Indigenous in São Paulo: Erased by a colonial education curriculum
In Brazil’s biggest city, descendants of the original inhabitants live in invisibility and struggle to keep their traditions despite São Paulo’s celebrated cultural diversity
by Jennifer Ann Thomas on 28 April 2021
São Paulo, the biggest city in the western hemisphere, is home to two Indigenous reserves with vastly differing fates.
The Jaraguá reserve is the smallest in Brazil, hemmed in by a controversial property development and highways that commemorate colonizers who enslaved and massacred the Indigenous population.
On the much larger Tenondé Porã reserve, residents grow their own food and speak their own language.