cívica makes the head of a triangle, with three avenues (Araguaia, Tocantins and Paranaiba, the most important of the state) as the sides of it – together the four elements resemble the mantle of Our Lady of the Apparition. The collection of buildings, monuments and the original center in the city is considered one of the most important in Brazil and they have been recognized by the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage.



Goiânia's history begins in the Colonial Period, when the first ideas of transferring the capital of Goiás came to light (before, the state capital was the town of City of Goiás, previously named Vila Boa). The impetus behind the efforts to move the state capital was the need to locate it in accordance with the economic interests of the state, for the old capital wasn't in any way a thriving agricultural site. Goiás, both the city and state, were born in the context of gold extraction in the Colonial Period. With the decadence of the golden period, agriculture has taken place as the main activity in the state. And the old capital didn't go along with the new economy.



Legislators kept the idea of a change alive for a long time, but only in the 1930's the idea of a change became a reality during the government of Pedro Ludovico, the new governor appointed by the Vargas Dictatorship. In 1933, a commission for the new capital decided on the present location and the foundation stone was laid, being the city founded on October 24, 1933 by then Governor Pedro Ludovico. In 1937 a decree was signed transferring the state capital from the City of Goiás to Goiânia. The official inauguration only occurred in 1942 with the presence of the president of the Republic, governors and ministers.



The name Goiânia came about in 1933 after a contest that was put on by a local newspaper of the new city. Readers from all over the state contributed, with some of the most voted names being Petrônia, Americana, Petrolândia, Goianópolis, Goiânia, Bartolomeu Bueno, Campanha, Eldorado, Anhanguera, Liberdade, Goianésia, and Pátria Nova, among others. In 1935 Pedro Ludovico used the name Goiânia for the first time signing a decree creating the municipality of Goiânia.



The economy of my hometown is today based on a variety of industries, nevertheless the local economy's roots are found in the agriculture around the city. The other main economical activities include the vehicle sales, service and textile industries, governmental sector (for being the capital of the state), organization of national events and congresses (due to its localization on the centre of the country) and private medical centers/clinics of all kinds.



Goiânia, however, is not the Garden of Eden (but Adam lived in my hometown before his expulsion from Paradise!). Though the center and downtown were planned and have an excellent urban structure, the growth without order of peripheral regions brought problems like an increasing traffic of vehicles in the center and lack of services and violence in some suburbs. I have to mention also a yet incipient space for diversified cultural activities and for development of careers out of main sectors in the local economy. But Goiânia is still a pleasant place to live in, with the economy of the great urban centers and the quality of life of the small towns.