Let's be honest, almost every country in this world is influenced by The United States in
one way or another.
For example, in Japan, a hotdog is called hottodogu and a corn dog is called an American
doggu.
Meanwhile, in France, brass knuckles are called American fists.
With this being said, how do you think a kind of American town in Brazil is called?
Well, if you said Americannodogu or Brazilian fists, you're wrong, because the confederates
who came to this town in eighteen sixty-six weren't so creative so they just called it
Americana.
However, you could have just gotten so caught up in this "doggu" stuff and didn't realize
that I've just said that there is an American town in Brazil, so pay attention.
Now, you're probably wondering: 'How did Americana become an American town in South America?'.
Good question, let me explain.
After the American Civil War, slavery was abolished all over The United States, because
The Confederacy, which were these guys, lost against the Union, which were these guys.
So, fortunately for The Union and an entire race, slavery was gone, but some dudes in
the south were upset because now they couldn't be making as much money.
The South had an economy based on agriculture that relied heavily on slave-worked plantations.
But, when slavery wasn't a thing anymore in The United States, many confederates chose
to leave The US and most of them went to, surprisingly, Canada.
No, I'm just kidding, they went south.
Yea, the southerners just went more south.
Some historians estimate that between twenty thousand and forty thousand American Southerners
arrived in Brazil in the 10 years following the Civil War, but why there?
Why didn't they go to Columbia or Chile?
Well, because Brazil was one of the last countries in the Americas to outlaw slavery in eighteen
eighty-eight.
Yea, some of them went to other Central or South American Countries to try and form Confederate
colonies.
But, most southerners arrived in a nice place sixty eight miles out of Sao Paulo, which
was called the village of the Americans.
Later, in nineteen thirty-eight, it was named Americana by the mayor, so sorry for lying
and telling you previously in the video that the confederates named the city Americana
when they arrived, but the story sounded better.
So, the confederates arrived in Brazil because slavery was still legal and they needed enslaved
people to grow crops.
The emperor of The Brazilian Empire at that time was this man, with a beautiful long bear-no,
not this guy, this dude, Dom Pedro the second.
He was an ally to The Confederacy during the civil war.
Also, he wanted U.S Confederates to come because Brazil had been trying for years to match
North American and European agricultural development, so when Southerners wanted to emigrate, he
saw an opportunity to bring the American prosperity to Brazil.
He gave cheap land to the Americans and greeted them with open arms.
Nowadays, Americana is one of the safest and most developed places in Brazil, so, smart
guy Dom Pedro.
As time passed, Americans realized that the Brazilian soil wasn't so good for growing
cotton, but it was optimal for growing other crops, like orange, sugar cane, and coffee.
Some couldn't adapt to the Brazilian economy, so many returned back home in the United States.
As years passed, although many left, still a lot of southerners remained in Americana.
Even today, although the Americans got mixed with Brazilians over the hundred and fifty
years, you can still see the American influence over the town of Americana.
You can see rocking chairs, some residents speak English with a southern accent and people
still make sweet potato pie.
But, if you think that is it and people just have English surnames, for example, Fernando
Smith, well, you're very wrong, because there is a whole town party or festival or however
you want to call it, named 'Festa Confederada'.
Pictures and videos from here seem to be from south of the Mason-Dixon line in the year
of eighteen fifty, not from south of the Equator in twenty-twenty.
It is a gathering where the town celebrates the U.S confederacy.
People wave the flag of The Confederacy, dance, and overall feel good.
Anyone can join the party, drink some beer, then drink some more beer for the confederados,
who were the first settlers who created Americana.
Then, after you drank some more beer, you can go see the monument in the memory of the
confederatos and pay some respects to their cemetery.
Now, you might think that this party is inappropriate, because well they basically
celebrate the U.S Confederacy, which, back in the eighteen hundreds though that slavery
was a good thing.
Obviously, slavery is awful, but by celebrating the Confederacy, don't these people seem racist?
Well, if you were to do this in The United States, you would probably get a lot of hate,
but in Americana, as they say, it's not about race.
None of them hate anyone, none of them have intentions of insulting anyone but they say
they embrace the culture.
They have no racist ideal connected to the flag, it is just a symbol of honor of how
it was used in the past.
The people of Americana just want to be a part of the history of the confederacy, because
some of them have American blood.
Overall, it is a great party that is usually held in April, which reminds us of a nation
that has been gone for over a century and a half, but Americana, culturally, might be
the last U.S Confederate town in the entire world.