The
French geologist
Gorceix summed
up
Minas
Gerais 150
years ago, when
he wrote that
the state had "a
breast of iron
and a heart of
gold". Its hills
and mountains
contain the
richest mineral
deposits in
Brazil, and led
to the area
being christened
"General Mines"
when gold and
diamonds were
found at the end
of the
seventeenth
century. The
gold strikes
sparked a wave
of migration
from Rio and São
Paulo, which
lasted a century
and shifted the
centre of
gravity of
Brazil's economy
and population
from the
northeast
decisively to
the south, where
it has remained
ever since. In
the nineteenth
century new
metals,
especially iron,
steel and
manganese,
replaced gold in
importance,
while the
uplands in the
west and east
proved ideal for
coffee
production. Land
too steep for
coffee bushes
was converted to
cattle pasture,
and the
luxuriant
forests of
southern Minas
were destroyed
and turned into
charcoal for
smelting. The
bare hills are a
foretaste of
what parts of
Amazônia might
look like a
century from now,
and only their
strange beauty -
sea-like, as
waves of them
recede into the
distance - saves
them from
seeming desolate.
Mineral
wealth still
flows from
Minas' hills,
but iron,
bauxite,
manganese and
steel have
superseded the
precious metals
of colonial
times. The
eighteenth-century
mining
settlements of
Minas Gerais are
now quiet and
beautiful
colonial towns,
with a fraction
of the
population they
had two hundred
years ago.
They're called
as cidades
históricas,
"the historic
cities", and are
the only
colonial
survivals in
southern Brazil
that stand
comparison with
the Northeast.
Most importantly,
they're the
repository of a
great flowering
of Baroque
religious art
that took place
here in the
eighteenth
century: arte
sacra mineira
was the finest
work of its time
in the Americas,
and Minas Gerais
can lay claim to
undisputably the
greatest figure
in Brazilian
cultural history
- the mulatto
leper sculptor,
Aleijadinho
, whose
magnificent work
is scattered
throughout the
historic cities.
The most
important of the
cidades
históricas
are Ouro
Preto ,
Mariana and
Sabará ,
all within easy
striking
distance of Belo
Horizonte, and
Congonhas
, São João
del Rei ,
Tiradentes
and
Diamantina ,
a little further
afield.
In more
recent times,
too, Minas
Gerais has been
at the centre of
Brazilian
history.
Mineiros
have a well-deserved
reputation for
political
cunning, and
have produced
the two greatest
postwar
Brazilian
presidents:
Juscelino
Kubitschek ,
the builder of
Brasília, and
Tancredo Neves
, midwife to the
rebirth of
Brazilian
democracy in
1985. It was
troops from
Minas who put
down the São
Paulo revolt
against Getúlio
Vargas' populist
regime in the
brief civil war
of 1932 and,
less creditably,
the army
division in
Minas which
moved against
Rio in 1964 and
ensured the
success of the
military coup.
In keeping
with this
economic and
political force,
the capital of
Minas, Belo
Horizonte ,
is a thriving,
modern
metropolis - one
of the largest
cities in Brazil
and second only
to São Paulo as
an industrial
centre, which,
with its forest
of skyscrapers
and miles of
industrial
suburbs, it
rather resembles.
It lies in the
centre of the
rich mining and
agricultural
hinterland that
has made the
state one of the
economic
powerhouses of
Brazil, running
from the coffee
estates of
western Minas to
the mines and
cattle pastures
of the valley of
the Rio Doce
, in the east of
the state. You
can read the
area's history
in its landscape,
the jagged
horizons a
direct result of
decades of
mining. The
largest cities
of the region
apart from Belo
Horizonte are
Juiz de Fora in
the south,
Governador
Valadares to the
east, and
Uberaba and
Uberlândia in
the west - all
modern and
unprepossessing;
only Belo
Horizonte can
honestly be
recommended as
worth visiting.
All
mineiros
would agree that
the soul of the
state lies in
the rural areas,
in the hill and
mountain
villages of its
vast interior
. North of Belo
Horizonte, the
grassy slopes
and occasional
patches of
forest are
swiftly replaced
by the stubby
trees and
savanna of the
Planalto Central
(leading to
Brasília and
central Brazil
proper); and in
northeastern
Minas, by the
cactus, rock and
perennial
drought of the
sertão -
as desperately
poor and
economically
backward as
anywhere in the
Northeast proper.
The northern
part of the
state is
physically
dominated by the
hills and
highlands of the
Serra do
Espinhaço ,
a range which
runs north-south
through the
state like a
massive dorsal
fin, before
petering out
south of Belo
Horizonte. To
its east, the
Rio
Jequitinhonha
sustains life in
the parched
landscapes of
the sertão
mineiro; to
the west is the
flat river
valley of the
Rio São
Francisco ,
which rises here
before winding
through the
interior of the
Northeast. The
extreme west of
Minas Gerais
state is taken
over by the
agricultural
Triângulo
Mineiro , an
extremely
wealthy region
centred on the
city of
Uberlândia, with
far closer
economic ties
with São Paulo
than with the
rest of Minas
Gerais. Many
people in the
Triângulo
Mineiro believe
that the region
would benefit
from being a
separate state,
a cause that
some local
politicians have
adopted.
In the
southwest of
Minas, in fine
mountainous
scenery near the
border with São
Paulo, are a
number of spa
towns built
around mineral
water springs:
São Lourenço
and Caxambu
are small and
quiet, but
Poços de Caldas
is a large and
very lively
resort. Perhaps
the most
scenically
attractive part
of Minas Gerais
- certainly the
least visited -
is the
eastern
border with
Espírito Santo.
There's some
spectacular
walking country
in the
Caparaó
national park,
where the third
highest mountain
in Brazil, the
2890-metre
Pico da Bandeira
, is more easily
climbed than its
height suggests.
