Friday, January 15, 2010

Americana, Brazil











This postcard, which arrived through Postcrossing, shows the "Igreja de Santo Antonio", located in the city of Americana in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

What's most interesting about this card is not the church itself, but rather the discovery of the city of Americana in Brazil. Turns out after the Civil War, a group of people from the Confederate states immigrated here, because they wanted to live where slavery was still legal. Wikipedia puts it more gracefully: "In Brazil, however, slavery was still legal, making it a particularly attractive location for former Confederates." About 10% of the population of the city are descendants of this original group, known as Confederados, and there is a Fraternidade Decendencia Americana which still meets quarterly, in a cemetary no less.

The group brought with them a watermelon called "Georgia Rattlesnake". Burpee Seed Company considers it an heirloom watermelon. I wonder if it's still grown today?

BTW, it's Postcard Friendship Friday, so check out the other postings from the participants.

8 comments:

  1. Amazing. Thanks for doing the research and sharing this information along with the lovely card.

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  2. What a nice postcard, that building is really beautiful. Thanks for stopping by.

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  3. And is that a stamp of Carmen Miranda? Even better!

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  4. How interesting! Ah am hankerin' for some watermelon about now.

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  5. That's interesting history. I never heard about any of that before.

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  6. Howdy
    Happy PFF to you .
    Wow I love history and this was so intresting.
    I had never heard about this before .
    Thank you for sharing your lovely post today .
    Have a fabulous weeeknd.
    Happy Trails

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  7. Very interesting history, there is so much you can learn from postcards. Thanks for sharing. PFF

    thanks for stopping by and leaving your kind words!

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  8. That's a piece of history I have never heard before! And it's a beautiful building. The message you got on the card is about 5 or 6 words longer than the message on my last card from Brazil. I take it they don't go in for verbosity. :)

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