Last modified: 2022-03-05 by ian macdonald
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The municipality of Prudentópolis (51,961 inhabitants in 2018; 223,658 ha) is
located 200 km west of Curitiba.
Prudentópolis was established at the end
of the 19th century by Ukrainian immigrants, who were subsequently joined by
Poles, Germans and Italians.
The municipality's namesake is Prudente de
Morais (1841-1902), 3rd President of Brazil (1894-1898). Prudente de Morais was
Brazil first civil president and first directly elected president. During his
term, he transferred effective power from the army to the coffee oligarchs.
Prudente de Morais signed peace with the leaders of the Federalist Revolution
(1893-1895) in Rio Grande do Sul, who were pardoned, and won the bloody War of
Canudos in Bahia (1895-1898).
Prudentópolis has earned several nicknames,
such as Capital of Honey, Brazilian Ukraine and Capital of Prayer, due to the
more than 100 churches erected on the municipal territory.
Prudentópolis
is the major center of the Ukrainian community in Brazil with 75% of the 52,000
local population being of Ukrainian descent.
In 1891, the first organized
group of Ukrainians arrived in Brazil from Zolochiv district (now Lviv Oblast),
settling in Paraná. Some 1,500 Ukrainian families of about 8,000 people settled
in Prudentópolis in 1895. Most of the newcomers arrived from the area of the
Ukrainian town of Ternopil, which became a sister town of Prudentópolis in 2019.
The Ukrainian immigration to the region continued until the 1920s.
The second
wave of Ukrainian immigration in the Ukrainian enclave of Brazil occurred in
1946 as after World War II thousands of Ukrainians arrived in Paraná, among
which were "Ostarbeiters" - Nazi Germany's foreign slave workers, prisoners of
war, political refugees, and Ukrainians who fought on the German side against
the USSR.
In Prudentópolis, formerly also known by its Ukrainian name
Prudentopil, the Ukrainian language is taught in many local schools as a
mandatory or an optional foreign language course, and Ukrainian is a liturgical
language.
However, the diffusion of the Ukrainian language was not always
smooth in the region. In the 1930s and 1940s, President Getúlio Vargas banned
the public use and teaching of foreign languages. As a result, many foreign
communities fully assimilated into modern Brazilian culture, yet local
Ukrainians of Prudentópolis and Paraná have managed to maintain their culture
and language.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/10/08/ukrainian-language-became-official-in-brazilian-municipality-prudentopolis/
Euromaidan Press, 8 October 2021
Ukrainian gained the status of
co-official language - with Portuguese - by Municipal Law No. 2,479 promulgated
on 13 October 2021
https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/pr/p/prudentopolis/lei-ordinaria/2021/248/2479/lei-ordinaria-n-2479-2021-dispoe-sobre-a-co-oficilializacao-da-lingua-ucraniana-a-lingua-portuguesa-no-municipio-de-prudentopolis-e-da-outras-providencias
Leis Municipais database
The flag of Prudentópolis is prescribed by
Municipal Law No. 104 promulgated on 11 August 1956.
Article 1.
The
flag of the town and municipality of Prudentópolis was designed by teachers from
Curso Normal Regional "D. Bosco", located in Prudentópolis.
Article 2.
The flag of Prudentópolis shall have the following characteristics.
Three
horizontal stripes representing the municipality's districts and productions.
The upper, yellow stripe represents the seat district and wheat production. The
central, chestnut brown stripe represents the district of Patos Velhes and pine
timber industry. The lower, green stripe represents the district of Jaciaba and
yerba mate.
In the center, three stars placed on a blue sphere, representing
a peaceful sky with three stars shining, which stands for the three components
of Prudentópolis' people: Brazilians, Poles, and Ukrainians. The stars are
white.
https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/pr/p/prudentopolis/lei-ordinaria/1956/11/104/lei-ordinaria-n-104-1956-cria-a-bandeira-do-municipio-de-prudentopolis
Leis Municipais database
Photo
https://www.facebook.com/prefeituraprudentopolis/photos/2683365465209645
Ivan Sache, 7 February 2022